9/5 day 2 of East coast trip

9/5

Early in the morning we had breakfast with Benedict and his partner. They are on the first leg of a multi leg rail trip across the US and back to Seattle. Benedict was a boat chief on the Coast Guard ice breaker Polar Star for many years.

At Whitefish, MT we got a seat in the observation car before the train to heads for Glacier National Park. There are park service rangers on board and they gave a lecture on the park.

The depot at Whitefish was built by the Great Northern Railway in 1928. It was later renovated by the Burlington Northern railway and now maintained by the Stumptown historical society. The original name of Whitefish was Stumptown, called such since they were in such a hurry to establish the town they did not clear all the stumps.

The views from the train are gorgeous. We see lenticular clouds over the mountains, forests, fast running rivers an interesting shade of blue. Even though it is called Glacier National Park, we did not see a single glacier as we are passing along the southern edge of the park. I did not see any wildlife either though Rich claims he saw a deer. It is different seeing the park from the ground in contrast to the view from the air when we flew with Doug in his plane.

After the park we passed though the Blackfeet Indian Reservation with long, gently rolling hills of grass and wheat with a few cows studding the landscape.

Between Havre and Malta, Montana the train slowed to a crawl. Burlington Northern is working on the tracks so we need to go slowly. Unfortunately. We are now a little over a hour late arriving at our next stop, Glasgow, Montana. We hope that between here and Chicago we are able to make better time so we do not miss our connecting train to Pittsburg.

As we ride down the tracks and see cows in the distant I am reminded of the Gary Larson cartoon about cows. In the cartoon, there is a cow on lookout for people while the other cows are standing on their hind legs smoking cigarettes. When the lookout cow signals, they all return to 'normal' cow behavior, eating grass. I wonder what the cows are really doing when we can not see them.

9/4 day 1 of East coast trip

We boarded the train at 4:25pm. Shortly thereafter as the train headed north towards Everett, our porter, Larry, brought us two small bottles of champagne, which we enjoyed as we watched Puget Sound go by. We are in a roomette on the upper level, port side which gives us some great views.

We sat for dinner as we travelled passed Index and Skykomish. Our dinner partners, Mark and Judy, are returning to Maine after a visit with their son and his family in Port Angeles. Mark is a retired school principal and superintendent. They told us about their trip on the Trans Siberian railway to visit a school in Siberia in 1993. It sounded like quite an adventure.

Later in the evening our roomette was converted into bunk beds. We went through the 8 mile tunnel, continually popping our ears. There are large fans in the tunnel to blow air so that the passengers do not get asphyxiated by the exhaust from the train engine.

During the night the train stopped at Spokane to combine with the train from Portland, OR. On it went, rolling along, rocking back and forth, the whistle blowing as we passed crossings. I was not quite used to the motion. It is not like the motion of the ocean.

Yet another adventure

Nancy dropped us off in Winslow and we walked onto the ferry, Tacoma, the first conveyance on our trip to the East Coast. From Winslow, the ferry will depart for Seattle, passing the guest house where we have been staying this summer. At the Colman dock we will walk to the Amtrak train station, which is being renovated, and board the Empire Builder to Chicago. All aboard!

Waiting area

At the place where Rich and I go to exercise there is a waiting area for the dogs. They are expected to follow a few rules and be quiet. There are beds and water dishes. They look expectantly at the door, waiting for their owners. I think that some of them are hoping that a walk is also part of the exercise plan for the day.

Reflections on Oshkosh

We had a great time on our trip to Oshkosh. Here are a few pictures from our adventure.

Elaine gets a chance to fly with Doug's careful instruction

Devil's Tower, cue Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Mt Rushmore or 4 dead Presidents

Crazy Horse

 Avoiding a thunderstorm

Flying Tiger at Oshkosh Airventure 2012

Minature Flying Tiger

 Warbirds display

Nancy, Doug, Elaine and Rich at Airventure 2012

Last Flying B-29

Mitchell

A storm over the air show. (not my picture)

Next generation of pilots

Miles City, Montana on the way back to Seattle

Flying through Glacier National Park, Montana

Mt Rainier

We would like to thank Doug and Nancy to inviting us to join them on this trip. We had a great experience. 

Day 8, returning from Oshkosh

By 8:00 am we were in the air, leaving Miles City, Montana. It was reasonably clear as we passed Great Falls and on to Glacier National Park. We followed the highway through Logan Pass and crossed the Rockies and the continental divide going west this time. The views were spectacular looking at the sharp edged mountains, with snow in places.

We landed at Glacier International Airport for fuel and to relieve our bladders. On the tarmac was a Boeing BBJ 737 in anonymous grey and white livery. I suspect it was a private plane. Doug contacted flight control of our route back to Bremerton. They mentioned that a plane following our same route was 3 days overdue and could we keep an eye out for it.

Shortly after passing Kalispell, Montana, an emergency locator beacon signal started to warble on the radio. Doug immediately started a 360 degree turn remaining at altitude to try and determine the direction of the signal. He reported to flight control the location and pertinent information as well as when we stopped hearing the signal. We are not sure if it is connected to the overdue flight but we hope the information we provided was helpful. It is similar to when us cruisers here the emergency tone on our VHF radios of a mayday or pan-pan in our immediate vicinity.

We passed over Interstate 90 and through the Cascades and the familiar Mt. Rainier. There was a blanket of clouds from the west side of the mountains until SeaTac airport. We touched down at Bremerton airport. After cleaning the bug splatters off the windows and wings and tidying up the airplane and stowing it in the hanger we stopped at the airport cafe for a bite to eat.

While we were glad to be back, we thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Oshkosh. We want to thank Doug and Nancy for inviting us to share this adventure and airventure. It was an amazing experience.

Day 7, returning from Oshkosh

We left Outagamie Airport, Appleton, Wisconsin, shortly after 10:50 am. We say goodbye to Oshkosh, the Airventure, and Nancy, who is flying back commercial from Green Bay. The Boeing B-17 crossed the runway prior to our takeoff. It was a fitting last glance at the amazing air show and the impressive restored planes we saw flying during the last 3 days.

Imagine the Seattle Boat show on steroids with most of the attendees arriving by boat and having somewhere between 14,000 and 25,000 boats anchored around the outside of the show with dingies and small motorboats moving the sailors to and from their boats to the show. Add to that image several 100 boats of various sizes and types on display as well. The air show has the advantage of being on dry land (unless it rains, which it did during the show and at night). Rich and I decided that we have never seen anything before that would compare to this, from the restored aircraft, to the planes on display, to the planes of the folks attending and then to the aerobatics each afternoon. We could certainly relate to the vendors selling everything under the sun.

We started out with a course direct to Bozeman, Montana, cruising at 8,500 ft, speed over the ground is 120.7, airspeed is 130 knots so we have a headwind of about 9 knots. So unlike the trip out we are not making as good progress. We stopped at Aberdeen, South Dakota to refuel the plane and ourselves.

We planned to go to Billings, Montana, but we continued to fight headwinds (seems just like cruising), so we stopped at Miles City, Montana, a burg of 8,400 souls. We are staying at the Sleep Inn, a new hotel that just opened a month ago and the nicest place we have stayed at yet. Dinner was at the Ribs & Chops, where we had, yes, you guessed it, ribs and chops. Now we are watching the Olympics.

Tomorrow we want to get an early start to head west.

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