Louisville, Kentucky

Belle' of Lousiville

Quite a day today!  Went down to the river for a boat Cruise, had some wine!  Went to the Hard Rock Cafe for the obligutory hat and T-Shirt with Jimi Hendrix for Katie; then back to Mike & Jean's house and hit by a downpour!

When it rains in Kentucky it really rains, the road became a river!  Katie said "I'm rolling down the window so I can smell the clean air!"  The last picture shows the result!

Louisville, Kentucky Rainstorm!

Good thing Katie was sitting there, or the back seat would have been  SOAKED!

Louisville, Kentucky

Mike, Jean and I Met Katie at the Airport in Louisville, Kentucky and had a great dinner at Kaelin's "Birth place of the Cheeseburger 1934".  Had a beer and of course a Cheeseburger!  Saw some of the countryside around the town before Katie flew in.  Almost every house in Louisville is made of bricks, try to find one that is not!  Mike and Jean were great hosts the whole time we were in Louisville and showed us around!

Water Tower Louisville, Kentucky

Topeka, Kansas ~ Louisville, Kentucky

Route: FOE ~ UBX ~ MVN ~ KLOU  479 nautical miles

Early Morning at KFOE getting ready to leave I am the only one parked!

Left KFOE for Cuba Municpal Airport, Cuba, Missouri.  My plane was the only one parked on a zillion acres of asphalt!  Million Air was super in arranging the room for the night and providing a car to get there!

Cuba is a nice little airport, everything unlocked so you could use the bathroom!   Fueled up and left for Mt Vernon Airport in Illinois.  

Cuba (KUBX) Missouri Airport on final.

 It was Quite windy at Mt. Vernon and used the cross-wind strip for a bouncy landing and fueled up for the flight to Louisville, Kentucky.  Had lunch at Mt. Vernon at Wilkey's Airport Cafe; great food and then I was on my way again.

Mt. Vernon (KMVN) Left downwind for cross-wind runway.

Fuel at Mt. Vernon (KMVN)

Well I finally made it to Louisville, Kentucky!   Left my communication devices in the plane and have just now retrieved them - now to charge them up; should be able to edit and add the last few days tonight and hopefully get the pictures in too!

Coming across river for Bowman Field (KLOU).

Approaching Bowman Field (KLOU) for landing on Runway One-Six.


I was met at the Louiville (KLOU) Airport by Mike & Jean Barney - longtime friends from California who now live in Kentucky to be near  Family.

Hot Springs, South Dakota ~ Topeka, Kansas

Route:  HSR ~ LBF ~ 7V7 ~ 12K ~ KLOU  448 nautical miles

EB-57 on display at National Guard Museum, Topeka Kansas.

Keith took me to the Hot Springs Airport Early on his way to work and I unleashed the plane and headed South-East to North Platte Regional Airport in Nebraska.  Fueled up and flew to Red Cloud Muni (7V7) which was locked up, so no fuel there - flew on to Superior Muni (12K) landing on the turf cross wind strip 18 as the wind was gusting to 25+,  one gust had me flying again!  Fueled up again and then on to Topeka Kansas at Forbes Field (KFOE).  A former Military Airfield of Immense Dimensions!  The Kansas National Guard has a museum there as well as the other one, which I did not get to see as it was closed for the day.  Didn't take too many pictures on the way down, battery had died early on.

Spent the night in Topeka Kansas (KFOE), Million Air Topeka was Fantastic!  They fueled me up, arranged a motel very close by, (At a reduced corporate rate!) and gave me a chit that got me a BarBQue Beef sandwich, chips and drink for $1.00).  They were Super!  The Military Museum there must of had a slow day they were closed and locked up, or maybe my clock was off; so I went to the outdoor Kansas National Guard Museum which is much better!

M42 Duster 40mm

M7 Priest 105mm Self-Propelled Howitzer

CH-54 Skycrane with rare attachable pod!

M109A-5 155mm Howitzer,  it sure was Big!  Had plow blades off the rear end to dig in so it would not travel backward when fired!

While I was eating some Marine Officers left and climbed into their Jet and flew off for Camp Pendleton!

USMC jet at KFOE flying back to San Diego, a really cool plane finished off in a old-time military paint scheme!

Hot Springs, South Dakota

Keith & Carolee's House in Hot Springs, South Dakota

Visited with Keith & Carolee then went to the Mammoth Museum and saw forty some odd male Mammoth carcus's pilled on top of each other. Had a fantastic steak dinner thanks to Keith! Today we went to Mount Rushmore National Monument. Took pictures of Bison, Antelope, and had buffalo chili!

Mt Rushmore National Park

Sheridan, Wyoming ~ Hot Springs, South Dakota

Route: SHR ~ HSR  181 nautical miles

The town of Gillette, Wy on the way to Hot Springs, South Dakota - Civilization!  I had to Google the route and look for towns that looked like this so I would know just what town it was!  Fortunately, not many places on my route of flight!

Not sure where this was, but it was out by itself!  (Actually this is Mondell Field Airport (ECS) near Newcastle, Wy.)

Hot Springs, South Dakota; airport is directly ahead on other side of far ridge!

Fortunately the flight to Hot Springs was not long, however there was a lot of "Not There" inbetween Sheridan, Wyoming and Hot Springs, South Dakota!  Plenty of room for people, or cows!

Hot Springs, SD airport; I had to land on the Turf Crosswind strip as the wind was 14~23.

Fire Captain Keith Doughty
 at Hot Springs Airport.

Checking on the WX it has not looked good in the predictions, but this morning, although very windy in Sheridan there was blue sky with clouds, but no lightning! Checked and the wind with gust was pretty much down the runway so off I go - KSHR-KGCC-KECS-KHSR. As I was walking out to the plane a young Aviation Enthusiast stop me to ask which plane was mine I told him the green-white one and he wanted to know what kind etc - so I told him to google the N number and he could find out all about it! And he did!! My friends said he came out just as I left and had read up on the trip. That is really Great! Sheridan Wyoming is one of prettiest Airports and place that I have been too, the people are just great! Well anyway now I am at the "Budget Host" motel in Hot Springs, SD and this place lives up to it's four stars! I could recommend it to anyone highly! The owner is quite proud, two of his daughters are going to the U.S. Air Force Academy! The wind was 14 with peak gusts of 23 when I came in on runway 24 which just happens to be the grass runway! My last grass landing was in 2005 as a student with my instructor on board! Quite challenging! Nothing broken, bent, or ruined - but it did take me a half hour to lash the plane down! Meet up with Doughty, another USMC buddy I haven't seen in over 40 years. Time to re-cooperate, and charge all the toys batteries.

Lashed down at Hot Springs, SD Airport.  I had to tie one wing down while it was pointed into the wind, then swing it around into the parking space to tie down the other wing.  (Used climbing ropes & carabiner's stressed to 3,000lbs+)

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.