Can't Believe We Are Back to Normal Living!

It was an amazing trip, but now reality has struck.

But before I end this blog, we'd like to share some thoughts, statistics and memories.

 

We were gone 19 days. Longest vacation of my life.

We slept in 12 different beds.

We rented 5 cars.

We flew for 36.3 hours.

We traveled 6,500 air miles.

Rick took 256 pictures.

Karen took 1179 pictures.

Karen lost 164 pictures. These are unopenable. Additional pictures just disappeared totally.

19 video clips were taken.

Cost of trip - worth every penny!

 

What Karen misses most: Private flying. A car or golf cart met you at the plane. There were no body searches or bag searches. Not only were all the airport workers friendly, they also gave you treats on your arrival!

What Rick misses the most: Flying! With me as his private stewardess. :) You can tell I added that.

 

Not missed: For Karen, Rocky Mountain Flying!!!! Too bad John Denver.

                    For Rick, traffic on the ground.

 

Best Hamburger: Rotier's Restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee

Best BBQ: Mesquite BBQ in Mesquite,Texas

Best Pizza: Homemade at Amy and Dave's

Best Salad: Holiday Inn, Rapid City, South Dakota. Can you believe that???

Best Drink: made with Hangar One Vodka. Thank you, Manny.

Best City: Chicago

Best Restaurant: Iorio in Portland, Oregon. Better than Italian food in Italy.

Best Site on the Ground: Antelope Canyon, Arizona

Best Site from the Air: Monument Valley, Arizona

Best Moment: Two older gentlemen pilots in Mesquite, Texas thought Rick was "Sully" Sullenberger! And they didn't believe him when he said he wasn't!

 

Trips are good when you take them one day at a time. And we enjoyed every day.

 

Thank you all for reading my blog, for your comments, and for sharing our journey with us.

Karen

 

Home Sweet Home!!

We did it! Arrived back at Hanover Airport at 12:05 pm, after a 3 hour and 5 minute flight from Chicago!  Rick said we were going 218 mph we had such a great tail wind. You can't tell when you are in the plane, at least I couldn't, except for the fact we were home in record time.

The pictures are pretty obvious, from landing to turning off the engine. I look back at that Christmas morning when I gave Rick the "unleashed" tshirts and told him I'd go with him. I had much trepidation, but decided I just couldn't let him go alone. As you can tell from my blog, it turned out to be the most spectacular, fun, exciting and beautiful trip ever!  A truly once in a lifetime, unforgettable adventure. Thank you, Rick.

Now strange as it may seem, when we got home he gave ME a rose for each day of our trip, in multi-colors!!

Check this blog one more time to hear the statistics, what we learned, best-ofs, etc.

Lollapalooza

Chicago was filled with Lollapalooza people today - those who like punk, rap, etc. We were not one of those. Instead we walked along the waterfront admiring the sailboats and the prettiest skyline we have seen on our trip. However, despite not paying the $280 for Lollapalooza, we could hear the music everywhere we went!

There was so much to see in just one day, we went back to my favorite mode of travel - yes, the segway - for a city tour. Well, the city from a distance, and Millenium Park and Grant Park from across the street since the music was there. But what a tour! We were supposed to be gone for 2 hours, but our guide took us for nearly 3 hours. It was so fun!  We may not have learned so much, but we were kept totally entertained from seeing arrests of drinkers to 100s of young kids crashing the gates to the park in one big mob. And we lucked out by getting back just as a huge thunderstorm hit the city.

This morning we saw another side of Chicago by stopping in a neighborhood breakfast place - Bialy's. It was like going back in time to small town America, where everyone knows each other. I could live in Chicago. But I'm happy to be going home to Richmond tomorrow.

Chicago!!

A really short flight brought us to Chicago - a new city for us to explore! Each city really has its own personality and we like this one.
We went to see the musical "Million Dollar Quartet" (thank you Manny and Sharon for the great recommendation) at the Apollo theatre in the Lincoln Park area. What a perfectly lovely area - unique old buildings, wide streets, lots of neat stores and restaurants,  and little parks here and there. I don't know how I'd feel about it in the winter, though.
I didn't want to leave Chicago without having real deep dish Chicago pizza.  We went to Gino's East - OMG what a huge place- the line was inside and out maybe 1/2 block long! But the wait wasn't that long and just seeing the place was worth it.  Filled with graffiti. Too bad I didn't have a marker with me. We got the smallest pizza, but one piece did us each in!
Tomorrow we'll explore more and eat less!

