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Let the planning begin.After hemming and hawing on which route I wanted to take, I decided that it would go counter clockwise from here in Michigan, across the northern plains (a la Bob Seger) down the west coast, and then back across the south part of the Great Basin. Originally, I had planned to leave my home base of Hastings, MI ( 9D9) and "Go West young man" to Mankato, Minnesota and spend the night. After getting some input from a couple of pilots, my initial stop then changed to Owatonna, MN. Further discussion led me to change my first stopover point to be the Flying Cloud Airport ( FCM ) - a reliever airport of Minneapolis/St. Paul. The rest of the trip had been pretty much set from the start with only a couple of other small changes to my stopping and overnight points. If you look at the right side of the screen you will see my planned route of flight. This may be subject to change due to weather, or simply me changing my mind on where to go in mid route. That's the beauty of owning your own airplane, and having no constraints except a few pesky federal requirements.I love my plane. I do. But I don't like sitting anywhere for extended periods of time. And face it, the Piper Cherokee doesn't exactly have the comfortable seat of say a Lincoln, Cadillac, or Mercedes-Benz. So I needed to break this thing down into some flyable segments and not so long days. I figure the worst part of the trip will be the first 1/3 and the last 1/3. Not to offend those folks in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, and Illinois, but let's face it. Flat ground doesn't make for exciting sight-seeing. Trust me, I live in Michigan - it's pretty flat. The first day of the journey will be the worst scenery wise. Almost 10 hours of pretty flat boring country, with the exception of the Black Hills/Badlands of South Dakota, and a flyby of Mt Rushmore. So I'm going to punish myself, and after the overnight in FCM, it's going to be 7 hours in 2212R from the Twin Cities to Bozeman, Montana. I am plan on breaking this ginormous day up with a flyby of Mt Rushmore and a stop in Custer, SD ( CUT ) for fuel, a stretch of the legs, a little snack, and a potty break. From the Bozeman leg on I plan on 3 short days of flying. The maximum time in the air should only be 4 hours each day. Those three days will include a peek at Glacier National Park in Northern Montana, aerial vistas of Mt. Ranier, Mt. St. Helens, Crater Lake, The Redwoods, Mt Shasta, and finally into Lake Tahoe / Reno, NV. I plan on overnight stays in Coeur D' Alene, ID. It appears I have an invitation to play golf nearby, so I may fit that in on Saturday afternoon to take a break from the 12+ hours of flying I just put in over the previous 36 hours. Another overnight in McMinnville, OR will give me a chance to check out the Spruce Goose up close and personal. One more overnight in Reno should rest me up for my next two days of flying. The fifth full day of flying will consist of negotiating the mountains, deserts, and military operation areas of Nevada. But I hope to be rewarded after crossing the state of Nevada with picturesque views of Zion National Park and then into Bryce Canyon, UT for lunch, a stretch, fuel, and a potty stop. After lunch, it's a cruise through Monument Valley and Natural Bridges before putting down for the night in Farmington, NM. From there it's only 2 hours more hours or so of the mountain flying along with a stop in Trinidad, CO before the Great Plains of Kansas will reclaim the ground below me. Another stop in Liberal, KS to see 80+ vintage aircraft at the Mid America Air Museum awaits me before I push on to Norman, OK to conclude my day. A steak dinner awaits me at a place called Cattleman's and you can bet that I will be more than ready to dig into that like Oprah Winfrey into a case of Girl Scout Cookies. A quick hop from Norman into the SW corner of Missouri, gives me a birthday present. A grass strip, which I happen to love landing on, and hopefully some aerobatics and acrobatics in a Citabria. Ok, so the wings and wheel are in the wrong place on a Citabria, but I'm willing to bite the bullet in order to get inverted - legally. After some upside-down time, an overnight will be in order before the last blitz home. One stop somewhere near St. Louis for fuel, and then all that's left is flying over the corn fields of Illinois before seeing Lake Michigan off my left wing, and sliding my bird back into its hangar. That's the plan as of now, and I've left myself a couple of weather days, just in case a late season blizzard hits the Rockies or Cascades, or a thunderstorm in Kansas and Oklahoma leaves me waiting for the cold front to push through. |