Surprise Bday trip

It's fun to get to use the RV for other purposes, like a birthday trip for my oldest daughter with a mystery destination......

Due to the forecasted wx we needed to scoot out of town before school was out, she was happy to oblige!



We flew just south of KMPR, the site of my first solo.



We crossed a distinct line of small but building CB's, my daughter said "look, it's the tortoise and the hare." I see it.....



A quick stop at KDDC, part potty stop-part coordinate with my crew at the destination-part hope to run into the guy who first mentored me with my tail kit. I hope to catch him next time but asked several people to tell him hi for me.





I had a hard time starting after the quick turn and let it sit for 10 minutes, it wasn't overly hot but I've been steadily enriching the idle circuit and maybe it's too rich at the slightly higher elevation. I was thankful for the north wind keeping the "smell of $$" south of the airport!



The CB's had grown quite a bit and it was time to get out of Dodge!



My daughter takes to horses like I take to airplanes, she was even doodling horses on the flight. She is going to LOVE her Bday destination!

By this time she's figured out we are going to the mountains of Colorado, state lines are depicted on the ADSB NEXRAD page watching the line of storms grow behind us. We just hit some stronger light turbulence as the first terrain comes into view.





KTAD was closed for runway and the next closest airport is KRTN.







We are greeted by Uncle Joe and Aunt Beth, my daughter is starting to piece this puzzle together.



Like I said she's into horses like I'm into airplanes and what's better than a weekend at an Aunt&Uncle's house in the mountains with horses.

A kid friendly mule named pepper became my daughter's best friend for the past couple days.









We also rode 4-wheelers and went kayaking.





We heard this guy bugling the other night, very impressive 5X6 by our count.



An awesome trip, she's not ready for it to end.

Wow, great trip, great write up.

I see Mondays front page written all over it.

Nice run Andy. Where can I get a ride like this?

Vlad said:

Nice run Andy. Where can I get a ride like this?

Click to expand...

West of KTAD, don't worry I saw a couple more "interesting" strips while driving around and only 1 was on the map. With some advanced notice who knows what might happen!

Wood Fired Pizza the first night, I was glad to see they had good beer on tap! While standing in line for the bathroom I found a short one without a line in back. I'm not tall but the slanted ceiling made things a challenge!







Apparently "Artcar" is a national thing and it happened to be in Trinidad this weekend. Here's some of the art, I've never had an eye for art.....



Yoda head car, the hair was large white zip ties rtv'd everywhere on an economy hatchback. At least some airplane builders can relate to this....



Tags were from Texas and yes it is covered in furry cowhide, I was really surprised it didn't have matching seat covers.



Very suitable as an airport scooter....



I was kinda surprised with the normal burger menu inside this place....

Great post!

Andy,

Looks like you two had a great time! Raton is one of our favorite destinations. Beautiful country up there. You two are really lucky!

All the best
Geoff

Great trip, Andy. Thanks, I'm heading west.

After a crappy morning of cleaning up, it was time to head home.



The airplane was hard hot starting at Dodge City and actually died at the end of my taxi at RTN. I have not experienced this before. I attributed it to an overly rich mixture on my MA4-5 + higher elevation + heat from taxi/sitting. I have never been able to get an RPM rise on idle cutoff even with the idle mixture adjustment screw at 3 turns out where it was currently set. I adjusted the idle mixture screw to 2 1/4 turns out before startup to try that. Startup within 4 blades was normal and everything smooth. Takeoff showed normal RPM's but I was well aware of the 9000ish density altitude as I rolled past the 1000 ft markers still well on the ground. I really wanted to turn west into the mountains for more flying, but I'll have to save that for another trip. The views were fantastic even heading east.







Our inflight entertainment was the free visitors guide from Trinidad....



It backed up the stories Aunt Beth told of Al Capone and other gangsters using underground tunnels to smuggle stuff and run money from gambling halls to the bank. Stairs leading underneath downtown Trinidad, maybe we'll go down there next time without my daughter when I'm more prepared...



First National Bank of Trinidad...



It also mentioned the miners and a statue of a canary honoring the miners with Holy Trinity Catholic Church in the background.



To top it all off the home-made airplane got us there and back safely. 15000 feet on O2 brought us back home in under 3 hours and 21 gallons of fuel, a 20ish knot tailwind gave us about 30 mpg for the ride back. Sure beats the 12 hours in a car....

Great fun! Do it up right.

Awesome!

Great Stuff Andy! Time with the kids is always well spent! I hope your little one is fully back up to speed as well!

Good Dad

crabandy said:

A kid friendly mule named pepper became my daughter's best friend for the past couple days.

We also rode 4-wheelers and went kayaking.

We heard this guy bugling the other night, very impressive 5X6 by our count.

An awesome trip, she's not ready for it to end.

Click to expand...

Good for the both of you too create moments, memories you will cherish later.
Daddy man

You're a good dad, Andy! They say that in a healthy family, girls look for a man who reminds them of their dad, and boys look for their mom. If this is true, you're setting the bar mighty high for any prospective boyfriends!

Thanks for the kind comments, It's not like I'm not having a blast too! I hope I can equip all my kiddo's with the tools and morality to truly enjoy life.

Pete, Thanks for asking. Yes, Pie is finally back to her 3 year old self with the help of some Blood Pressure medicine. She did sustain some lasting kidney damage from the event, but they are back up to 80ish%. The BP meds are to help with the goal of treating the kidneys as good as possible so they hopefully last a lifetime. It's not ideal but we'll take it and live on through this unexpected journey.