June 10, 2002 - June 16, 2002

Map Of This Week's Route

We had an early rousing to a perfect summer sunrise and morning breaking. I spent the night in Roger and Jayne's extra bed in the cool basement and probably didn't enjoy the dawn to its fullest potential. The coolness of the basement was a welcome relief though, as the heat and humidity have really been building the last couple of days.

Philip and I headed out via taxi to the airport for some early morning flight training. You know you are starting early when you are the first customers at the FBO and they haven't yet unlocked the doors. Perfect flying conditions prevailed for the entire flight around Appleton, WI (ATW) and down to Oshkosh, WI (OSH). In my opinion it is worth the early and sometimes painful wakeup to make the morning flights. I have viewed the most spectacular sunrises and dawns as a result of extremely early morning flying. To make complete the perfect flight the air is tranquil beyond belief and the temperature is the epitome of comfortable.

Once at Oshkosh, Basler Aviation arranged the brief shuttle ride over to EAA's Airventure Museum. Some might say that small airplanes are rickety and poorly made. Others may argue that they are only noisy and uncomfortable. In any case, if you are anywhere near Oshkosh, WI I highly recommend a trip to the museum; though, I wouldn't suggest attempting a visit during the weeklong EAA convention during the summer. The EAA foundation has a collection of airplanes ranging from warbirds to homebuilts, to record setting craft such as the first aircraft to make complete an around the world trip without refueling. This was perfect beginning to a day.

After a few more practice instrument approaches at Oshkosh we flew down to Timmerman Field (MWC), just North of Milwaukee, WI. Here we visited the Milwaukee Zoo, which offered the variety of animals that one might expect at any zoo; though, I am not sure that it was the animals that I was most amazed with. This visit reminded me that most zoos seem to attract the most unusual people that you really wouldn't want to meet anywhere else. The zoo itself was touted as being one of the best in the area and while it was interesting and fun to see the animals, I wouldn't go as far as to say that it was fabulous.

I was introduced to a Yogi Bear's Jellystone Camp-Resort after a Greek repast. I have been pleasantly surprised with all of the campground amenities that we have encountered so far and this has been the best. After all, this is my first time doing any camping with a Winnebago. The evening concluded with writing, reading, and much needed rest after the early start.

Jesse had spent the night in the Milwaukee area with some friends leaving the tent to myself this night. I so enjoyed the extra space; it felt like a luxury hotel to some extent. We all slept in and had a terrific morning, which ended with a trip to the newly constructed Milwaukee Art Museum. This is a wonderful building and surely worth seeing. Santiago Calatrava, a Spanish architect, designed the structure itself. Its white façade and irregular shapes remind me very much of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, which is probably my most favorite museum.

Jesse headed out from Milwaukee in the Winnebago as Kyle, Philip, and I flew down to the classic Meigs Field in Chicago, IL (CGX). If you are a pilot, or know a pilot, this destination is a must for an afternoon. I have never seen a more beautiful skyline than that of Chicago's and the approach for the south facing runway takes you directly over the shoreline, Navy Pier, and so close to the skyscrapers that you might think that it should be outlawed. The politicians have closed this airport from time to time and nobody really knows its future fate. The landing fee was around $20, when I last visited Meigs a couple of years ago; however, it now stands at an unreasonable $54. It is still worth every penny for the view of a lifetime.

Another huge advantage of Meigs field is its close proximity to the Chicago downtown area. All Chicago museums are free on Tuesdays; consequently, the line to the Shedd Aquarium was at least 100 yards long out the door of the building. Deeming this to be unreasonable, we caught a child's train ride from the museum campus to Buckingham Fountain. Additional walking took us to the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art where we viewed the small collection. I did see a few interesting exhibits here.

Finally, an hour before closing time, and hopeful that the majority of the crowds had cleared out, we caught a cab to the Shedd Aquarium. This is the best aquarium that I have ever been to and certainly surpasses the Milwaukee Zoo's aquarium. The oceanarium is the newest addition and a great time. I am amazed by the apparent docileness of the dolphins and Beluga whales. Philip informs me that we will be seeing many of these sea creatures as well as the bears that we saw in the previous zoo also in the wild in Alaska. I am excited!

We arose relatively early this morning in order to make it to the Frank Lloyd Wright historical site tour in Sprin Green, WI. This was probably the best tour that I have been on so far this trip. We visited Taliesin, which now constitutes Frank Lloyd Wright's home and all surrounding grounds and buildings. The tour was two hours and was well guided and worth the $40 or so per person. The mosquitoes did gnaw at us severely during the first hour of the tour, which is outdoors. As a group, we decided to skip the House On The Rock tour thinking that not much could possibly match the excellent experience we just had at Taliesin.

