Aspiration: Dubuque. Destination: Fort Dodge, IA....

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Fri 30 May: Spearfish SD - Luverne MN - Fort Dodge IA

We awoke to the fresh rain-washed smell of a South Dakota spring morning under nearly clear skies, with the last of the mountains we'd need to cross in stark relief on the horizon. Judy made an early morning run back to the Wal-Mart to replace her camera, which had gotten dropped in Walla Walla and had finally given up the ghost Thursday night (mercifully lasting just long enough to let her capture the Devil's Tower images!). The guys wolfed down a pretty good Holiday Inn breakfast while Judy scrawled postcards and we all finally sent our thank-you note to the nice people at the Comfort Inn who put up with us in Walla Walla. Ruth, who had stayed with Cousin Becky (the prospect of a real bed, the company of family, and some peace and quiet being just too wonderful to pass up) brought us a morning treat: a bunch of Becky's home-made freshly-cooked venison sausage, lean and perfectly seasoned! By about 8:30 we had loaded ourselves in the shuttle to get ferried across the shortcut to the airport.

The FBO was ready for us, and had pulled the planes out of the hangar and tied them down all ready for us. What great service! Another great recommendation we need to add to the AOPA and Air Nav sites. As we were pre-flighting, we ran into the local Civil Air Patrol commander who was headed out on a flight, "...to shoot turkeys..." -- in fact, doing a natural resources wildlife survey. Bob brought greetings from the Congressional Flying Club and, with a grin, handed him a CFC Dragon patch, saying, "Tell the kids to figure out where the patch is from!"

We had high hopes but realistic alternatives and were prepared to change plans depending on what the weather dished up. Best case, we hoped to get to Dubuque, Iowa. We were all happy to set Luverne MN as our fuel stop, and then see what had changed in the forecast by that time. Once again, IFR conditions near there were forecast to be lifting by the time we arrived.

When Judy called flight service, the briefer informed her that our group had caught the attention of the western region FSS briefers, who had also started a pool betting on when we were going to get home. Fame at last!

Airborne, we headed for yet another special highlight of the eastbound trip -- in fact, for Bill Hughes, TWO highlights. Before heading to the better-known attraction, Bill and Judy flew 624 over Sturgis, South Dakota, the city that hosts an annual Harley-Davidson gathering so that Bill, a motorcycle enthusiast in his non-flying life, could see this special place from the air and take some pictures.

That left 624 third in line for the flight past Mount Rushmore. We needed to be at least 7500 feet to be above terrain, and at least a half mile away...which turned out to make photography challenging. It was still spectacular to see the carvings emerge from the landscape. Ruth said she and Dick had a bit of a hard time finding it initially, and got a good view of the Crazy Horse monument first before spotting the more famous landmark. The Cardinal made their pass at 8,500 feet; Bob and Janice in BA went next at 7700 feet and Judy and Bill followed them at 8000 feet

From there, we made nearly a straight line east with -- can you imagine? -- ACTUAL TAILWINDS!!! (Where have THEY been all this month?) We kept a constant eye on the weather, with Dick in the Cardinal relaying information about the conditions he was seeing in the lead of our flight of three, Bill and Judy keeping watch on the storm scope, and Bob and Janice thanking Judy and Bill for stirring up enough wake to create extra turbulence to bounce the 172 around. Our route on this flight leg kept us consistently clear of an area of scattered small cumulus appearing just at the freezing level, around 8000 - 9000 feet, and thickened off our left side, to the north...which was where the nasty weather was supposed to be eventually coming from. Judy and Bill stayed high for as long as possible on this leg, while Dick and Ruth dropped down below the layer early, and Bob and Janice were above the layer for a while and then dropped down. We crossed the Missouri River and were into serious flatland as we checked the conditions for our fuel stop -- winds out of the west, at 10 gusting 17. A challenge, and three safe landings. A bit of a competition had opened up: who can close their flight plans fastest on arrival? We had taken to backing each other up just in case, and by this point TWO flight briefers were trying to close the same flight plan. We have never heard of FSS complaining about TOO MANY attempts to close a flight plan, only too few.

