Landing at Oshkosh on 36R. It's a runway, not a taxiway. Really.

With only a day to spent, we saw the airshow and pretty much whatever we happened to wander by, such as the business end of this Thrush ag sprayer.

Thrush Ag Sprayer

Click through to visit my photo gallery of AirVenture 2009 photos.

Oh… I also downsized several of the photos to 320×240 so they work as Palm Pre wallpaper.

Breakfast at Trollhaugen Lodge

We stayed in one of the bed & breakfast rooms at Trollhaugen Lodge on the north end of Ephraim. (They also have a log cabin and several motel rooms.) Norma and Terry pampered us well, fed us exquisitely, and generally made us feel more like long lost relatives than paying guests. Believe me, there ain’t nothin’ like breakfast on the deck on a sunny summer morning.

Enough words, though, the pictures tell all. Click through to see my photos from Penninsula State Park, Cana Island lighthouse, Newport State Park, and Ephraim sunsets. Here’s a small sample to whet your appetite.

Sunset in Ephraim, WI

Bush announced a series of technical measures Thursday to reduce air traffic congestion and long delays that have left passengers stranded and turned holiday travel into “a season of dread for too many Americans.” Among the most innovative: Opening two lanes of restricted military airspace off the East Coast to commercial airlines from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday through the following Sunday.

I thought it might be interesting to look at a hypothetical flight from New York La Guardia airport to Miami and see how much time would be saved if the plane was routed “direct” through the restricted airspace near La Guardia instead of being required to fly around the restricted airspace.

First, I set up my Voyager flight planner for a jet flight direct from LGA to MIA. Then I manually routed through the pathway in the restricted airspace off the east coast of New York and around the restricted airspace northeast of Miami.

Second, I modified the flight, allowing it to fly directly through the airspace near New York. I do not know exactly where Bush plans to open the “express lanes” but I am giving him the best possible shot here, by assuming that the lanes will be exactly where I need them to save the most time on this flight. Here are the two flights, side by side (click the picture to see it larger):

Time saved: just five minutes. Oh boy.

Worse, his express lane plan ignores the real problems, such as

1. The airports have a fixed number of runways which means they can only handle so many airplanes at a time, and,
2. The airlines schedule way more concurrent departures and arrivals than the airports have runways to handle.

When our jet arrives five minutes earlier at Miami, will there actually be a runway available to land on? Or will it have to wait its turn to land?

Mr. President: Stop deceiving us with “solutions” that don’t actually solve anything. Stop blowing smoke up our asses.

Airlines: It is absurd that more than 24% of the flights in the United States in September 2007 arrived late. That is the worst on-time performance since comparable data began being collected in 1995. Worse, in these Department of Transportation figures, ‘on-time’ means less than 15 minutes late.

We left Jackson Hole airport in the late morning wishing that our local airport afforded vistas like this. The good news, of course, is that we don’t get snow in early October in Missouri, so I guess everything has trade-offs. (Click each picture to see a larger version.)

On this leg, we flew north along Jackson Hole, drinking in last sights of the lakes and Tetons. Winds at 12,000′ were 23 knots out of the southwest and with that much wind across the peaks, the ride was too bumpy at 11,500′ so we continued our climb up to 13,500′ before heading east. Even though it was still before noon, the air was warm enough that we were at a density altitude of 15,100′, right at the service ceiling of our plane; check out the display on the GPS. Yes, we used oxygen!

Flying across central Wyoming we got another lesson in what empty means. The land is gorgeous but there ain’t nothin’ out there.

We normally fly with the GPS map set to 40 miles from the top to the bottom of the screen. This is the only time I have ever seen the screen so empty.

The trip home was uneventful. We came all the way in one day with two stops for a total of 7.7 hours of flying. That’s a heck of a lot better than the 19 hours it would have taken to drive it.

Missouri even treated us with a nice sunset right around Kirksville.

Candy and I saw very little wildlife, at least very little of photogenic wildlife. This was due to an unfortunate misalignment between the wildlifes’ circadian cycles and our own. We, being on vacation, had little desire to be up and active during the the animals’ dawn activity period and their evening period inconveniently conflicted with the beer and dinner hour. Priorities are priorities and I can only hope that, next time we visit the region, the local fauna will get their priorities straight.