I was surprised to learn that Frank Lloyd Wright made most of his furniture out of plywood and many of his buildings were constructed so rapidly that they are quickly deteriorating. He seemed to be an eccentric of sorts and never stopped working on combining architecture with nature.

Kyle and Jesse dropped Philip and I off at the airport after the wonderful tour and excellent meal at the Taliesin visitor's center. Philip and made a stop at Regent Aviation in St. Paul, MN (STP) to pick up some charts and get the magnetos on the airplane retimed. The people here were wonderful and so helpful. We purchased just about one of everything in the pilot shop, waited for some thunderstorms to pass and headed to Forest City, IA (FXY).

Once we arrived in FXY we all met with Richard, one of Philip's friends from MIT who flew his Mooney Bravo M20T into meet with us. Richard is doing registered elevation aerial photography, which I found very interesting since it combines computers, photography, and airplanes.

To contrast yesterday's intellectual architectural tour we stopped by Winnebago Industries for their factory tour. Actually, the Winnebago has been giving us some problems and the factory seemed to be the only place on our way that wasn't booked for the next three months.

After taking the tour, I am not surprised that the luxury motor coach, as Philip refers to it, is experiencing difficulties. I have never viewed such lack of quality craftsmanship and sloppy assembly. The tour guide touts the family environment of the workplace and the number of units produced per day as a demonstration of the wholesomeness of the company. Those statements combined with the fact that you are standing in a cornfield in the middle of Iowa, leads one to believe that they have been transported back to the 1960's. I suspect that is the purpose of the tour though, as the average attendee was retired and probably dreaming of returning to the figment a more simple time.

Talking to others, I have learned that there are other motor home manufacturers that produce a much more quality product, in contrast. I have often been warned by many of the enormous maintenance encountered with boat ownership; though, I am now wondering if a motor home is really any better. Both lifestyles, boating and RV'ing offer an extremely social and relaxed lifestyle, I am not sure which is better; however, I am still leaning to the boat idea.

Richard launched in his Mooney for Boston, MA with a planned stopover in the Chicago area to pick up some charts for the flight. After acquiring the charts, a nap, and a weather briefing from flight service he chose to come back to Forest City, IA to spend more time with our group.

I had not anticipated spending an entire day at the Forrest City, IA airport, but here I am doing it. This morning Philip and I did some instrument flying practice with a short hop over to Mason City, IA (MCW). Due to the low weather conditions and the lack of radar contact from air traffic control, we probably held up an inbound and one outbound airline flight from Mason City, but the practice was great. While at the restaurant at the Mason City airport, Philip was scolded by the cook for talking on his cellular phone and not eating his meal while it was hot.

The Forest City, IA airport managers Richard and Theresa have been hosting Philip and I for the past couple of days. We are there when they come in to open the airport and we are still there when they lock the place up at night. Richard is also the airplane mechanic on the field and was extremely helpful in tracking down and repairing the instrument backlighting on the DA-40. When the aircraft was brought to London, Ontario about a week and a half ago, they fixed all of our squawks and replaced a few other items. It seems though that anytime an airplane comes out of the shop, it has one or two extremely minor new problems to be rectified.

I am continually amazed at the number of great people that we are encountering along the trip. It seems that no matter where we go, I find somebody to talk to about life in his or her town or my trip across the country. For example, today Philip and I met one of Winnebago's pilots who flies the Westwind jet. It is so great to talk to them about their work, life, or hobbies, though sometimes it does begin to consume huge amounts of time. For example, Jesse and I could hardly get out of the main tourist area on Mackinac Island due to the convergence of people on Alex and us. I suspect that they were really more interested in the dog though. Everywhere I have gone over the past two weeks the people have been tremendous. I don't think that it is a personality that is limited to the Midwest either, I am quite hopeful of continuing these meetings.

Our final flight leg this afternoon took us to Mitchell, SD (MHE) with continuous light turbulence throughout the first portion of the flight followed by the most spectacular midwestern flying I have seen in a while. The air was calm, grass green, and sky reddened by the setting sun. South Dakota is such a welcoming, and wonderful place to be in. I am reminded of a time a few years ago when work sent me to Pierre, SD for approximately one and a half months. I didn't have much flying to do at the time so I occupied myself with running, visiting museums and the local YMCA. It was a great place to spend time. I might however, become bored with the flat and fairly plain landscape.

Last night as well as this evening bring much welcome cooler weather. The nights spent in Wisconsin were unbearably hot and surprisingly humid for this early in the summer. Furthermore, the mosquitoes practically ate me alive when I was in Wisconsin. I have rarely experienced bugs this bad. Fortunately, last night as well as tonight are good for sleeping under the stars.

