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Yesterday we left Salisbury, MD on the last leg back home. The weather maps showed high pressure over the Northeast. It being summer there is a lot of moisture in the air so even though there were no clouds it was still pretty hazy.

The plan for the route was to go over the entrance to the Delaware Bay to Cape May, then North on the East side of Philly, towards Trenton, NJ and remaining on the West side of the NYC airspace. If conditions looked OK we would ask the NY approach controllers if we could go 'over the top'. The NYC class 'B' airspace goes from the ground up to 7,000 feet. We were flying at 7,500 feet.

Before we got to the point of asking to go over the top, they asked us if we wanted to go direct. Technically, we didn't really need their permission since we would have been outside of their airspace but it's a busy place so if they had said 'no' we would have stayed to the West.

So we went right over the city at 7,500 feet. It was a great view. On the first leg of the trip, to Bar Harbor, the Boston controllers sent us thru their airspace, just 10 miles West of the city.

So here are a number of photos of NYC from 7,500 feet above.

A jet that passed 400 feet over head.

NJ.

JFK airport.

La Guardia airport.

OK, so here are some totals. We were gone for 5 and a half weeks. We put 50 hours on the plane's engine (time for an oil change).

We landed at 20 airports.
In 15 states.
Stayed in 15 hotels and rented 15 cars.
We flew approximately 4,400 nautical miles.

Here's one last photo. It's Pete putting his plane back into the hanger at the end of the trip. Thanks for watching!

Dolphins, wild fires and oysters .....

not necessarily in that order. The last you heard from us we were in Gulf Shores, AL visiting with Pete's friend Dick. The second day there we rented a boat for a couple hours to look around the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) and Perdido Bay. We went up Ingram's bayou looking for wild life but didn't find any there.

Around the corner, in an open part of the ICW we found some dolphins playing. There are some tourist, dolphin sightseeing boats that work that area. One of them was circling around so we knew something was up. Sure enough there were 4 dolphin in the area. They are hard to photograph but here's one attempt.

Here are the crew of the rental, pontoon boat. The boat had a 90HP engine so it went pretty fast.

That night, Dick suggested Wintzell's Oyster House for dinner. Pete loves his oysters and hadn't any for a couple weeks. He did try some at a Red Lobster in Denver. After having this plate of oysters, which during happy hour were only $5 per dozen, Pete declared that his best meal of the trip!

The next planned stop was down into Florida to Orlando and Key West. Pete got to thinking that he had some business to take care of back home and that Key West in hurricane season is not the best time to be there. He also wants to spend September in Chatham (on Cape Cod). So we started heading Northeast.

The first day we got from Gulf Shores, AL to Statesboro, GA (with a stop in Tifton, GA for gas). The next day (yesterday) we left Statesboro in what was called clear skies but the low level moisture hadn't really burned off. So we only got a short distance to Orangeburg, SC before we had to stop and wait. An hour or so later the clouds had risen to about 3-4K feet so we took off heading Northeast again.

The plan was to get to Norfolk, VA. The preflight briefer told us about a wild fire on the South side of Norfolk that we would have to avoid. The GPS actually drew the TFR on the screen in red, indicating the area to avoid. It got the data from the XM satellite signal. Pretty cool.

Here's a picture of the fire in front of the plane.

As we approached Norfolk from the Southwest the smoke was very visible in front of us and right near the airport we wanted to use. The plane has plenty of gas (5 hours worth) so we continued over the entrance to Chesapeake Bay on to Salisbury, MD. It was our longest flight of the trip, 3.8 hours.

The Chesapeake Bay bridge.

So we are now in MD but today the weather in the Northeast is pretty unstable so we will be here for a second night. Hopefully tomorrow we can fly around Philly and NYC then up to Northampton to see Ann, Kevin, Nat and Sarah.

800 Miles to the Southeast

You haven't heard from us for a couple days but we have been busy flying! We left Liberal, KS on Saturday and flew to Bartlesville, OK. Sunday was on to Greenville, MS and then today on to Gulf Shores, AL.

This time of year there is a lot of moisture in the air so you get fog in the morning, clouds and t-storms in the afternoon. So we have to get our flying in between the two. We didn't get out of Liberal very early due to the fog but didn't have afternoon problems so we made it to Bartlesville. We didn't do much in Bartlesville but did get a nice meal as we watched some Little League baseball on the TV.

Here's a view of the Bartlesville airport as we departed. The runway was a little hard to see on the way in. It was hiding behind a hill until we got close.

