Northbound Trip 2012 Part Two

 KPRB (Paso Robles, CA) to KOLM (Olympia, WA)

Day Three, Fly to Olympia

We launched hoping to get to Olympia but thinking it was probably too far for one day.  We landed at Red Bluff, Ca where they had the coolest upstairs airport view restaurant, then Roseburg, OR for gas and to check the weather. Roseburg's a real nice little town, the airport has a nice friendly FBO and we thought about staying, but a check of the weather led us to believe (correctly it turned out) that the weather was going to close in for a couple days so we pushed on.

We made it to Olympia, but apparently didn't take too many photos :-)

The FBO was great there (Glacier Aviation), but they didn't have tail tiedowns so Jake and I dragged the plane up on the grass and staked it down with our FlyTies, which are expensive, but we've used them a lot and they work great.  All we've tried them on is turf - I doubt they'd be too good in sand or beach gravel.  The FBO had really cheap rental cars too - only $25/day.

The tower controllers were very nice too.  They called me a couple miles out, said the wind had changed and did I just want to come straight in?  Heck yeah and thanks!

We toured the Evergreen State College campus the first day, then visited some friends where we dried out and Jake got a grudging cat fix from George the female feline.

Olympia was fun.  It drizzled a lot, but is very pretty.  I loved this bicycle growler carrier.

We stayed at the Governor Hotel, downtown with a view of the lake and Capitol and free parking.  It was just fine - easy to walk downtown and to the grocery store.

Jake liked the architecture...

And found some Art Deco details too :-)

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Northbound Trip 2012 Part One

P08 (Coolidge, AZ) to PAAQ (Palmer, AK) 2012
We had a great time. 8 days and 26.5 hours in the air.

Here's our actual route, not too different from what we had "planned"  :-)

Right before we left, we noticed this RV that had a rough day - groundlooped.  Didn't get the wingtip or prop (surprise) but really tweaked the fuselage :-(

Day One. Fly to Paso Robles
Click here for Video to Blythe

Ready to Go






We flew to Blythe, CA and got gas. Uneventful other than I called the wrong airport in the pattern a couple times and got chastised by the FBO operator.  Jake got it on film so that's punishment enough.

Blythe



Then we went on to Paso Robles.  It was a little over three hours and I was ready for it to be over, but we wanted to get there. We had decided to land at Paso because of the coastal fog we encountered last time, and sure enough we would have been delayed on departure for hours if we'd stayed in Santa Maria or San Luis Obispo. It turned out to be a good choice.  Actual tie-downs, nice FBO people, not too expensive of a car - now our current preferred Central Coast base of Ops.  :-)


San Luis morning fog


I let a Glasair rattle me a bit on final into Paso - he had called descending to the pattern from a few miles out and 5000 feet.  I told Jake "This Bozo is going to come screaming down on top of us because no one with a Glasair seems to be able to slow down.", and offered to stay clear until he landed (knowing he was faster), but he said he was going to stay out of the way until I landed.  As I turned a tight base, he reported on base and I snapped at him "Hey I'm on base do you see me?" and he said he was a mile behind me.  A One Mile Base...  Hmmm. About 30 seconds later I'm about to flare and he goes around.  So either he was a lot closer than a mile or he was going over 120 MPH. Whatever.

We drove down to Los Alamos to visit the parents of friends I've known since college.  We wanted to visit the Mom since her health has been questionable, but she was asleep so the Dad and Jake entertained each other.  They're both a couple characters so it worked out.  I really like the Carrari's - they were both really good to me when I was in school and he is is a very hard working, self made and entertaining guy.

Day Two, Central Coast Visiting

We went up north of San Miguel to visit our Uncle Burt and Cousin Lousanna.  It was quick trip - they had to leave and we had dawdled in SLO a bit leaving.
 

We visited another of the Carrari's on our way back to Paso Robles, my friend Tina's big brother George.  Another very nice and very hard working Carrari.  He's visited us in Alaska but I hadn't seen him in almost 20 years.



We had dinner with our old friends the Orcutt-Clenards but apparently they don't warrant a photo anymore.  Old news, lol.

Breakfast in SLO on our way out of town.

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