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Summer 2010 Travels

tommylewis

tommylewis

Well Known Member
Last Friday, Tom & Bonnie and Martin & Claudia Sutter flew out of hot Texas looking for cooler weather. The Lewis's are flying the RV10 and the Sutters have an RV7a. The following pictures are sightings of VAF shirts at Estes Park.

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And this picture is a Texas BC pose.

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And one of Tom & Bonnie

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We did find cooler weather, including driving in a hail storm, and had a great weekend at Estes Park, Co. Tomorrow, Monday, we are off to West Yellowstone. Check out the SPOT tracking link below.
 
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on to West Yellowstone

Yesterday, Monday, morning we flew from Cheyenne to West Yellowstone on a perfect day for flying. Smooth, light head wind, and clear as a bell. This is a picture of Sutter's RV7a over the mountains.

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We setup camp in the pilot campground and relaxed during the afternoon.

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On to do some sight seeing today.
 
Western MT

If you're coming as far as Missoula, let me know and I'd be happy to show you around. Might have an extra vehicle you could borrow.
 
Busy here

We have been touring, saw a grizzle bear yesterday. Tuesday we did a couple hikes in Yellowstone, we'd we drove north to Big Sky and hiked another nice hike. Today we are going back into park for another hike. The grass at home can wait (really neighbor boys are mowing it). Temperature here are nice with afternoon showers.
 
Tommy, if you're looking for Breakfast on the 4th of July. Townsend(8U8) has their Festival of Flight Fly-in and is <1hr RV time north of KWYS.
 
more pictures

This is a picture of the Togwotee Pass which is just east of Jackson and got us into the valley by Jackson lake and the Tetons. As you can see the weather was beautiful on Monday morning.

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This is a picture of the two RVs on the ramp at West Yellowstone in front of the pilot campground. The camping spots are in the pine trees behind the airplanes.

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Planning on trying some fly fishing today along the Madison River in the park.
 
Four RVs at West Yellowstone

Yesterday two more RVs, an RV8 and RV6, flew into WYS and parked on the ramp in front of our RV7a and RV10. They are not camping so we have not meet them yet.

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Tom,
Thanks for the great pictures.
We will be flying into WYS and staying at the campground the 2nd week of august.

Keep the photos coming.
 
Johnson Creek, Idaho

We flew over to Johnson Creek this morning. It was a great flight across some rugged country. We had a 20 knot headwind and some clouds at 11k. Here is a picture of the turn to final.

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We are camped behind the airplanes to the north of the caretakers shed.

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We plan on staying the week to enjoy the cool mountain air.
 
Nice Pics, what's next...

Hi Tom,

Nice Pics. Seeing my friend Dale's Black HR2 in the background at JC gave me a big grin! Tell em' I said Hi!

Smokey
HR2
 
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another picture

Yes Smokey, Dale and Denise are camped next to us. We met them here 3 years ago and picked up right where we left off. Good people. I told them you saw their airplane on my picture and said hi.

Today we flew over to McCall to pickup supplies for the week. Heavy frost so we had to wait for it to melt before flying out. This is a picture of the valley from the south of Johnson Creek. The green strip near the top of the picture of the valley is the airstrip.

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So it is a nice day here.
 
Looking at your pix......well, that's what is keeping me going on our -10. Beautiful scenery, blue sky, grass runways with camping nearby. Ahhhh! That will be us next summer.
 
JC Envy

Tom, Bonnie, Claudia, and Martin - wish we were there. It's still hot here in Tejas, sweating in the hanger working on the 10. It's been quiet here for 3 days now. Have fun and keep sending the pics!
 
Homesick and MOTIVATION

Tom, You're killing me. You're flying around my retirement playground. While you were snaping pictures, I was buttoning up the second tank on my 7A. I call Idaho Falls home. I was there two weeks ago visting my new grandson. (He's gonna learn to fly in my 7A!) These photos are keeping me building here in Amarillo, with an eye toward retirement back home in Idaho. Your photos show a different perspective of the mountains I've seen MANY times from the ground. As a matter of fact, while on my trip to see my week old grandson, the wife and I had lunch at Driggs Airport ......outside on the patio, looking at the West Side of the Tetons. The RV community and support here in Amarillo is GREAT. In fact, the bulider of the July desktop calendar photo that DR just took recently, is of a local builder's beautiful and newly painted RV8. He just helped me rivet my top wing skins. --- Thanks Gary. I really appreciate the motivational photos and wish you blue skys on your trip back to Texas.
 
