Oregon trip–RV Homecoming 2010
Back in June, Scott told me that we would be flying to Independence, OR at the end of August for their annual “RV Homecoming.” So as the date approached, we were very focused on the weather and found that leaving on Tuesday, Aug. 24, was the best day. Sure we would be there a few days early, but being “flatlanders” we wanted to be safe and fly over the mountains on a calm, cool morning.
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We flew from Iron Mountain (through a bit of rain to get through the front line), had a fuel stop in Brainerd, MN and then in Mandan, ND (near Bismark). Our first evening was spent in Forsyth, MT when we landed just before sunset at Tillet–just west of Miles City. There was a courtesy car waiting for us and we treated ourselves to a Dairy Queen blizzard before checking into our motel.
Arriving in Forsyth, MT for our first night. The moon (above Scott’s head) was more beautiful than this picture shows it.
The next morning (at 7 a.m.) we fueled the plane and hopped on over some mountains to Butte, MT for fuel and advice on flying over the mountains between Montana and Oregon. If we stayed above 10,500 ft we should have no problems. Of course, I wanted to fly the I-90 highway, which would have taken us about 100 miles longer, but hey if we went down, someone would find us pretty soon. How’s that for positive thinking?
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Well, over the mountains we went, landing in the valley where Hermiston, OR is–known for growing watermelons. We took the courtesy car and went to the Farmer’s Kitchen for lunch. The last set of mountains was beautiful, but there were TFRs (temporary flight restrictions) everywhere to our south because of forest fires. As we neared Independence (and Salem, OR), we had some uncomfortable moments as visibility worsened and we started to smell forest fire smoke. We tuned into the Salem AWOS which still confirmed 10 mile visibility, so we veered north just a bit before turning south into Independence. We landed at around 3 p.m. on Wednesday and fueled up at Nustch Aviation. Wayne and Debra pointed us to their courtesy car, which we were able to use during our entire stay. What a great deal! We took it and headed into Manmouth (a twin city to Independence) to the Courtesy Inn.
That evening, during a walk to the park, we came upon a concert in the park with a great little bluegrass band. It was the perfect evening, weather-wise and ambiance-wise.
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Thursday we had coffee with EAA chapter 292 and were invited to stay with one of the members at his airpark home. Let me tell you, this airpark is amazing and makes it so very tempting to sell it all and buy a home there. Each home has a hangar attached and a taxiway which leads right to the state-owned airport. And, to top it all off, the hospitality of these pilots is remarkable. In fact, we had several offers to stay in homes there during and after the actual fly-in. But with home prices between $329,000 to $700,000 (yep, we checked!), we thought we would just visit and enjoy the kindness of these fellow pilots rather than move there permanently.
Later that day (our first full day in Oregon) we headed to the Oregon Coast for a coastal flight and maybe some lunch. We landed in Siletz Bay and walked to the ocean. While there we saw a fog bank slowly creeping toward shore and canceled our lunch plans. Scott wisely decided we had better get back to the airport since we were both unfamiliar with Pacific Ocean fog behavior. So we returned early and decided to go to one of the famous Oregon wineries–Eola Vineyard–to sample their pinot noir (regional specialty). But perhaps the most exciting find for us was the abundant blackberry plants. We gorged ourselves on them, despite the vicious pickers that reached out to grab us with every grab.
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Friday was the official opening of the fly-in and we enjoyed meeting the other pilots and seeing all the RVs fly in. There were probably a total of 60 planes that flew in. Saturday we ended up finding a couple of other pilots to fly with us up to the blimp hangar in Tillamook, OR museum. Later that evening was the banquet with Vans aircraft owner and workers discussing a new teen building program using the RV-12 (sport ready) airplane as the project. There were door prizes given and I won a tee-shirt. Yippee!
Sunday morning, we were picked up by some friends from Michigan who now make their home in Oregon. We spent a lovely day with them and ended up hiking along the coast and spending the next couple of days with them.
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The weather turned a bit sour on Tuesday and Wednesday so we were grounded. But we were invited to stay with another airpark resident during the layover. Finally, Thursday morning came with bright sunshine and clear skies to get us over the mountains toward the east. We took off and landed in Butte, MT at around noon, met by another friend formerly from Michigan. We hiked that evening along the continental divide and slept well that night. The next day, we flew into Yellowstone and saw Canyon Falls and Old Faithful. Nope, we didn’t time it correctly to see the eruption, but there was certainly some geyser activity, gurgling and steaming. It was a lovely flight and later, after we landed and checked the weather for a Saturday morning departure, our friends drove us to Bozeman for a short hike and a glimpse at a great waterfall.
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Saturday (10 days after we began our adventure) we departed BTM airport and flew up and over the mountains of Montana into North Dakota through Minnesota and finally landed in Iron Mountain at 5:30 p.m. after 8 1/2 hours (6 of that was flying time).
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As we got into our car at the Ford Airport in Iron Mountain, Scott said he had just fulfilled one of his life’s dreams–to build an airplane and fly it across the country. Yes, I too flew the plane–keeping “Wild Thing” straight and level at 9,500. But most of this time I was the videographer and photographer. I have a couple of hours of tape to edit now and put to music. The trip was amazing and, although I was a nervous Nelly thinking about flying over the mountains, we had a very pleasant trip. Of course, we had many friends and family members keeping us in prayer and we were comforted daily by that. God is good and answered those prayers and got us home safely. Ah, the western U.S. is spectacular . . . but there’s no place like home!
Heart to Heart 