Once on the ground and properly oriented, I set out. Fashion be damned! Shameless selfie. Man the things I?ll do for flying. Sheesh!
There is a dirt road from the airport to town. Let me rephrase that. There is LONG dirt road from the airport to town. Tofield was cold and there was quite a bit of snow on the ground.
Those of you who know anything about mixing cold temperatures and batteries know that they don?t mix well. I set out on my trusty electric scooter down the LONG dirt road. Halfway there it started to lose power. Oh great, I knew this wasn?t going to end well.
Nonetheless I pressed on. After the dirt road I hit pavement and eventually made it to the first eating establishment, Subway.
I was freezing so I stopped in for soup and to warm up, all the while dreading the journey back because I knew that junky bike wasn?t going to make it and that I?d have to carry it. After Subway I headed down the road a bit more, because it was downhill, and checked out the only other eating place, Burger Baron.
That?s all I could see in this one horse town. Time for the journey back to the airport.
Uphill. Oh, boy. Yep, about 5 minutes in the bike died. DANGIT! Now I have to carry this thing. Who?s great idea was this anyways?! So much for not breaking a sweat. God has a sense of humor!
I wondered if my kid would care if I just chucked this thing in the ditch and left it? I guess that wouldn?t win me the Dad of the Year award now, would it.
About five minutes later God sent me some Angels in the form of a couple of rough looking welders in a pick-up truck. The airport shares land with a big industrial welding factory, so as I was trudging along the LONG dirt road they stopped to give me a ride.
They wondered who I was and what the heck I was doing out here. I told them I was John Lovelace, a hot-shot, high-powered TV journalist-aviator looking to do a feature story on their rinky dinky town. Okay, not really. They couldn?t have cared less, anyway, but were kind enough to give me and the now dead bike a lift back to the airport. Besides, I couldn?t pass for John Lovelace, I got nicer teeth than him
For those who don?t know, here?s a link to John Lovelace.
http://www.johnlovelace.com/wings-ov...ada-story.html
So once back in the RV, I was off to Vermilion. The strong winds prevailed and they were blowing my way! 187 knots ground speed is my kinda thang. It was nice and smooth, too.
20 minutes later I was in Vermilion. I circled the town a few times and got a direction to go upon landing. From the air this looked to be a bigger, better and more promising place. So with a dead electric bike I had to resort to the two aging legs with which God has provided me.
I was faced with the typical airport high security as I exited the ramp.
A 20 minute walk took me to Main Street. It was still cold and there was a lot of snow, but things were looking more promising for places to report on. A couple of Chinese restaurants, Subway again and Anthony?s Cafe was all I could find. I?m sure there were several more eating establishments on the adjacent roads but without the aid of electrons, I wasn?t gonna go look for ?em.
A quick bite for lunch and then back to the airport. My bursitis, arthritis and meningitis were all acting up so it was time to head home. The winds down in Bow Island were 30 gusting to suicidal anyways, so I figured I?d save that destination for another day.
An hour and five minutes later I was on short final for 16. My other fellow aviation adventurer, Carl, and his beautiful -9 were there to greet me.
So, all in all, not a bad day?s work. Two of the three spots hit, 66%, kinda like my grades in school
A great way to waste a day and burn some AVGAS in the process!
Darren