Moving on

After camping for almost two weeks, we packed up our stuff at Johnson Creek and flew over to McCall for some fuel and then headed northwest to the Idaho Washington border and then north to Sandpoint, Idaho. This route took us over Hells Canyon and some other awesome country. This picture is of Hells Canyon.

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As we approached Sandpoint, I snapped this picture (yes Bonnies turn to fly today) of Lake Pend Oreille. Our lake rent house is on Bottle Bay which is between the two points on the right side of the picture. It was a beautiful day to fly this route. Check out the route on the Spot link in our signature line below.

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When we landed we asked about hangar rental, and found a place to park two RVs for the week. Keep pounding those rivets.
 
Tom....Your killing us back here in Granbury......... Its rained here alot in the last few weeks, looks like your having alot more fun.... Looking forward to getting my RV finished!!!

Oh yeah....I have to start it first......(Preview Plans in Hand)
 
Let the summer continue

Tom and Bonnie are heading west again in our RV10 after a few days in Rapid City, a couple days in Minneapolis, 10 days at Oshkosh, and a short week at Mom's in South Dakota. Yesterday, Friday, we left Mom's and flew to Gillette, Wy to visit Devils Tower.

Our flight to Gillette was smooth with light head winds and blue skys. We overflew Sturgis, SD, and observed several open fields turned into camp grounds for the arriving motor cycles. We deviated slitely to get a view of Devils Tower from the air. It was interesting, but the size of the Tower was not impressive from our altitude.

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After landing, getting N143EB buttoned up, and finding our motel, we headed over land to the Tower. As we approached we realized that we had been deceived about it's size. The Tower is immense. and it's structure is fasinating. After studying the facts and myths of the Tower in the visitor center, we took a hike around the base of the Tower and it's boulder field. We were treated to great close up views of all sides of the Tower. Amazing to us were the number of rock climbers we watched climbing up and down this rock. We were truely impressed with this natural monument.

From the Tower we continued north to the small town of Hulett. We found it's 5000 ft. airstrip on top of a mesa next to a beautiful golf course. It is unattended, but has self serve fuel, a pilot's lounge accessed by using the unicom freq., and a courtesy car. As an added adventure, we decided to begin our return to Gillette by a 30 mile gravel road along the Blacktail Creek.
It was a beautiful drive with forest, creek, wild flowers and deer.

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Timing is everything

Our Saturday flight from Gillette, WY, to Driggs, ID, began later than we had hoped. However it worked out perfectly. Our weather briefing showed only one small storm on the entire western radar, but it was red and yellow and headed straight for Driggs. Many thanks to XM weather in the cockpit as we watched it's movement all the way. When we reached Togwotee pass east of Jackson Hole, WY, the storm was just clearing the north edge of Jackson Lake leaving the way open for us to round the north end of the Tetons for landing at Driggs. The flight was reasonably smooth and the Tetons were beautiful.
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The Driggs airport is always delightful with it's view of the back side of the Tetons, gourmet restaurant, sail planes and museum. We managed to get N143EB cleaned up and tied down as well as getting settled in our rent house in spite of the recurring showers throughout the rest of the day.

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Sunday was a picture perfect day so we headed for the Grand Targhee Resort in hopes of making a hike that we have been rained out of several times in previous years. We rode the Dreamcatcher quad lift to the 10,000 Ft. summit of Fred's Mountain. At the top there is a magnificent view of the back side of the Teton's.

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From there we hiked the 2.8 miles down the Teton Vista Traverse trail back to the parking lot. We added one extra mile to take a side hike up (and I do mean up!) to Mary's Saddle. The view of the Tetons from Mary's Saddle was spectacular. We marveled at the scene as we sat on the rocks and ate our sandwich. An added surprise were the mountain flowers. The mountains were carpeted with every color possible; red, orange, blue, purple, pink, red, yellow and many shades inbetween. They came in all sizes and shapes. I couldn't stop taking pictures. Of course our knees are getting stiffer and stiffer as I write this, but it was a glorious day.
 
