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Summer 2015 Travels

tommylewis

Well Known Member
Tom & Bonnie are traveling again this summer in our RVs. We left TX the weekend before July 4th and flew our RV10 to West Yellowstone. Left TX at sunrise, which is a stretch for us, and after two 3 hour flights landed in West Yellowstone.

This was the Tetons as we flew past.
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View on landing at West Yellowstone.
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View of ramp next to pilot campground. Our RV10 in the middle and a nice RV9a flown by Jack & Marmy from Wisconsin first in line.
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Hiked for the view of Grand Prismatic Spring.
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Bonnie and I with view of lower falls in the background.
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I will be playing catchup this week on our travels as we are at Mom's house with good wifi bandwidth.
 
Headed for Johnson Creek

On the Monday before July 4, we packed up early and started up the RV10 to fly to Johnson Creek. On startup, we had a rough running engine with #4 cylinder not showing any EGT. I assumed I had a fouled plug so I leaned aggressively and engine smoothed out and EGT recovered. As the engine warmed up it was running smoothly so we took off and flew over to Johnson Creek to meet our friends. In flight we noticed #4 cylinder was slow to lean but did catchup with the others and appeared to be almost normal.

This was a picture on final for landing. The grass was brown because the irrigation pump was out of commission.
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We had 3 RVs camping together.
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Bonnie enjoying our site along the river.
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We were invited up for an afternoon visit with the Bryant family in the White House on the hill at the south end of the airport. That hill is higher than it looks and really made a believer out of us regarding which direction to take off. This is the view from the white house.
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While some of our visit was quite warm, we had a very nice quiet stay. We had some other RVs fly in like Troy & Jody from Canada.
 
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On to the Black Hills

On the Thursday after the 4th, we took off out of Johnson Creek, made fuel stop at a West Yellowstone, and then landed at Rapid City, SD. After landing, refueling, and moving to a hangar, we discovered oil dripping out of the bottom of the cowling. The next morning we had it in a shop to remove the cowling and determined that the rough engine start we had in West Yellowstone 6 hours previously was likely a stuck exhaust valve on #4 cylinder. The push rod had bent and damaged the lifter body. Since to replace a lifter body requires splitting the case, the engine was removed and sent off to an engine shop. So after 40 years of flying around the country and never having a mechanical maintenance issue stop us, we were stopped. Fortunately, we were meeting friends for a week and had time to sort out our options.

Here are some pictures from our week. This is a shot climbing on top of clouds out of West Yellowstone.
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And when the clouds over Yellowstone got too high for us, this is a shot going out the East gate of Yellowstone.
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We traveled to Rapid City earlier than the rest of our group to attend a summer college reunion that included a climb up M Hill. So this shot is of us on the hill.
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We had a great week in the Black Hills, one of our favorite places to visit. This is our group of 4 couples on the Needles Highway.
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And this is the group at Sylvan Lake on the hike down Sunday Gulch. This hike is another of our favorites.
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Gotta include picture of Mt Rushmore
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And the Mammoth Dig in Hot Springs
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And Spearfish Falls
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We had a great week touring the Black Hills. We made it to Wind Cave, the Mammoth Dig, Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Museum at AF Base, Deadwood, Spearfish Canyon, and Sturgis. Great week!

At the end of the week we elected to rent a car and drive the 16 hours back home to pickup our RV7a in order to continue our summer travels.
 
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I just love the story of driving back home to pick up your "hot spare" airplane!
 
On to Oshkosh

I guess we need a third airplane.

So after driving 16 hours to get back home, changing oil in our RV7a, and checking everything over, we took off at sunrise on Sat morning before OSH starts. Since eastern Iowa and ILL had rain storms, we headed for western Iowa expecting to fly around the western edge and the fly east to OSH. We stopped for lunch in LaMars Iowa and when we checked the weather and forecasts for Sunday, we decided the motel next to the airport sure looked good. I guess 3 days of go go go caught up with us. So Sunday morning we did yet another sunrise takeoff targeting Ripon arrival for 8 am.

This was the view as we turned on final for 36L.
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Our camp for the week in row 308.
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Fireworks after night airshow.
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Takeoff a week later.
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We really had a good week at Oshkosh again this year. This was our 39th Oshkosh and we still love the event. Thank you to all the folks that greeted us during the week. While the event is great, it is the people that really make it a world class experience!
 
Plans

Last Sunday we flew over to South Dakota to visit Mom for the week. I have caught up on our travels. Tomorrow we are flying to Utah to meet up with our son and his family for a week. Check out our link below to check our progress.
 
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This was our 39th Oshkosh and we still love the event. Thank you to all the folks that greeted us during the week.

39th year; sweet! I'm still at 0.0, and now I'm feeling that I need to build a hot-spare RV. Maybe after my first year at Oshkosh... Thanks for the great writeup.
 
