John & Anne Wiley

We’re tied down and the tent is set up at Oshkosh. Sort of, as I’ll describe. But first let me tell you about Pierre. The capital of South Dakota seemed like a good choice when weather indicated that the prudent pilot would let go of flying to Minnesota last evening. This was after an absolutely magnificent flight along the Grand Tetons and over some of Yellowstone. I didn’t bring my camera chip to this wifi hotspot, nor did Anne bring her camera, so the photos will have to wait. Too bad, because we really like some of them and would love to share. What I can do is show you our route from Jackson Hole.

07/23-24 map

Gasping our way along the breathtaking Tetons we toured part of Yellowstone on our way to the lake. After leaving Yellowstone Lake, we crossed the high plaindotted with RVs and tents, for a stretch and some fuel in Sheridan. We decided to head up into MT, but realizing how far we hoped to go in the day we made a jaunt up to the closest airport (Red Lodge) to have a look. It was of course the doorway to entirely new vistas, so we decided to go back on another trip. We headed direct to Mt. Rushmore not knowing exact location, so it was fascinating to see detailed human faces appear on the rock face above a large parking area with tourist facilities. I’ve wanted to see it for years, and am glad we finally did – without the driving. 🙂

We hoped to reach or at least get close to Oshkosh, so we headed direct. When we realized I’d forgotten about crossing a time zone and figured out the local time and sunset, it became clear we’d stop at the Eastern border of SD. The weather had other ideas, as thunderstorms had recently moved across our path. Again we decided to err on the side of caution and diverted to the state capital of SD: Pierre. After finding out how quickly we could get the tent set up (3 hours), we slept. At the crack of dawn we were up, and decided to accept the kind offer of a loaner car to tour the lovely little city. Back at the airport we got the gear all sorted back into Tripp (whom Anne said in the morning looked “confused”), checked weather and got an early start on the long flight to Oshkosh. Well, early in that we took off at 10am! We started encountering other pilots going to Oshkosh, and that did a lot to enhance our excitement.

After some discussion we decided to go take a peek at ND, having already diverted a bit North due to the storms. We found it looked quite a bit like SD, so after a stretch in the small Ellendale airport plunk in the middle of glorious wildflowers we at last headed direct for Oshkosh. This route took us directly over Minneapolis, which had been a factor in our choice of glimpsing ND. We’d both been there by car years ago, so we already knew that more vistas await our return on another trip. The tops of the broken clouds kept inching up until we were at 11,500 for half an hour keeping clear of them (thank you Tripp!), and even then it involved some detours among the tallest towers of fluff. At least it was a welcome change from bouncing along in the turbulence lower, and we booked along at 150mph or so getting about 20mpg. So after a beautiful view of Minneapolis we stayed high until about 40 miles from Oshkosh.

Now, approaching the mother of all fly-in aviation events involves a 30-something page set of procedures, and the controllers are (to put it mildly) stressed so you want to have a clue. At the 30 mile mark you check the ATIS (weather and info), and that’s when we found out Oshkosh is closed. What?! Well, you may have seen the news about airport flooding in WI, and the grass areas of Oshkosh are especially muddy today. So before we got there, they’d closed the airport to all off-pavement activity (parking airplanes and camping). We heard stories of people sinking up to their ankles, so the thought of parking Tripp in that has zero appeal anyway. So we again diverted – this time to a friendly airport named Fond du Lac. One of the airport volunteers said they’re calling this the “Dry Oshkosh.” Tripp is tied down, the tent is filled up with stuff we probably don’t need, and we’re off to sleep. Tomorrow we’re sharing a cab with some other aviators, for a fun drive over to look at the Fly Market (flea market for aviators). The actual show starts Monday, and our current plan is to leave Tuesday or Wednesday before the next set of storms approaches. Busy times ahead, and some say it’s as much fun as pilots can have without flying 🙂