The few which did make a reasonable appearance before my lens included Mrs. Moose, shot at mid-day from the porch of Jackson Lake Lodge

and Mr. Moose who led me on a merry chase along a field in the north end of Grand Teton National Park. Mr. Moose was simply strolling along but those long legs carried him at quite a hefty clip. I started out behind him and at the rear of a long line of parked cars and never quite made it in front of his face before he vanished into the woods.

We did see lots of bison in Yellowstone. I’d like to say that they looked majestic but, to me, they just look dim. This guy and several of his friends were parked at the side of the road, completely unconcerned with us nutty humans with clicking cameras.

Unlike the bison, the elk seem to only grant up close ‘n’ personal photo ops to photographers who know someone. I don’t so I got the peeping Tom shot from afar.

Believe it or not, the crow by the sidewalk at Old Faithful was by far the most entertaining and educational animal of the trip. Candy had purchased an ice cream cone at the gift shop. These “contain” so much ice cream that they are served in plastic cups with the cones jauntily perched atop, like party hats. Candy’s cone took a header onto the sidewalk where it stayed, ineligible for the 10-second rule.

After Candy and I moved over to another bench which accorded a better view of the geyser, the crow made its move on the cone, snapping it up whole. The bird spent a good 5 minutes flitting around the area looking for a good place to hide its large treasure. It tried a few depressions in the ground and several hollows next to various fallen branches and roots. Finally, the bird set the cone against a large log, buried it with loose dirt, and carefully picked up a light colored leaf about the size of a silver dollar and used it to mark the hiding spot. Who knew that a crow would pick up and carefully place a marker like that?

One task remained for the crow. He came over and lectured me about the impropriety of staring at him.

Yellowstone is… well… Yellowstone. We saw everything from canyons to waterfalls the geysers to wildlife to valleys. Here are a bunch of photos and I hope you enjoy then just 1% as much as I enjoyed taking them. As always, click on each thumbnail to see a larger version.

We drove through the south entrance into the park and immediately stumbled across Moose Falls, complete with a bunch of teenagers swimming at the bottom. I wish I’d had my suit with me; the water felt wonderful.

We continued to follow the Lewis river north,

and shortly came to Lewis Falls. I do need to mention that neither Candy nor I did any significant hiking to get these shots. All of this is easily accessible from a car on the road and a short stroll after you park.

After Lewis Falls, Candy convinced me to stay in the car and keep driving, lest we see nothing beyond the doorstep of the park. With her “gentle reminders,” we got to West Thumb and spent the rest of the afternoon noodling around the hydrothermal features there.

I did not take careful notes of the name of each feature but these are roughly in order of a counterclockwise circuit around the boardwalk. This first pool had a sign near it that it is a balmy 167 degrees Fahrenheit.

The run-off steamed its way across a miniature wasteland into Yellowstone Lake.

I learned that the color of the bacteria in the water gives a clue to a pool’s temperature. Greens and blues are cooler than oranges and browns. Cooler is relative, of course.

The fumerols made me imagine the lair of a small dragon

with the blasted plain of its doorstep just a few yards away

Hunger and darkness forced us home for the night but we returned the next day and continued our tour counterclockwise around the lower loop of road in Yellowstone. We made several stops along the north side of Yellowstone Lake with the shore near Pumice Point being one of my favorites

Hayden Valley, north of Lake Village, opened spectacularly with scattered clouds painting the landscape with sunlight.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone with Inspiration Point, Grand View, and Lookout Point, were our northernmost goals for the day. This is, I believe, even more beautiful than “The” Grand Canyon. Walk to Grand View and look east

Continue on to Lookout Point for the canonical shot of the lower falls.

I did not hike down the trail to the base of the falls, though the sign promised I would be close enough to feel the spray on my face. The trip down didn’t look too bad but the thought of climbing back up was simply too daunting.

From the canyon, we drove west through Norris and Madison

and Firehole Canyon to reach the Lower Geyser Basin. I am certain that Tolkien and other fantasy writers must have had this landscape in mind when writing about places like Mordor. Islets of grass, surrounded by steaming hot water.