Tom, how much time on the engine in the 10 when the valve stuck??

Glad all worked out fine and all safe. Much nicer to find these things on the ground than in the air...................
 
Moved on

Mike, the RV10 had 587 hours on it when #4 exhaust valve stuck.

Last Friday, we left Mom's house in SD and flew down to Grand Junction. Friends told us they had a good experience spending a night there so we tried it and it worked out well for us also.

A picture taken north of Grand Junction.
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Turning a long final for RW29 at Grand Junction.
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The destination for the week was Moab, so on Sat morning, it was a short flight over to Canyonlands airport, 16 miles north of Moab. This was a view on the flight over.
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Turning on final for RW03 at Canyonlands.
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We met our son and family here and have a very nice 3 BR condo and a mini van rented for the week.
 
Canyondlands

On our first day exploring the Moab area, we picked Canyonlands NP. It is a beautiful area. This is one of the view points we stopped at.
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Another view.
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If you noticed some showers in the distance on the two pictures, we took a hike that was an hour in, and during that hour a shower moved in and we got drenched! The temperature dropped to 60 during the rain. So this next picture is of our wet crew here.
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Arches NP

So on day 2 & 3, we toured Arches NP and this is a sample of the sights.

Landscape Arch
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Pinetree Arch
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Skyline Arch
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Sand Dune Arch
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Windows North & South Arches at sunset
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Double Arch
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This is absolutely beautiful country! We are having a great week and enjoying the Moab area immensely.
 
More Moab

Thanks guys!

On Wed we went on a day long river adventure on the Colorado River with Moab Adventure Center. It was a blast with a number of class 1 & 2 rapids.

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The five of us and the guide.
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A view along the river
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Another view of the river.
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Today we went to see Dead Horse Point State Park which is near Canyonlands NP, only better.
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A VAF hat was sighted along one of the overlooks.
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Another view of the canyon and river.
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I was sure glad to run across ya'll at Osh, I was getting worried about the summer vacation trip reports. Our last child leaves in a few weeks to college so we are getting ready to take a few of the trips ya'll do every year so thanks for posting.
Tim
 
Tom, I wish I could have been there to see you flying through those arches. Must have been thrilling. Actually, I thought flying that low in a NP was illegal. Glad you are enjoying your trip.
 
Left Moab

No flying through Arches for us. We did see a video for sale of a guy flying through the arches before it was illegal.

On Sat, we loaded up our RV7a and flew north out of Moab. We had a lot of clouds and some mountain obscurations so we were staying close to valleys and IFR, following roads for the first portion.
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One of the prettier hill sides just south of Provo, Utah.
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Southwest corner of the Salt Lake.
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So we flew to Wendover, Utah, where the parking lot for the casino is in Utah, and the casino is in Neveda. A lot of WWII history here as B17s and B29s trained here, thus 10000 foot runways.
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The FBO has a coupon for 2 for 1 buffet at two different casinos and a casino shuttle will pick you up. For a reference, Montego Bay has the nicest swimming pool. We had a nice evening.

A look at the salt flats while on final. Speed Week was suppose to start that weekend but had been canceled because of wet conditions.
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Keep pounding those rivets. These little RVs are great traveling machines.
 
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Very nice write up. The wife and I where just there and flew a similar path out of Moab but kept going north to Idaho instead of bailing west to Wendover. We followed the highway as well until we got to that point as ceilings where too low to go over top.
Mt. obscurity is a big deal in these parts. Big high mountains, narrow deep valleys, and remote terrain abounding.
Here was our view right before we passed over that beautiful mountain south of Provo you took a pic of.
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Fun times....
 
On to San Juan Islands

On Sunday morning, we continued NW to the San Juan Islands. As we approached the Columbia River we found conditions getting a little smokey.

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And the first snow capped mountain in sight was through some smoke. Adams I believe.
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Visibility improved greatly as we flew NW and this was a view of Mt Rainer.
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Cascades with Glacier Peak in the distance.
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Mt Baker
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And a look at East Sound on Orcas Island. Our rent house this first week is on final for RW34.
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We had a great flight over the Cascades. Absolutely beautiful country!
 
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Looking forward to hearing about your Orcas Island vacation . My son lives in Bellingham and just returned last night. He said the weather this past year has been nearly perfect in temp and skies. Enjoy your posts immensely. Visiting there is on the list when the 7 is finished. Dreaming for now.
 
Orcas Island

You have probably figured out that we enjoy visiting islands so these two weeks are a real treat. One reason we come during these two weeks, other than it is 100 deg in TX, is that the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival is held so we have tickets to four concerts. The 70 deg temps are real nice also.