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Devil's Tower

Tom, Bonnie,

Good to see you at OSH. We're thinking of renting your house out for the summer next year to a couple from up north that likes hot weather. By the way, in my younger days (many, many years ago) I too used to climb Devil's tower. The scariest part was when the jets from Ellsworth AFB used to do tight turns around the tower and of course we were facing foward straining a handhold. They did maintain the 3nm distance requirement you discovered...thank god!

Glad you're enjoying the wonders of Wyoming (that does not include Gillette!). I just left Sheridan a week ago to check on your house...all is good.
 
Hi Old Osh neighbors!

Sounds like a great adventure you two are having, thanks for posting and for the great pics. Hope you're able to make it out for Homecoming. The summer weather in the NW has been awesome this year, we hope it holds for a while-
 
another day

We are off to a slow start today because of the stiff muscles from yesterdays hike.

Pete - Good luck with finding any northern folks wanting to experience the Texas August heat!!! I am impressed that you climbed Devils Tower. There were several groups climbing it Friday afternoon. It must be quite a rush to climb.

Bob - We are considering the homecoming, but would have to leave our rent house on Orcas Island a couple days early. Sorry we missed you at Oshkosh this summer.
 
Visit to the Tetons

Our stay in Driggs, ID, was great. On our hike along String Lake and Leigh Lake in Teton National Park we saw a mule deer and a black bear each right on the trail.

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We really enjoyed sharing a few days with Jim and Debra Lane (RV8) when they joined us from Missouri. With them we hiked the Cascade Canyon in the Teton Park. The views are spectacular on the 10 mile in and out hike including waterfalls, glaciers, mountain peaks, rivers, ponds and moose.

The Cascade Canyon hike starts out with the Hidden Falls.
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In the Canyon we saw three bull moose, two cows and one calf.
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Mount Teewinot lies on the south rim of the canyon.
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View of the Glaciers on the back side of Mount Teewinot.
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Can you see the cascade of glacier melt?
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End of the canyon in the distance, our destination.
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Saturday Jim and Debra headed home and Tom and Bonnie flew on to Lewiston, ID. Here is a picture of the two RVs at Driggs.
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Travels continue

Last Saturday, we flew out of Driggs for Lewiston, Idaho. The weather was great, except for a cloud layer at our cruising altitude of 10500, so we climbed and had favorable winds which resulted in ground speeds of 195-200 mph. Not bad for a westerly course.
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Eventually the clouds disappeared giving us a view of the beautiful Idaho mountains.
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Part of our route took us over the Salmon River crisscrossing parts of Lewis and Clarks' historic journey.
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In Lewiston we visited the visitor center in ****'s Gate State Park on the east side of the Snake River. There we were reminded of the history of Lewis and Clark and their Native American friends. We also took a long winding drive down the west side of the Snake river canyon.
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Along the west side of the Snake we took a short hike at Buffalo Eddy to climb around a rocky area looking for petroglyphs.
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We were rewarded with many petroglyph finds, but I am sure we missed many more than we found.
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The next day we flew up to Orcas Island.
 
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Moving to Northwest - Part 1

Sunday, Aug. 15, We left Lewiston, ID, for East Sound, Orcas Island, WA. As we approached the Cascade Mountains we had a great view of Mt Rainier in the distance off our left wing. It is 75 nm away, great visibility. This was the clearest, smoothest ride over the Cascades we have had in a long time.
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Here is a panel shot after we were established at 10.5k, wind off right wing, and 198mph ground speed. I believe the TAS displayed on the EFIS is lower than actual, a project for next winter is to correct this error. The RV10 is really a nice traveling machine.
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The Cascades were beautiful beneath the wings.
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We passed on the north side of Glacier Peak. The glaciers were sparkeling in the sun.
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Passing Mount Baker, it is time to start down as Orcas Island is only a few minutes away.
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Part 2 to follow.
 