Crystal clear pits large enough to swallow a man and boil him for dinner.

Adjacent to the “smoking” pit of a truly immense dragon. What fortunes lie within, awaiting the truly brave adventurer?

And beyond the dragon… the wasteland.

Did I mention wildlife? We saw that, too. But this posting is long enough so the animals will be along shortly. Stay tuned.

So let me start by saying I have a fear of heights (meaning cliffs or high bridges or precipitous roads) and I don’t harbor any desire to become a pilot. I am not a hiker and for me wild animals have always been in zoos. This makes my perspective on our vacation a bit different from his, though the bottom line is that I loved it and would go back again. It was breathtakingly beautiful, remarkably empty, and entirely enjoyable – except for that 1.5 hour drive to the closest open medical facility to check out a bad case of food poisoning.

The pictures he has posted are a small fragment of what we gathered. The variety and scale of the natural features was astonishing. And I was thoroughly spooked by bison on the road, unconcerned by traffic, close enough to reach out and touch (though I did not). Elk made a similar crossing during that emergency room trip. It’s not so cool when you can’t stop to watch.

The flights over the mountains were not as intimidating as I’d expected. In fact, they were often exhilarating. And the view was amazingly clear. We only saw bad weather once – a thunderstorm in the mountains as we landed in Lander – but it held off till we got to the restaurant for dinner, just putting on a light show in the crags until bursting upon the town while we watched from inside.

Aside from the beauty and the wildlife and the lakes and the peaks, the clearest impression for me is the emptiness of the land we flew over and the high winds we experienced on every landing in Wyoming. Our GPS had nothing on it at all for great stretches. Empty country is beautiful. And you figure there is probably good reason for so much land to be so empty of towns. I think among the most lasting mental pictures I will carry from the flights are the stretches of Wyoming east of Lander, beautiful in an almost desert-like way.

For me, this trip was a gem to be treasured all the more because it is not one I would have chosen to take. I would have gone to a lake or oceanside. But it was hurricane season, so the mountains seemed a better choice. And Art’s enthusiasm is irresistible. I very rarely regret accompanying him on an adventure. This was no exception. I am grateful to be able to visit places like this. Whenever I do, I wonder what it would be like to live in vacation country. I realized on this trip that I am not cut out for frontier or mountain life. It’s awesomely beautiful. And I’m glad to be home in the suburbs again, despite the swamp-like climate we tolerate here, full of memories, and eager to take on another adventure soon.

This trip was doubly sweet because I got to fly my own plane. Stopping for lunch in Moose Junction provided a fitting welcome back:

After lunch, we drove north to Jenny Lake

We stopped at Jackson Lake Lodge to savor the vista from its “porch” across the valley.

There was a moose grazing in the waters just off camera but she was shy and asked that I not photograph her since I did not have the lens necessary to do justice to her face.

We continued north through the park and stopped for some fall foliage.

Yes, that photo really was taken on September 16. Get ready; the snow will be a flyin’ soon.

At the end of the day, we were rewarded with this view to the south along Jackson Lake and the Tetons.

We did actually get into Yellowstone between the last photo and the penultimate shot. But those pictures have to wait for the next posting. Y’all come back now!

We left on Friday morning to fly from St. Louis, MO to Lander, WY at the base of the Rockies. This involved traveling pretty much kitty corner across Missouri, Nebraska, and Wyoming. Missouri was very familiar, as it ought to be since we live here. Very green, lots of roads and lots of (what we consider) typical towns.

Nebraska was still pretty green but less lush and the towns were few and far between. Our first gas stop was in York, NE. A very friendly guy at the airport, an even friendlier dog, and the cheapest avgas of the trip at only $3.90 per gallon.

Nebraska held a real treat for me just about half way across the state: the town of Arthur. Not just everyone has a town named after them so, naturally, we had to take a photo turn over it. (Be sure that you click on each small photo below so that you can see the larger versions.)

Denver Center (air traffic control) had us on radar and the controller called us up when he noticed us turning toward the east. He was obviously concerned that something might be amiss. I responded that I was just taking making a 360 degree turn over Arthur, “since my name is Arthur. And a mighty fine town it is!”

