John & Anne Wiley

2010/07/30

Missed Moments-GT&R

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,NxNW Adventure,Random — John @ 14:00

You may recall that back on the 23rd we flew some particularly spectacular sights but weren’t able to share pix. Here then are a few from our exploration of the Grand Tetons and Rushmore. The view up-slope from our hotel provided a great start to the day as we could see the chair lifts taking tourists up for a low and distant glimpse of what we were about to survey on wings.

8168 Jackson WY

8168 Jackson WY

The airport is much closer to the Grand Tetons, and our excitement built considerably as we approached Tripp and contemplated our route along the range.

8252 Teton Setting

8252 Teton Setting

A few minutes later our magic carpet provided this view back toward Jackson with the airport just out of view to the left and of course the town further out of view beyond. Some peaks in the range have a distinctive “Matterhorn” look, as you can see in one of the snaps I’m about to put on my Photo Page.

8365 Back Toward Jackson

8365 Back Toward Jackson

Next we toured massive Yellowstone Lake, and this tiny slice of shoreline shows one of the many areas of bubbling hot springs and mud pots at the left edge. The lake is surrounded by a tumble of small peaks and a distant rim of tall mountains. As we traversed the vast valley I explained to Anne that the entire thing is a volcano. She tried to grasp that for a few minutes, looking for a large cinder cone or crater. “This whole valley to the mountains all around in the dim distance,” I repeated. It’s called a super volcano, the last time it erupted launched an ice age, and it’s due to blow again. Pretty sobering to contemplate that from a few thousand feet up where the whole thing surrounded us.

8382 Yellowstone Lake Pots

8382 Yellowstone Lake Pots

Not many miles later we searched a rock outcrop for signs of the Mt. Rushmore monuments. In the dim haze we first spotted a few large buildings and a parking lot so we flew toward it. Such an enchanting moment when rock outcrops suddenly emerged into crisp faces.

8468 Mt. Rushmore

8468 Mt. Rushmore

Now we’re off to find coffee and then back to Tripp for more miracles…

Wawa & T.Bay

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,NxNW Adventure,People,Random — John @ 03:26

Big Brother and Cousin Corpo slowed our progress today. First came all the hoops of CBP’s new and improved eAPIS reporting system for planes flying across U.S. borders. In the old days they were interested only in people and things entering the country, but now they are intrigued by departures as well. If larger than a Canada goose flying across, you must answer lots of questions and carry documents. Once out of the land of the free you must deal with an entirely different Canadian Customs than 2007 or so when we simply taxied our plane into a box painted on the tarmac, picked up a phone to assure them we had no weapons or other stuff they didn’t like, and we were free to fly on. Today we waited two hours while two armed men drove the five miles or so from Soo Canada to that airport. We had failed to phone giving two hours’ notice of our intention to invade this beautiful land. Now we know, so hopefully next time the CanPass system they told us about will ease our transition North. Once they’d done their work we enjoyed a few minutes of easy conversation and laughter as people rather than the roles we humans so often become entangled in. At least the roles and procedures help us all feel safer, right? 😉

While waiting we tried to activate Anne’s phone for use in Canada. Verizon it seems has special torments for anyone taking phones into Canada. To get it working we were to dial a number on the phone, but of course the phone didn’t work. Mine somehow did, so it’s activated. Now I have the right to pay the better part of a dollar per minute of talk time. As an added bonus, the new Android phone I bought for the trip is equipped with a data connection that racks up charges even when not in use. I think that great feature is now turned off. Too bad that neither the data connection nor the phone voice connections work reliably. 🙂

Happily, we did finally take off to see how far we could fly around the top of Lake Superior toward Thunder Bay. The scattered clouds were too low for us to fly high and thus shortcut more of the highway’s curves to save time, so we kept within 5-10 miles most of the way. A nice benefit of flying low of course is the intimate perspective on our green planet. There were many small lakes in variety of shapes and hues, like this little gem surrounded by miles of forest.

0046 Small Lake

0046 Small Lake

The first airport along the Trans-Canada highway from Soo is in the small town of Wawa. Do you love that name too? At the edge of Lake Superior a couple of miles from town was a scene so placid as to be ethereal.

0061 Quiet Waters

0061 Quiet Waters

I just love the curve of the ripples in the lagoon. Be sure to click and see the largest version of this one. I’ll probably post larger versions of some snaps from this flight on my Photo Page too.

Rounding the tip of Superior just offshore is a cluster of small islets descending gracefully into the clear water.

0075 Floating Islands

0075 Floating Islands

At last we turned away from the moderate headwinds and sped toward Thunder Bay, where a long row of bluffs reflects the lowering sun.

0082 Approaching T. Bay

0082 Approaching T. Bay

It wasn’t getting dark as this photo seems to show. Thick clouds were blocking most of the sun, and much of the remaining light surrendered to fairly thick smoke from fires further North. T’Bay is off to the right of this photo, in the distance. Thus ends another glorious day on our North by Northwest adventure. We bid you pleasant dreams and happiness in your homes as we wander the continent.

Soo View

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Has Photos,Inner World,NxNW Adventure,People — John @ 02:11

We’ve arrived in Thunder Bay after a tiring day that offered many invitations to frustration. Turns out this is declared to be a “Cultural Capital of Canada.” That got us a bit excited when we read it at the airport in Soo Canada. When I asked the airport line guy upon arrival here, he just stared at me speechless. Finally he stammered, “Well, we have some nightclubs…”

Meanwhile, thought you might like to see the snap I caught of the Locks as we turned East after takeoff from Soo US for a quick tour before turning West again toward the Soo Canada airport.

0038 Sault Ste Marie Locks

0038 Sault Ste Marie Locks

The Canadian side is across the top, the surviving rapids are below the darker green island with a cloud shadow, just right of the bow of the ship in the nearest Lock is the observation area we climbed up in, the white square building in front of the middle of the ship is one of the cool museums we visited. In a while we’ll probably post more words and pix from the day.

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