And here's the town of Bartlesville.

We had a very nice tailwind on Sunday and were doing over 140 knots. So we hoped to extend the day and make some extra miles BUT the clouds got in the way again. So we stopped in Greenville, MS. The only good thing about Greenville is the Mississippi River. Well the airport is nice too. It's a former Air Force base with two big runways. The woman at the hotel said the best restaurant in town was Sherman's but it was closed on Sundays. The rest of the choices were fast food places. It wasn't a good day for food.

There is a city park right near the Mississippi River but it's a mess right now. Back in May the river was at record levels (it was all over the news) and the park hasn't been cleaned up yet. It's actually closed but we went in and looked around.

Here are a bunch of photos of the park and the river.

Here's a view of the Greenville runways.

Today we had another nice tailwind and had a quick easy flight into Gulf Shores, AL. We said we were going to New Orleans but we lied. Pete has an old friend who lives in Gulf Shores, Dick B. The reason for New Orleans was for Pete to get oysters. We figured Gulf Shores had oysters and we are right.

Pete had some for lunch and for dinner and they are 1/3 the price of the ones in RI. Tomorrow, Dick is going to take us to his favorite restaurant for more oysters.

Here's some photos of the area.

More Breckenridge & Liberal, KS

On Tuesday night we had dinner with Dan's friends, Ken, Mackey and John. We all had a great dinner at one of Ken's restaurants. Ken and his brother own 3 restaurants in Breckenridge. So next time you are in Breckenridge stop by Giampietro Pizza, Briar Rose Chophouse or Empire Burger. Thanks Ken!

On Wednesday we took the gondola up from town to the base of the ski area. The ski area is open in the summer with a little fun park at the base. One of the chairlifts also runs so you can go up the mountain to hike around, ride a bike back down or just enjoy the view. So that's what we did. That chair takes you to 11,000 feet above sea level.

Here's a photo from there looking down at the town.

And here's the view looking up to the top of Peak 8, which is almost 13,000 feet.

Wednesday night we had dinner at Ken's house and Jane joined us. She had to leave soon after dinner to go dog sit for someone. She does that a lot, there are lots of dogs in Breckenridge. Ken and Dan then watched a movie, True Grit. It's a pretty good movie.

Oh yeah, here's some photos of the Dillon Marina. We stopped there on the way into town. Lake Dillon is a reservoir for Denver. It's about 10 miles long and has a marina at each end. You don't expect to see sailboats up in the Rocky Mountains but they are up there.

Just before we headed out of town, Kerry stopped by to say 'hi'. It was nice for Dan to see his Breck friends.

On Friday morning we were able to fly out of Denver, heading Southeast towards New Orleans. The first stop being Liberal, KS. The flight went well. There were some clouds to the East of our route but no problem. We had a tailwind and were doing 125-130 knots. So it was a fast trip. The afternoon called for thunder storms so we stopped for the day.

The airport in Liberal is an old WWII training base for B-24 pilots. At the end of the airport is the Mid-America Air Museum. So we took a tour. It's the biggest air museum in Kansas. Lots of military and civilian planes.

The highlight for Pete was seeing a Piper J-3 Cub. That's the plane he learned to fly in over 60 years ago!

This morning our route to the Southeast has fog and rain. So we are sitting in the hotel watching the weather and updating the blog. Hopefully we will get a break mid-day, between the morning fog and the afternoon t-storms. We'll see.

Breckenridge

Yesterday we flew from Hot Springs, SD to Denver, CO. We got out of Hot Springs just in time. Some rain was coming in from the West. Our route was to the South so we flew away from it. There was also some rain to the East of our route in Nebraska but it was moving to the East away from us. About half way thru the flight the clouds that had been overhead went away and we had clear skies with a little haze.

We landed at the Front Range airport (FTG), rented a car and drove on up to the mountains. There was a lot of snow this past winter and seems like plenty of rain this summer because the hillsides are nice and green. The mountains look great.

We will be staying with Dan's friend Ken for a couple days in Breckenridge (his wife and daughter are on the Cape).

We'll get some pictures in later today or tomorrow.

Bikers and more

Last week we went to the biggest fly-in, airshow, airplane rally in the country. Airventure in Oshkosh, WI. Today we went to the biggest motorcycle rally in the country at Sturgis, SD. There are thousands of bikes in the area this week. Most of these bikes are Harley's. There are also lots of black leather and middle aged, grey haired folks.