A few seconds later, I heard an airline captain’s voice pouting over the radio. “I want to make a 360, too.”

The border between Nebraska and Wyoming brought the first eye-opening surprise of the trip. Irrigation and farming simply ends right there. No gentle transition. Look at this picture. I’ll bet you can guess where Nebraska ends and Wyoming begins.

We landed for gas at Camp Guernsey, WY. Relatively cheap gas at $4.27. This is a combination Air Force (west side of the field) and civilian (east side of the field) airport. They call Wyoming the “Big Sky State,” right? We learned why.

No one was about on the civilian side but there was a telephone in the terminal building with phone numbers posted on a sign which instructed us to call if we wanted fuel. As advertised, the self-service pump wouldn’t so I called one of the phone numbers. A cheerful woman answered that someone would be right out to help us and, indeed, within five minutes a cheerful man drove up and worked magic with the gas pump.

A few minutes later, we were back in the air for our last leg of the day and the first one requiring real high altitude flight. Climbing to 10,500′ and donning oxygen masks, I headed out over mountainous terrain wondering whether I could find somewhere to land if the engine quit. (All of us single-engine airplane pilots worry about that.) I quickly realized that where to land would not be a problem; there were plenty of flat areas with nothing in them to obstruct a safe landing. The question turned into: if we have to land out here, how long will it take for someone to drive out and get us? I worried more about that when Denver center dropped us from flight following services because, unless we climbed above 13,000′, he could not see us on radar. We still had a VFR flight plan so, if we failed to show up in Lander, at least the Civil Air Patrol would know where to look for us. Fortunately, everything worked perfectly and the CAP never had to come fetch us.

The scenery was stunning and well worth the bit of worry:

And we had not even gotten to the mountains.

And hour and a a half of flying brought us to Lander, WY. $5.10 for avgas hurt but but the service was better than friendly and the airport was in exactly the right spot to let us launch early for a quick morning flight into Jackson Hole.

The proprietress of the Holiday Lodge completely shocked us by being at the airport waiting for us when we landed, although we had not told her when we would be arriving. I figured that we would phone her and then just wait patiently for a lift. She worried that we would be stuck at the airport. Talk about service!

Saturday saw us up and out early for a gorgeous flight into Jackson Hole. But, as beautiful as the flight into the valley was, it cannot even compare to our first view of the Tetons as we cruised over Jackson airport at 11,500′

It’s a darned shame but we had to continue sightseeing to the north, overflying Grand Teton National Park’s Jackson Lake

and the Snake River

The weather gods blessed us with perfect weather. Sunlight everywhere and smooth skies.

Landing at Jackson airport was just like any other airport, as long as I didn’t look at the altimeter. As I began my final descent for landing, it still showed that I was at 7,500′. That is about the highest that I normally cruise at home and I was only 1,000′ above the ground. Avgas cost $5.50 per gallon but I was a tourist and I guess it costs a lot to truck it up there. Everyone at Jackson Aviation was helpful and cheerfully provided every service we could think to request (including fresh, hot, popcorn).

Avis lent us a Pumpkin

(actually an orange Ford Edge) which did a great job of taking us where we needed to go on the ground and served as the butt of many a joke. I guess Candy and I are just not SUV-people and we have not yet attained a true appreciation for the color orange.

Stay tuned for our adventures in Grand Teton National Park.

Togwotee Mountain Lodge was home away from home and we recommend it highly. The food was great. The wine stewardship of Charles and Mike cannot be compared (ask for the Seven Deadly Zins . But most of all, the location had us at at a secluded 8600′ and an hour away from the neon of Jackson, WY.

Flying to and from the Rockies was an adventure in and of itself. We covered Missouri, Nebraska, and Wyoming pretty much from corner to corner. We flew over land from 460′ MSL (mean sea level) to about 9000′ MSL. More impressive, we were within arms reach of mountain peaks thousands of feet above our heads.

Four more posts will follow in the coming days but family duties call at the moment. Here is one small photo from Yellowstone to whet your appetite.