Day 8

We spent Friday nite at a quaint lakeside motel that was a neat place like you see in a picture postcard.


View from the balcony of our room

We said goodbye this morning to two of our guys who were heading back to Alabama - Jerry Hoggatt and Brain Kuntz. We miss ya'll and were glad you were part of the trip. The town of Big Bear sponsored a weekend long marathon of running, biking, street music, etc. Getting back to the airport Sat morning was a problem since most of the town streets were blocked for the 2,000 runners. We finally took off for Truckee-Tahoe, CA over the mountains.



Bob checking the plane before take off

Approaching the 6,000 ft elevation airport over the large Tahoe lake was also a picture postcard scene. We counted as many as 4 gliders in the air. They call this area the glider capital of USA. Again, the takeoff required a very long roll and the climb out to 10,500 feet was extremely slow. This was a very bumpy 3 hour flight across rugged mountains to Coos Bay, Oregon.


Mount Shasta (on the way to Coos Bay) from the plane

Coos Bay airport’s altitude is only 20 feet above sea level. The wind was as bad as I have ever witnessed. It was blowing 25 knots, and gusting to 35 knots. Just as I was about to touch down, a gust lifted my right wing up, and before I was able to recover from that, another one pushed me back up in the air into an unusual attitude that required fast stick motions ! I finally got the plane under control. As we stepped out of the plane, we could hardly walk in the stiff wind. The FBO guys were good enough to allow us to house the planes in their hangar overnight. We borrowed a van from the FBO and now spending the night of needed rest at the Best Western. Incidentally, I failed to mention that we could see a fog bank rolling in as we approached the area. As we landed, the far end of the runway was fogged in and it stalled at this point, thank goodness. Stay tuned for tomorrow.

Days 6 and 7

As planned, all but Ginger and I took a 3 hour hike down in one of the Bryce canyons. Ginger and I had a leisurely breakfast at Ruby’s, paying $2.50 per cup of coffee!! When they returned, we departed Bryce Canyon airport to Boulder City, Nevada. We got up to 12,500 feet to get over the high ridges. On takeoff from Bryce, I thought I would never gain any altitude. I am the slowest climber in the group, so it took forever to get there. Boy, was it a bumpy ride over the ridges. While I may be the slowest climber, Doug had difficulty in keeping up with me in his RV-10 after reaching altitude! This was a surprise to all. My little 160 HP and fixed pitch prop RV-6A is running real good. We made a letdown over the Hoover dam for aerial photos, leaving the cool air for 99 degree heat at Boulder City airport. After spending the night, we took the Hoover Dam tour on Day 7. This was very interesting and informative. The project was done in the 30’s, completed 2 years ahead of schedule , and below budget. Think that could happen today ? We departed Boulder City around noon for Catalina Islands. This route took us thru and over several large airports and military areas. We could easily see from 10,500 feet all the way from Hollywood to San Diego. The Catalinas are 26 miles from the coast line and could also be seen long before reaching the shoreline. The landing on the 3,000 ft runway, located on top of a ridge, was very eventful with multiple unplanned touchdowns! Well, we were able to walk away from it and have lunch. Some of the guys had buffalo burgers. The landing fee is $20. Ginger thought they should have paid us for making the visit. After takeoff, we circled the Islands for photo opportunities before climbing up to 7,500 feet on our way to Big Bear, CA. Upon approach to Big Bear, we were lined up a little too close. I made a 360 to gain needed distance behind the plane in front of me. The area elevation is 7,000 feet, and my landing was very eventful. I had a fierce crosswind, coupled with a big downdraft that took me down about 30 feet just prior to reaching the runway! Boy, did this get mine and Ginger’s attention. Fortunately, the final touchdown was a relief.

Lack of Internet Access

Just wanted to let ya'll know that we are in Big Bear, CA now. We have had difficulty with Internet access the past couple of days. Right now are using one of the guy's laptops that has a satellite internet connection. We are headed to Lake Tahoe this morning and will send more details and pictures when we are able to get on the internet. Have a great day.

Still having problems with pictures

Good Morning All. We are still having problems with uploading our pictures. Hopefully, we will be able to get them done sometime today. Have a great day!

5th DAY

Well, we finally got back in the air this morning (Wed) with flight from Gunnison to Monument Valley UT for breakfast.This was a beautiful 1.5 hour flight at 12,500 feet. As we circled the monuments before landing, Ginger took several inflight photos of the valley that are included here. In this region, the wind always blows in the wrong direction making landings very challenging. Since the runway was paved, the air traffic has really increased at the Valley. Before we left, there were a total of 13 parked planes. We enjoyed a big breakfast at the Navajo restaurant that you can see in the photo background of me standing by my plane. After an enjoyable meal and fellowship, we departed for Bryce Canyon in clear blue sky. We started out at 6500 altitude and diverted to fly over Powell lake area. Sam Buchanan will recall the same extremely rugged area that we flew over some years ago when we toured Arizona from the air. As we approached the Bryce Canyon area, we had to climb to 8500 feet since the airport is around 7900 feet. The crosswind was around 20 knots, gusting to 30 knots. We are staying at Rubys Inn along with a large crowd of visiting hunters. We spent the afternoon driving thru the National Park as shown on photos herein. One of the photos shows what years of rain and frost erosion can create, such as the Natural Bridge. The other photo shows the entire travelling crew, namely, (left to right}, Jerry Hoggatt, Ginger and Bob Butler, Brian Kuntz, Tim Puris, Ed Banks, Brian Pyatt, and Doug Preston (our leader). Tomorrow, some will do some hiking in the Park. Later on tomorrow, we will fly to tour the Hoover Dam and spend the night. It is truly a small world, Ginger and I met a Mississippi couple at Silverton that are high school friends of a lady that we attend church with. And, today, while in an overlook in the Bryce National Park, I ran into a lady from Huntsville, AL that I have know since early 60's. What a coincidence !!!! Stay tuned.

There is currently a problem with uploading the photos. We will add them as soon as we can. We will also post the pictures for day four when the problem is corrected. And thanks Don Hull for helping us remember what day it is. We are having such a fantastic time it is hard to keep up with!!

Day Four

Today we boarded the Durango & Silverton Narrow Guage Railroad train at 8:30 am. This is a 127 year old steam powered train that travels through the San Juan Mountains. The views were absolutely breathtaking The ride is about 3 1/2 hours. We ate lunch in Silverton and walked around the town for a while and then headed back to Durango for 3 1/2 hours. The train traveled at a speed of about 15 mph. At one time, we actually had a skateboarder pass us! We saw a mama black bear and her cub on the mountainside. Once we arrived back in Durango, we drove our rental cars back to Gunnison (a 4 hour drive). It was very late last night when we got in, so we are writing this on Wednesday morning. We are getting ready to FLY to Monument Valley for breakfast and then on to Bryce Canyon. We will post some pictures later today.

Day Three

Well, even though the weather prohibited us from flying today, it did not keep us from having a great time. After our continental breakfast at the motel in Gunnison and after checking numerous weather maps, the group decided that we would not be able to fly as planned today. We got two rental cars and headed toward Durango, Colorado. We already had reservations for a train ride from Durango to Silverton for Tuesday morning, so we decided to just come on to Silverton today and spend the night here, so we would be ready for the train ride in the morning. The ride to Durango was beautiful - gorgeous mountains, waterfalls, and streams. And many, many curvy roads going up the mountains, some without any guard rails! We thought we had reservations at Day's Inn motel, but when we got here it was Days End!!! We walked around the town this afternoon - a lot of quaint buildings and a lot of tourists. We are looking forward to the train trip tomorrow.