Luverne MN was one of the most hospitable, yet totally unattended, FBO's we've probably ever seen anywhere. Brand spanking new automated fuelling system, great fuel prices, nicely landscaped grounds. And Dick showed that he can light up a room -- literally! When he walked into the place, the lights kept coming on. There was a sophisticated weather display of the automated weather reporting system, another computer for our use, a phone for flight service, comfortable pilot's lounge. The key for the courtesy car -- provided by the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank -- was just hanging on the wall next to a box soliciting donations to cover its use.

Fitting four people into the back seat was harder than making the crosswind landing, though! We wedged ourselves literally sideways to cram into the standard backseat of a retired police special Crown Victoria. This later turned out to be a more useful experience than we might have imagined.

Both the fellow from the airport authority who happened to drive past, and a nice lady who had stopped by to perform a building inspection recommended the nearby Chit Chat's restaurant. Close, cheap and cheerful, it fit the bill. The blueberry pie, which the building inspector lady had said we should keep in mind, turned out not to be locally fresh made...but Ruth enjoyed it anyway. And we knew we were in the right place when we saw the menu had CARDINAL BURGERS! So Bob just had to have one.

The statuary and stonework place next door to the restaurant sold the largest range of concrete and carved lawn ornaments we had ever seen, ranging from Gandalf in full color to buffaloes both white and black...and even a dragon, but we were way out of room to take a another dragon home.

Another sign of "closer to home" -- we picked up another time zone, and moved our watches ahead to Central Time. It's been so busy a day that Ruth was agog at how we managed to take THREE HOURS for a lunch stop until she remembered the time change!

Very nasty weather was developing north of our planned route, and even after we had checked the weather and filed our flight plans for Mason City Iowa, we took one last look at the weather and changed our routing to a more southerly endpoint, Fort Dodge, Iowa, to stay WELL clear or developing convective activity. Good thing we'd paid the big bucks for those special erasable highlighters! We re-filed the flight plans, rubbed and scrubbed the old pink and yellow lines off our charts and put down new ones, and hustled our butts off the runway.

As Bob has been heard to say, "I love it when a plan comes together," and this was a good one. There were a few scattered clouds and some haze, and some gusts were kicking up -- about 12 gusting 19 -- by the time we landed in Fort Dodge a little over an hour later. Golden late-afternoon sun lit the brand-spanking-new FBO and was matched with a warm welcome by yet another hospitable team who were eager to help us tie down and get out to our accommodation not least because it was Friday night and they wanted to enjoy their evening, too. After we landed, we looked at the radar picture to see where all the violent east-moving weather was headed, and were very pleased by our progress and our choices today.

Another Comfort Inn was our destination -- ferried in yet another courtesy car driven once again by Bill. By now, we were EXPERTS at the Human Dagwood Sandwich Maneuver, and squashed into the back seat in no time, being sure to lock the back seat doors for extra security against them popping open as we drove!

When we got to the Comfort Inn, we had a great chat with Jim the Desk Manager -- he was quite the character, and had lots of stories to tell and a dry wit to deliver them. Bob was making his safe-arrival call, and wearily asked Judy what state they were in. (We have long since dispensed with the joke, "State of Confusion", so don't even go there).

Judy quoted from the movie, Field of Dreams,

" ' Is this heaven?'
'No, it's Iowa,' "

and Jim the Desk Manager intoned, "No, it's Fort Dodge."

Recommendations from FBO staff directed us to the Mineral City Bar and Grill, and this was one of the best dinners we've had, certainly the best of the eastbound ones. (The "mineral", by the way, apparently refers to the gypsum mining that goes on in this part of Iowa). Our waitress was SO accommodating, and not only split the checks, but divided the tab for individual desserts among the people who split them! In case you ever go to Iowa, this is a five-restaurant local chain, and WELL worth looking up if you're in the Fort Dodge area.

Was it as far as we'd hoped to get? No, but it WAS one of the longest flying days making more distance than most recently, so the day ended with a great deal of satisfaction all around.

The day's Box Scores: 550 miles, one new time zone, two flight legs, three new states...and 794 miles to go. Dick now keeps GAI dialed into the GPS so he knows EXACTLY how far from home he is every minute.

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Photos

Mount Rushmore
As good as it gets, anyway.

Ruth Phoning For Rooms...Again...
(in one of the few cities where she DIDN'T have a cousin...)