What Do You Do in Minneapolis?

That's right- you go to Mall of America! You would never think the stock market was falling if you saw the crowds of people here. It was like our malls at Christmas.
Not only is there the compact amusement park in the center of the mall, there is also an aquarium under the mall.
I thought the coolest thing was the ropes course. People were literally walking on tightropes. You know I'm a chicken so I wasn't in that photo!

My Pilot

Rick has been so good teaching me about flying and making it interesting, since, as most of you know, it is not my passion. Here is his latest tidbit.
When you are flying VFR (visual flight regulations), as you fly east you must fly at an odd altitude level plus 500, for example 11,500. Going west, you fly at an even altitude plus 500, say 12,500.
When you fly IFR (instrument flight regulations), as we did today, it is odd altitudes going east and even going west; no 500 added. So we were at 9,000 flying today.
I am sure you can see the value in these rules. And while you are flying, the controllers let you know if your plane is even 200 feet off. That has never been us, but we hear it on the radio with others.
Lesson over!

Clouds

Aren't these gorgeous?! These puffy clouds were right under the plane so we really couldn't see the flat ground. What a trade-off, huh? And believe it or not, it was like riding on a cushion!

Avoiding Weather

We left Rapid City early this morning, avoiding weather that was on its way. Rick changed our intended route toward Omaha, Nebraska to Minneapolis, Minnesota, so we didn't run into thunderstorms and rain. But you only get to see 2 pictures before the clouds come.

I took the first picture wondering who would like to live on this isolated farm. I am glad some one does so that we all have food on our tables!

The second picture shows how bad the flooding was this year. The Missouri River was still swollen and over its banks, and yet the real flooding occurred weeks ago. The land is so flat, the water just goes everywhere.

Our sight seeing from the air is basically over now. All the good stuff was out west. Not only that, but there is more haze in the air as we approach the east coast, so the pictures I do take will not be as clear. Bear with me!

--
Karen
Please note my new email address

Changes at Mount Rushmore

We decided Mount Rushmore needed to balance things out by replacing one of the male faces with a female face. What do you think?

In the valley town of Keystone, women were told to beware of Rattlesnake Jack. But not everyone listens.

Up Close But Not Personal

We walked the Presidential Trail to get closer to the faces. A bit more detailed that what we saw from the air.
Using dynamite to "carve" the faces was quite the monumental task to accomplish. They were accurate to within inches of the face. Then they suspended themselves on what were essentially zip lines to drill a honeycomb pattern; chisel off the bumps; then smooth it all out with pneumatic hammers. This took 14 years from start to finish. The faces were each 60 feet tall.
I didn't mention what presidents were chosen to be memorialized in stone - but they were Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt (some say he was included because he was a good friend of the master mind of Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum).

--
Karen
Please note my new email address

Flying to Rapid City, S Dak

I got in the plane today! And we had a Mom Flying Flight to Rapid City, South Dakota. They had jelly beans as a treat when we landed - that was a just award for me!
That said, on with the sights.

We flew by Devil's Tower - rising 500 feet in the air in the middle of nowhere. The closer we got, the prettier it was. The sides have deep clefts in them, so the tower looks striped. If we were really close, we might have seen rock climbers scaling those clefts. Wouldn't find me in one of those! There are flight restrictions on how close you can go to this monument (3 miles), as well as how close you can get to The Faces in Stone, ie Mount Rushmore (1/2 mile and 7700 feet high minimum). The 3rd picture is a trick - I took that on the road going up to Mount Rushmore.

