Sheridan, Wyoming

Headstones marking location of the fallen

ID Memorial Stones at the site of the Little Big Horn.

Today we left early and toured famous Indian Battle sites.  The most impressive was the site of the battle of The Little Big Horn.  It was pretty windy and has been raining here most of the day.

Coolie and Clyde

          

Walking out the trail at the Little Big Horn, Wyoming.

Larry's back yard!  Where is the baseball bat!

Sheridan, Wyoming

Route: SHR ~ SHR 40 nautical miles around Sheridan, Wy

Almost caught the Bee coming in for a landing

 Larry Durante and his wife Mary hosted the three of us old Marines for the weekend, great hospitality, and the food was even better!  The Cinnamon Hootch was especially good!  We had a good time!

Front Gate

Good thing I was born when I was, too tall for this wall!

Durante, Kitz, Coolie - Still the same guys, just a little bigger, older with beards!

Outside the front wall looking West.

Coolie checking out the Fine Print!

Great day walking around Fort Phil Kearney, and the Rosebud Battlefield Site.  Our Docent for the Day Larry Durante is a font of Historical information about the various battles that took place in the late 1860's and 70's.  We later went down to Buffalo to visit the historic 132 year old "Occidental Bar", infamous for its good beer and ladies of the evening!  They still have beer, the ladies seemed to be long gone?  The web site below has a lot of history, however I missed the bullet holes!

http://occidentalwyoming.com/

S/Sgt. Durante, Sgt. Oswald, Sgt. Kitzman, Cpl. Roberts USMC at Occidental Bar Buffalo, Wyoming.

Getting ready for the downwind with Coolie in back!

Had a great time with Marine buddies from Okinawa, and Vietnam that I hadn't seen in 41 years! Took Larry's wife up for a photo flight and we flew around the homestead to take pictures, then took Oswald up for a ride. His Dad had flown F4U Corsairs, F4F Wildcats, SB2C's, TBM's, F6F's for the Navy in WW2 & Korea!  Visited historical Fort Kearny, then on to the town of Buffalo for drinks at the Occidental Bar; rounding up the day that evening with a slide show of pictures from forty-one years ago. Visited the Little Big Horn the Next day - quite an experience to see the sight of such a famous battle that I had long heard so much about.  A windy night, and some kinda stuff in a Everclear bottle, not sure if it was paint thinner or gasoline, but it tasted kinda like Cinnamon.

At the site of the Little Big Horn Memorial early the next day.

Elko, Nevada ~ Sheridan, Wyoming

Route: EKO ~ EVW ~ RWL ~ SHR  573 nautical miles

My room for the Night at Elko, Nevada!

Crossing the Great Salt Lake in Utah, heading for the Notch at 11,500'!

Today has been one long day! After spending the night in my Walmart $15.00 sleeping bag, and my deluxe accomidation of a 15 passenger ford van, I left Elko around 7am, I even filed a flight plan, but this time I gave excess hours so as to stay out of trouble! Headed to Wendover and finally got ahold of Approach Radio that handles the info on which of MOA's are hot, they told me none, but would I like flight following - Sure I would!  Now I don't have to try to call Salt Lake Approach to request a route through their Airspace!  I had climbed to 11,500' before I got to Wendover, so I just stayed there until they dropped me just before Evanston, Wy.  Fueled at Evanston, then canceled the last plan and opened a new one from Evanston - Rawlings - Sheridan, which at Rawlings I added a couple of hours to just to make sure I had enough time!   Landing at Rawlings is always intimidating; today it was 14 with peak gust of 23 when I landed, or rather plopped in! Fueled up, hit the head and then back in the air after a half hour of rest. From just before Rawlings to just past Casper I was really hammered; afternoon flying in Wyoming sucks!  It is mostly desert and the heat thermals in the afternoon really slam you around, the closer I got to Sheridan, the greener it got, and the air was calmer.   Sheridan Wyoming airport is one of the nicest that I have ever landed at. Yesterday I flew 2:15, 2:14, 1:14; and today it was 2:16, 1:59, 2:12.  A very generous tailwind both days!  Someplace today I went over 500 hr's total! Time for bed, I have been up since 4:30am.

Evanston Wyoming

Don't know where, just don't let me land here!

Left DOWNWIND for Rawlings, Wyoming.  Should have been "Left DOWN-WINDY!".

Fueling up at Rawlins, Wyoming

More I candy scenery on way to Sheridan, Wyoming.

Lots of clouds, and bumps!

Left downwind at Sheridan, Wy - for, which runway was it?  Oh well the one into the wind of the moment!  Actually on further investigation and reflection it was Runway 5 which starts in the top middle and proceeds to the far right of the picture!

Exeter, California ~ Elko, Nevada

Route: O63 ~ AUN ~ WMC ~ EKO   468 nautical miles

Clovis is closest, Fresno further west

Reedley Airport

Climbing to altitude of 6500' out of Exeter I flew up the edge of the foothills over several airports, skirting the Class "C" Airspace at Fresno going right by Reedley Airport and then Mariposa Airport.  Fairly calm at day break for this part of the journey!

Columbia, California Airport (O22)

Flying North to Auburn I passed over several airports that I had landed at in previous years, however Columbia Airport is still on my to-do list!

On the way to Auburn California, first fuel stop of the trip. 

On Base to Final at KAUN.

Well I took off later than I intended, which later caused problems with flight watch and my flight plan. I can see why some don't even bother!  Landed at Auburn bought fuel, very calm at 6500'. I left Auburn for Winnemucca with a waypoint of Reno-Stead; at 11,500' it started to get cold but fortunately the heater worked! 

Fueled up and ready to head out at Auburn, California.

Crossing the Sierra's at 11,500'.

Fairly calm til just before KWMC, when it got bumpy. Landed there and rested, bought a new T-shirt took off for the fifty-eight minute flight to Elko and got beat to death with thermals off the desert and poor performance of high altitude and air density. Landed at Elko and discovered my math error on flight time had caused flight service to activate a search? Couldn't get ahold of them, but the girls at the FBO said that they closed the flight plan. Who would of thought that there would be a convention in Elko mid-week! So no room at the Inn, so I rented a van and will make the best of it.

Wing shot with I-Phone

On the ramp at Winnemucca

One big open pit mine!

Elko Nevada, with my room for the night!