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Moving to Northwest -Part 2

The San Juan Islands sit right off the mainland shore inviting us over the water. Orcas Island is the one in the back ground.
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As we approach Orcas, the sound which lends its name to the village of East Sound comes into view. It is plain to see that the boaters love the islands as much as we do.
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A flight up the sound lines us up for a straight in approach to runway 34 traffic permitting.
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Continuing up the sound, Mt. Constitution passes our right wing. Mt Constitution is the tallest peak in the San Juan Islands at 2407'. It lies within the Moran State Park, a wonderful park with miles of hiking trails, biking trails, horse trails, lakes for swimming, canoeing, and kayaking, and camping and waterfalls.
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Short final puts us right over the village of East Sound. Camping next to your airplane in the grassy tie down is a good option with shower facilities in a nearby hangar. Or just chock it and walk 15 minutes into town for a great lunch in one of the several restaurants. Or drop by the biplane guy's hangar and take a ride in Rod Magner's beautiful red and yellow Travelair.
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Off to our rent house for a cool relaxing visit.
 
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Daytrip from Orcas to Friday Harbor

Tuesday was an absolutely beautiful day for flying in the Northwest. We decided to fly the short, but beautiful flight over to Friday Harbor. On takeoff, the picture off our right was that of Mt. Baker.
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We flew around Orcas Island and took the following picture of the Blakeley Airport.
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We then overflew the rent house we are staying in these two weeks.
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And then turned up East Sound and took the following picture.
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And got the view of Mt Baker again.
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And then flew over to San Juan Island to land at Friday Harbor.
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The RV10 sure looks fine on the ramp.
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We had a nice lunch down on the harbor while watching the ferrys and boats come and go.
 
Visit KAWO

Swing by Arlington(KAWO) sometime. If you come at the right time there will be ten or more RV guys with hangars open. I also recommend a sunset flight before you leave. Spectacular watching the sunset from 5000':D
 
+1 for AWO. I am also based there, although my current plane at the airport is a Luscombe. LOTS of interesting aircraft at AWO, from ones parked on the ramp such as a PBY to ones tucked away in hangars (RVs, biplanes, aero, old taildraggers, Eastern European models)
 
On the road again

After two weeks on Orcas Island, we flew out Sunday for Medford so we could visit Crater Lake. It was a cloudy day, but as we flew south and found that the coast was open so here is a picture heading out over the Columbia River toward Astoria. Check out the SPOT track below.

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Flight over Seaside
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So this is what the coast looked like.
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Seastacks
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another picture of the coast
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more seastacks, these have a hole
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approaching Pacific City
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Today we drove up to Crater Lake so I had to post one picture of this beautiful sight. Tomorrow we will be flying over the lake enroute to Bend.
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Our plan is to spend a couple days in Bend, then a night at Jackpot, then over to Heber, Utah to spend a week at Park City.
 
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Bend to Heber Center

Late last week we made the flight from Medford to Bend and took the following three nice pictures of Crater Lake from the RV10. We had planned to make this flight a day earlier, but low clouds, moderate turbulance, and a nasty crosswind at Bend caused us to rethink our plan and delay for a day. As you can see from these pictures, the weather the next day was great.
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As we continued the flight, the Three Sisters Mountains were off to the west.
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This is the Bend OR airport. The FBO has a pilot rate at the Brasada Ranch resort which is north of town. We celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary on this trip.
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The sunset that evening in Bend was awesome.
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On Saturday, we flew into Heber Valley Airport, 36U, because it is the closest to Park City. As we flew by Park City we took this picture of one of the ski slopes. We noticed today that some of the fall colors are already turning.
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This is a picture as we flew into Heber Valley. A very nice location.
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A picture of the Heber Valley airport.
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We are exploring this area and will be flying on to Cheyenne on Saturday to visit a grandaughter and then back to Texas early next week.
 
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We are home

After nearly 12 weeks of traveling around the country in our RV10, we made the flight home on Monday. We flew from Heber City to Cheyenne, WY, for last weekend.

Takeoff out of Heber City. The fall colors are already popping out.
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We had a nice tail wind, smooth ride and great weather across Wyoming.
Panel picture across Wyoming shows 222 mph which was typical of the trip.
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Wyoming
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After a nice weekend visiting our grandaughter, we flew home on Monday. Naturally we had to dodge a some weather in West Texas.

West Texas thunderstorms
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We put 46 hours on our RV10 during this summer trip across the north central to northwest parts of the country.
 
Tommy,
It's been fun "tagging along" on your trip. The pictures have been great for whetting the appetite. I gotta get an airplane... :)

Glad you and Bonnie got home safe!
 
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