--
Karen
Please note my new email address

Bozeman, Montana

Our visit to our friend Linda Barnsley (who was our neighbor in Baltimore), made up for all the terror of the flight to get to see her. She was waiting for us at the airport and got to hear all of Rick's conversations with the control tower. She didn't get to hear me because I did control myself and not push the talk button on my control stick (which I have never touched, by the way).  We hadn't seen each other for about 6 years, but it made no difference at all. We talked and talked, and Linda was the perfect guide, showing off "her towns" (she lives in Livingston, but does lots in Bozeman, too. She loves living the relaxed, easy life there, the great art community, being able to get to Yellowstone in less than an hour, and majestic peaks to hike at any time. The picture with the three of us is just outside of Yellowstone. The water is the Yellowstone River. There was a ton of snow this year, and the river is still quite high.

This is not unfamiliar territory to me, since I had traversed it all on a family vacation when Amy had a tonsillar abscess and I went from Yellowstone, to Gardiner, to Livingston, to Bozeman before I could find anyone to treat her! But I still love Montana.

--
Karen
Please note my new email address

White Knuckled Flying!

I am glad I am alive. No matter how much Rick tells me all was completely safe and in control, I was terrified! As we crossed those dang old Rockies and the Continental Divide, the winds decided to come down through the mountains and rattle our tiny little plane. The bumps were so bad, my glasses and some papers were knocked out of the pocket that we hold our "stuff" in. I could say it was worse than a roller coaster, but I don't like roller coasters and have never been on one. And I think that roller coasters are smooth. This was like slamming your hand down on the table. Now granted this only happened 3 times, but the rest of the time we were rocking this way and that. I hated it. It was NOT Mom Flying Weather!!!!! Add to this, we were at 13,500 feet, mountains all around us, and clouds coming in. Not a pretty picture. There is nothing really to hold onto, not that that would help, so I gripped the edge of the plane and gritted my teeth. I did this for 30 minutes. And eventually we landed. Properly. Rick was so sweet to me the rest of the day, that it was like our honeymoon. I know he was thinking I would get that commercial flight out of Bozeman, and then he would be very lonely all the rest of the way home! I am hoping to get a Medal for Bravery. That would be to rival Monk's Star Puppy Medal.

Speaking of Monk, David's reports have me a bit concerned. First he broke his metal choke collar because he wanted to chase something. I should have know - it was a soccer ball. Then today I hear that he broke his wire cable. That was because his friend, Will, came to play with him and David forgot to release the cable.  Then David tells me he chewed the molding on a door frame. I am beside myself, and he texts back "I made that one up." Really, I have had some tough days!


--
Karen
Please note my new email address

Windmills and Patterns

Look hard and you can see little white lines sticking up in the photo. They are just a few of the hundreds of windmills along the Columbia River. We saw windmills frequently on this trip, but these rivaled the numbers we saw in Texas (the picture doesn't show but a few). Our flight path took us along the Columbia River toward Spokane before we began to follow Route 90 through the Rockies. But that is another story.....
The second picture is one of my favorites. I just loved seeing all the patterns and colors that farming and other land use/geography has created. It kept me occupied for the many hours of flying we have done. I can't wait to see the tally at the end of this journey. Rick has to keep a log of the hours the plane is flown. That, along with calendar days, determines the maintenance on the plane.  We want to keep this baby in good shape! 


--
Karen
Please note my new email address

Mountains Near Portland

Absolutely stunning views of these mountains. Again there is Mount St. Helens (flat on top), Mount Hood, and then Mount Hood and the "Three Sisters", whose names I don't know.
We also saw Mount Adams and Mount Rainier near Mount St. Helens, but I think you have seen enough snow capped mountains, because unless you are studying them, they all look the same. Rick's plane is windows all around us and above our heads, so we really did have scenic views. However, I am very glad that the floor is not see through because believe it or not, I do not like heights!

--
Karen
Please note my new email address

Leaving Portland

Remember how I explained about mountains above and below our altitude? Well here we are at 11,500 feet and you can see that flat-topped Mount St. Helens is just below the horizon and therefore our altitude, while Mount Hood out my side of the plane was above the horizon, and therefore above our altitude. We flew between them.

--
Karen
Please note my new email address

I'm still blogging!!