As we were walking down Main Street in Sturgis, Pete went into this building for a couple hours.

When he came out, we asked him what he was doing in there. He said something about getting a tattoo. There was nothing visible so we asked him where it was. He said it was somewhere that none of us would ever see!

He then started asking if this bike was for sale.

And there is more! Later this afternoon, Pete was spotted 15 miles down the road from Sturgis in Deadwood. He was sitting at the roulette table in one of the casinos.

Busy Weekend

Friday and Saturday were pretty busy days here in Western South Dakota. On Friday we drove North to see Custer State Park, the Crazy Horse monument and Mt. Rushmore.

Custer State Park has a big herd of wild buffalo (bison). We didn't see any up close but could see some in the distance. Every year in the fall, the buffalo are rounded up so they can be vaccinated and examined. We saw the corrals that are used for that.

Buffalo in the distance.

There are also antelope in Custer State park. We didn't see too many of them but did find one close to the road, behind a fence. He didn't run away so we got a nice photo.

The Crazy Horse monument is similar to Mt. Rushmore. It is a huge carving into a mountain side. It is to honor a great Indian Chief. When it is done, it will show him on a horse. So far it is just his face showing. This project is being done with private money and donations, no government money, so the work is slow.

Here is a model of what the finished sculpture will look like.

Mt. Rushmore is such an icon. It's impressive to see it in person. The entrance has all the state flags flying. The visitor center has movies and displays about how the faces were carved into the stone. Our timing worked out great. Just as we got there, a thunder storm was moving in. There was lighting in the dark clouds behind the mountain. So we went in to see the visitor center, when we were done the storm had passed and the sun was out again.

Saturday we went to the county fair and rodeo. There were many interesting events going on. The rodeo was not a professional one, so there were lots of local cowboys from the local ranches. Their families were in the stands cheering them on. Each ranch had a team of four cowboys for the ranch hand events.

A fun one to watch was the sorting.  Cattle have a very strong herding instinct. About 20 cattle were placed into the smaller arena and they huddle together in one corner. These cattle had numbers on them. The first cowboy would start with number 1 and sort that animal out and get it to the other end of the arena and keep it there. The next cowboy would sort out number 2, etc. There is a line about a third of the way down the arena, only the correct numbered cattle can cross that line. The tricky parts are sorting out just the one animal and not letting any of the others over that line. The cowboys also have to keep an eye on the ones that have been sorted to the far end because they don't really want to stay there by themselves!

The other team events were a branding event (not with hot irons, just a marker) and milking a cow.
The rodeo also had the usual events, bull riding, bronc riding, calf roping, barrel racing.

The main event of the early afternoon was the Hog Mud Wrestling. It wasn't really wrestling but there was mud! Teams of 3 people would try to catch a pig in a ring full of mud and water. The fastest time wins. Pigs are pretty fast and slippery so it's not easy. There were different age groups. One of the teenager groups had a very fast time, around 12 seconds and the winning men's team was about 10 seconds. They looked to be in their early 20's and were quick and strong.

Jolly & Maggie's

One of the main reasons for this trip was to get to Hot Springs, SD to visit Pete's High School buddy, Jolly. Well, we are here!

The flights across South Dakota went well. The section from Winner to Hot Springs had a good cloud layer but it was above us as we flew West at 6,500 feet. That only put us about 3-4K feet above the ground. Most of SD is pretty inhospitable terrain. Here are some photos of flying over SD.

After getting to Jolly & Maggie's house, Maggie made us lunch, eggs, bacon, toast, tomatoes. It was a great way to welcome us to Hot Springs.

Most folks with pets have cats or dogs (or maybe a frog). Jolly & Maggie have a beautiful horse. Her name is 'Cante Skuye', which means Good Heart in the Lakota Indian language.

After lunch we all went for a drive to see the scenery of Hot Springs. On the way out of their neighborhood, Maggie spotted a bear and cubs up on the hill. So we stopped to have a look.

Downtown Hot Springs has a lot of buildings made from sandstone. There is the old Evans Hotel and the Evans Plunge. The Plunge is an indoor pool. The Fall River flows thru town and the pool in the Plunge is water diverted from the river. It gently flows thru.

On the west side of town is the Red Valley which is just beautiful. Here are some photos of Red Valley.

Maggie cooked up a great dinner of BBQ ribs. As was stated in last night's brief post, some shots of Polish Vodka followed dinner.