Portland, Day 2

We went to South Falls State Park in Oregon and did some hiking through the waterfalls on Sunday.

Flight West Day 2

We had just spent the night in Rawlins, WY. The guy that ran the airport was really nice. He let us sleep on the couch in their airport. He shows us a couple of his 112 RC airplanes, and his 14 year old mostly-deaf dog made sure we didn't try anything. Here are some pics from that morning before we left.

As we started flying west, we started going through some mountains and saw some great views. This is coming over Logan, UT.

We tried to make our first fuel stop in Burley, ID but I forgot to make sure the place was even open on July 4. Turns out, they weren't. But it was a cool airport that had the strip right on the edge of a lake which was fun. So we hopped over to Twin Falls, ID for fuel and lunch. Just so happens this is near where the great Colonel Dr. Blair Thompson is from. 

Second fuel stop was in Canyon City, OR. This airport was right at the base of a mountain on the approach, so we had to drop from 11,000 feet to around 3,000 feet in just a few minutes. Made for a pretty great approach through the mountains. Here are some pics of the approach and airport.

Finally, we got near Portland. We flew right past Mount Hood, and could clearly see Mt Adams, Mt Ranier, and Mt St Helens in Washington. 

Mount Hood

Mount St Helens

Then we flew into Portland, which has some nice mountains right to the west of it on the border between Oregon and Washington.

Flight West Day 1

Jonathan and I left Louisville at around 8am on July 3, and flew to Rawlins, WY. We stopped twice, in Missouri and in Nebraska for fuel and food. Here are some pics from the air from that first day of flying. Not terribly exciting, just trying to get out west. At the end of the day we were at the base of the Rockies.

Trip West and the Maps

As Jonathan and I make a trip out west to Portland, Salt Lake, Denver, and Albuquerque over the next few days, the maps above will let you track us in near-real time.

The first map shows the flight path of the airplane. It will be available as long as Air Traffic Control can see us on radar and we are on a flight plan. That should be true for much of it, but probably not all of it.

The second map will show our GPS position taken at 5 minute intervals, and will map out the entire trip. However, it will only update when we have cell coverage, so there may be times when it is not updating, and then all updates at once.

The third map shows a higher resolution of our position (taken about every second), but only shows the past 20 minutes of the track. It also updates only when in cell coverage, so it will be spotty.