I took a siesta from blogging while we stayed with Amy and Dave. We enjoyed being "normal" people, doing gardening and painting and shopping and cooking and eating out and playing games and talking lots.  No putting our bodies through ups and downs of 12,000 feet of elevation each day! We even stayed an extra day since the weather did not cooperate on Tuesday, August 2nd when we were supposed to leave.  But we enjoyed that!  More time to play pinnochle at night, our favorite Polish card game!

Frisbe Golf

At the top of our chair lift ride we played frisbee golf - trying to throw frisbees into a disc golf basket. Dave is a pro at this. Amazingly we did not lose a single frisbee!
That is Rick tossing the frisbee, not doing ballet for Swan Lake.

And Happy Birthday to Kim who celebrated wildly in NYC today! All our love to you!!

Mount Hood

Having lots of fun in Portland!

After wasting time with Sprint who said they had never seen such a problem before and could NOT retrieve any of my missing pics and could only hope it wouldn't occur again, we set off for more adventures at Mount Hood.

We took the chair lift up the mountain and then rode down on the alpine slide. Never had done this before - felt like I was on the luge! And it was a half mile long. Good thing Amy and Dave never let me see the guy with two bandaged arms and his face covered with road burn from flying off the luge! I only saw him as we left and heard his gruesome story since I couldn't help but ask what happened. He didn't remember much, but certainly heard about it from all the spectators!

That's Amy and Dave with Mount Hood in the background. Perfectly beautiful day with crystal clear views of the mountain (11,000 feet high- we were at 3,500 and Portland is at 65 feet elevation).

Arrival Portland!

Here we are! Now we get to visit Amy and Dave!
This was the biggest airport we have landed in.  Just after we climbed out of our tiny plane, an F18 took off! But you know, they treat us just as well as the big passenger planes and fighter planes.

Just a comment on our flying. Rick always has "flight plan waypoints", spots he is flying towards. But most times we fly VFR - visual flight rules. That way we can veer off course if we want to go see something.  Rick requests flight following from the controllers so they always know where we are and alert him to planes nearby or even when we got close to Mt Shasta. "Are you aware of the terrain and do you have it in view?"

Three Sisters and Mount Hood

Lots of scenic views today with snow capped mountains. The first are called Three Sisters and the second is of Mount Hood. This one is close to Portland and we have been snowshoeing on it.

Crater Lake

As you can see from the map on Rick's IPad (yes, this is his navigation source, etc for flying), Crater Lake is a nice round body of water at 6178 feet. It is in the caldera basin formed when Mt Mazama erupted about 7000 years ago. It is 5 miles in diameter and 1,932 feet deep - the deepest lake in the United States - and way bigger than Barringer Crater we saw in Arizona.

Mount McLoughlin

Mount McLaughlin is just 9495 feet high. If you look at the photo of it from a distance, you will see a " haze" line above it. That is us seeing the horizon from the altitude we are flying. Because the mountain is below this line, we know it is at a lower altitude than we are flying. Rick taught me this.

Mount Shasta

We started at about 1000 feet above sea level and climbed to 12,500, circling to gain height before nearing Mount Shasta, which is 14,162 feet high. Isn't it stunning? We flew just 8 miles from it. Below the mountain is Lake Shasta, a reservoir and recreational lake.

Before flying

There is a lot to do before jumping in the plane and taking off. One essential is getting gas. At a big airport they do it all for you. Here in Redding is the gas station. Rick puts in his credit card and pumps away - just like it was a car - only takes longer since the plane holds 38 gallons. We fly for 4 hours with that with time to spare. This was cheap gas - only $5.45 a gallon.

Then comes preflighting the plane - 7 pages of things to check. I have nothing better to do at this time, so today I took pictures to show my lovely hairdos while the propeller is on and the cockpit is still open.

At the other end the reverse happens, but that is easier for me. After sitting for almost 4 hours with not only a seat belt but also a double shoulder harness, and remembering to keep my feet away from the rudders, it takes a while to move my body! That is why I often sit on the top of my seat before climbing out of the plane!

Then I wander over to the FBO (fixed base operations), where they provide water, tea, coffee, cookies, popcorn, candy, or whatever, and of course restrooms. They are nice to pilots. But the best part is talking to the people.  Always an interesting story to be heard.