This morning we stopped at the local Cabela's outdoor store to stock up on the items required for the survival kit for flight into Alaska. I was completely amazed to see the number of people with cameras taking snapshots of the mounted animals and other displays in the store. I think that something has gone completely awry with our society when a consumer outlet becomes a vacation destination. Why not take the kids to a zoo to see the real animals or perhaps take a road trip to see the countryside? Have we become entirely dependant on air conditioning and a bug free environment for travel?

With several green Cabela bags in hand, we made the short drive to the Corn Palace. I still haven't figured out this tourist attraction. In all, it is nothing more than a large auditorium covered with murals constructed of dried and colored corn. I have never seen the world's larges ball of twine; though, I suspect that the Corn Palace falls into this category. On our way out Richard and I did meet a gentleman completing a "saddle-sore 1000" with his BMW motorcycle on a day trip from Milwaukee, WI and back. It was great to talk to him and find out more about his bike. I have seen several people traveling across the country on their motorcycles. Perhaps this is a better method than the Winnebago. I will argue that nothing could beat an airplane, however.

On our way out of Mitchell, SD Kyle decided to fly with Philip in the DA-40 and I with Richard in the Mooney. Richard's airplane is a 1999 Mooney Bravo M20T. This is the Porsche of small airplanes with little room inside and a super high cruise speed and a turbo charged engine. I so enjoyed flying this machine. We pulled the power way back and caught up with Philip and his DA-40 who had taken off several minutes before us. We did a bit of loose formation flying and basically had a great time catching a look at each other's airplane while in flight. I did get the opportunity to shoot some air to air pictures and also managed to allow my lens cap get sucked out the window too.

A landing at Pierre, SD (PIR) brought back a flood of memories. The sky was spotted with a few puffy white clouds and the temperature high reminding me of my 2 months or so that I spent there while working for CSA Air. We toured the state capital building and Cultural Heritage Center. I have visited both sites before, but it has been a few years and it was so great to go back and visit Pierre. The landscape here is so unique and contains a special beauty.

Philip had been planning this route for some time so that he could make a landing at the Philip, SD airport. We were the only two aircraft on the airport. After shutting down the engines I was taken aback by the tranquility that overcame the area. Perhaps it is the huge change from the drone of the loud airplane engine to the quiet song of the birds that seems to make all small airports seem to be so fantastic. A man and his wife came out to see what was going on and if we needed any help. Apparently, they don't have many people intentionally landing in Philip, SD. This airport reminds me very much of Philipsburg, NM that I stopped at while ferrying a Cessna 150 from Ontonagon, MI to Phoenix, AZ several years ago.

During our final short leg from Philip, SD to Wall, SD I could hardly contain myself. I was bubbling over with enthusiasm and awe inspired from the South Dakota landscape. Words or photographs cannot begin to explain the immense amount of beauty in this area. The land is a beautiful sand color dotted with patches of green. The ground is perfectly flat with few features except for the occasional cow or horse. Furthermore, from time to time we fly over patches of gently rolling hills. This part of the country is an unsurpassable sight viewed either from the air or the ground.

We also visited the Wall Drug Store, located in Wall, SD of course ranks amongst the Corn Palaces of the country. Gimmicky shops selling not much more than bricker-bracket line both sides of the block long area. We made the 24-mile drive through the Badlands National Park to our final camping spot for the night. This is a gorgeous park! The South Dakota landscape gives way to abruptly rising jagged edged mountains towering about 1000 feet high. The multi-colored striations are perfectly parallel to each other.

Before today, I had shot only 3 rolls of film, which is extremely low for me. With scenic views like these I foresee this number increasing significantly. Everyone in the group seems to be growing increasingly tired. I am looking forward to a great night's sleep under the stars and towering rock of the Badlands.

Today was a fairly uneventful day with a short flight from Wall, SD to Custer, SD (CUT). Enroute we did manage an overflight of the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, and Crazy Horse. All of these sights are much more spectacular when viewed from the ground. I did manage to shoot a few pictures at both the Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse visitor's centers though.

Philip flew with Richard in his Mooney on the hour or so trip and Kyle with me in the Diamond Star. Kyle managed her very first takeoff and considering the turbulence did very well. It was great to see the arid landscape of central and eastern South Dakota change to the Black Hills. We are planning an early morning training flight for tomorrow morning hoping to avoid the continuous moderate turbulence that we have endured for the past week or so. The bumps aloft are something that you come to expect and tolerate when flying in the Midwest during the summer.