The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Grand Teton's

Tracking John & Elaine on Alaska Trip - should be in Yukon now?
That's a neat tracking thing!

http://tinyurl.com/46cnap.

AR Dave wrote:Tracking John & Elaine on Alaska Trip - should be in Yukon now?

Almost, Dave. I decided to quit a little early yesterday due to tiredness, and we're in Fort Nelson. We'll fly to Whitehorse today, and see if we can get down to Skagway for a ferry trip to Juneau. Your photos are absolutely great!!!!

John

Looks like John just landed at Watson Lake for gas. Watch out fer them big roks just west there John.

flyguy wrote:Looks like John just landed at Watson Lake for gas. Watch out fer them big roks just west there John.

Thanks, Gar! They're really sumthin!

Hey John, I've been tracking and you should have seen things I can only imagine . I see you just landed at Juneau. Hope you have a great weekend. I am leaving in the morning for Branson. Neat tracking you.

John

Left Driggs, Idaho, at 0800 - flew north back into Yellowstone and looked at the Geysers from plane. Headed out over Yellowstone Lake and west out the canyon to Cody, Wyoming. Turned 10 degs SE and headed home. Stopped in Lusk, NE, then Hastings, NE, before reaching home base at 2300. Three, four hour legs - avg about 28 gal on fill ups. What a trip! Kids did get a bit homesick for Alaska.





Scott just called and wants us to meet them at Gastons in the morning.
Ya'll better bring your sun screen to Branson - it's hot!

n3833v wrote:Hey John, I've been tracking and you should have seen things I can only imagine . I see you just landed at Juneau. Hope you have a great weekend. I am leaving in the morning for Branson. Neat tracking you.

Thanks, John! It's neat to know people are appreciating this!

John

Hi John-
Looks like you're making great progress! Juneau is fun for a day.

Since you're that close to Skagway, if y'all can find a room there, they usually have a really good fireworks show at around midnight (it's that late to be dark enough to see them) on the 4th for the residents/tourists/cruise ship passengers.

There is a motel right on the runway where you can watch the air operations from the back yard but you still have to tie down at the transient ramp. Everything in town is within walking distance.

The town is a tourist trap but is nearly all restored back to the old Yukon gold rush days style from around 1900. You can ride the train to the top of the White Pass, the other route to Dawson City and the Yukon gold fields besides Chilkoot Pass. Lots of discarded tools, gear, etc along the upper trail. I would recommend taking the train, it's a wonderful trip about 4 hours long. Mountain scenery from sea level to about 4000'msl with beautiful terrain on top of the pass. Kinda like the Durango and Silverton train AR Dave and kids just rode in Colorado.

AR Dave-
Glad you guys made it home ok.

John, looks like you just flew down the Matanuska (one of the prettiest stretches on earth).
Should've told you to say hi to Jenny or Mark at the Palmer FSS for me.
If you need to eat lunch in Palmer, one of my closest friends has a restaraunt 1/2 mile away (first businesses you get too).
The Colony Inn - tell Pete you know me and he'll definitely take care of you.

Looking forward to your updates!

Dave, you're right about the Matanuska Valley! Here's my 170 in one of my favorite spots: Eureka Lodge, on the Glenn Highway between Glenallen and Tahneta Pass. There's a beautiful glacier valley in the background that really shows well with telephoto (which I don't have!)
Here are some more Matanuska shots. As you can see, we had overcast, rainy weather in that area. I'm going to rent a car today and drive the Kenai peninsula. The weather isn't forecast to change much, and I think a car would be an advantage right now.

My old hunting camp is up that Glacier in the background (Tazlina) just off the Hallet River.
Do you have your Membership Directory 2007? Lot's of members on the penisula and 3 with H (Hospitality) in Soldotna, 1 in Homer. Let me know if you me to look up anything - I'm in my room at the Convention on a lap top. We used to have a female commercial pilot that opporated out of Moose Pass with her stock 170 on floats.

Ina and I really enjoyed meeting John Renwick and Elaine during their stop in the Anchorage area after their flight across Canada from Minneapolis. One of our neighbors here on the strip invited us all over that evening for a fresh king salmon dinner with all the fixins. It was an excellent meal as is the case every year with the first fresh salmon of the season.

My buddy Greg from San Antonio was also visiting and he and I were gone when John and Elaine landed. Greg and I were 160 miles S.W. of Anchorage helping move a small beachfront cabin that was in danger of falling off an eroding bluff. We jacked the cabin up onto logs and skidded it back 140ft to safer ground hopefully extending its life another 10-15 years.

Anyway as usual, everything happened at once on the same day so we were gone when John and Elaine arrived and did not get back home until 9:00pm. The dinner was already in progress and everyone was enjoying themselves when we finally arrived. Luckily in Alaska, it doesn't get dark this time of year so time is essentially irrelevant. We had a few more hours to visit with everyone before the dinner party moved back down to our home to look at pictures of the day's cabin moving activities.

The next morning, John and Elaine arrived from their motel and decided to depart for Anchorage and rent a car to explore the Kenai Peninsula for the next few days. Haven't heard from them since but are sure they are having a great time.

John, what's with you and Elaine wearing all those clothes and Richard in shorts? Where's your MN blood? Should have sent you some of that Branson heat and humidity.

Sounds like you are having a great time.

Got to see AR Dave's pictures of his trip our west during the Branson convention. How wonderful all the places these planes can take us and where we can and SHOULD go!?