On Tuesday we decided to fly the RV7a around the islands and stop at Friday Harbor for lunch and switch pilots. This is a view of the west shore of Orcas Island.
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This is Roche Harbor on the north end of San Juan Island. We have stopped here for lunch but not today.
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Friday Harbor. Great place for lunch and watch the float planes and boats come and go.
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Friday Harbor Airport. It is a 15 min walk to downtown. Checkout the bakery next to the airport.
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Our RV7a parked at Friday Harbor.
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Turtleback Mountain back on Orcas Island. Do you see the turtle shape? A great hike and nice view from the top.
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The ferry dock on Orcas Island at the south end.
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The south end of Orcas Island.
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We had a great day trip around the islands. These RVs are great flying machines.
 
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Downriggers restaurant on the waterfront in Friday Harbor is one of our favorite spots for breakfast. They have outside seatting on a second story deck overlooking the harbor. Kenmore Air flies regularly scheduled flights to Friday Harbor and the islands in Beaver and Otters on floats, many of them converted to turbine engine. They land in the harbor next to the marina. You can watch departure traffic from the airport. The ferry dock is only a few hundred yards away. Highly recommended (for breakfast).
 
San Juan's are our favorite vacation spot for the family. FYI, Downriggers burned to the ground a couple of years back. Last October they were starting to re-build so they might be back and open for business...hope so, beautiful spot to have your meals.

Martti Benson
RV9 - wings are progressing
 
Take a ride on the intra-island ferry circulating Friday, Orcas, Shaw, Lopez. Easy access by flying to Friday and walk to the ferry landing. Check WA ferry schedules.

John Siebold
 
The view

this was the view of the float planes and ferry yesterday as we had lunch.

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Yes, Downriggers is gone and they are still working on the site, not clear what is going to be built there. We go across the street from the ferry where you can go up stairs on the second level where the view is great. On Tuesday we flew around the islands and stopped in Friday Harbor for lunch. On Thursday we road the ferry from Orcas to Friday Harbor, had lunch and explored before catching ferry back. Our observation from those two days is a number of float planes come in late morning, then none for several hours.
 
Kayak

on Wd we went on a three hour Kayak trip from the beach just north of the airport to Point Doughty. This is picture we took on our flight of the point.
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Dave & Wendy and their daughters.
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Bonnie and I at the point.
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One of the many seals we saw. Also saw Eagles.
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We are changing rent houses tomorrow and are likely to have a slower wifi so this is probably my last post from Orcas.
 
Onward

On Sunday morning, we loaded up the RVs and flew out through the smoke. This was the view at 9.5k of Mt Baker.

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On the west side of the Cascades we were above the smoke at 9.5, but climbed to 11.5 over the cascades. This was Mt Rainer as we started a descent.

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As we descended down to land at Yakima, which was clear below 12 and 7 mile via, this was the view out front.
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Not a pretty picture, so imagine our surprise on Monday morning when we woke to clear skies and when we made the drive to Mt Rainer we found this beautiful sight.
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We had a great day of sight seeing and hiking around the NP with great clear skies.
 
It must be because all the smoke blew this way.:eek: It is terrible here right now. Keep having a great trip and hopefully the smoke does not effect your travel plans.
 
Moving on

Last Sunday morning we flew out of Yakima, WA for Jackpot, NV. Since we were going to Rapid City on Monday, this was not the most direct route but the smoke and fire TFRs across the northern route were not pretty. A quick check of our tracking link below will show how far south we went. So here is a picture of Jackpot.
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After a pleasant stay at Jackpot, we took off for Rapid City. The engine had been reinstalled in our RV10 and ground run so we were anxious to fly it. We had some great tailwinds on this leg.
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Here is a picture Monday afternoon of our RV10 just prior to its "first" flight. We circled the Rapid City airport for an hour Monday afternoon. Everything ran well and the temperatures are slowly dropping.
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So our routine this week is to fly in the morning and explore and hike in the Black Hills in the afternoon. This is a picture of the Badlands taken Tuesday from the air.
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This is a picture of Cathedral Spires on today's afternoon hike. No smoke here today.
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We did plan on returning to the Black Hills for a wedding this next weekend anyhow. So tomorrow we are flying over to central SD to pickup my Mom and bring her back out for the wedding this weekend. We have got 4 hours on the RV10 this week and it is running well. As you can imagine, we have flown all around the Black Hills. Next week, Bonnie and I will be flying our RVs back to TX.

Keep pounding those rivets, these RVs are great traveling machines.
 
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Back home

We flew back to TX last Tuesday. Bonnie flew the RV7a and I flew the RV10. We had some weather to deal with with a line of thunderstorms was across our route. Thank god for in plane weather. We ended the summer with 29 hours on the RV10 and 37 hours on the RV7a. It was a great summer in spite of our maintenance issue. Keep pounding those rivers as these RVs are great traveling machines.
 
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