The Big Trip

This past week was a memorable one for a couple of reasons. First Jonah arrived (see last week's blog entry) and Grover went on a long flight to Provo, Utah by himself in his airplane. Goni stayed home but did not enjoy it much as she caught a bad cold.

Grover left on Thursday morning from the Troutdale Airport with plans to reach Provo by that afternoon. The plan was to fly to Caldwell, Idaho and then on to Provo following Interstate 84. Everything was going along well with a nice tailwind until just outside Burley, Idaho the clouds came in and blocked the visibility in the mountain pass into the Salt Lake valley.

Grover landed at Burley and found a man at the airport to give him a ride into town. He took Grover to a motel that he said was one he thought had good rooms and was reasonably priced within walking distance of the airport. Well the motel was not very nice as people had obviously smoked there before and Grover was worried about cockroaches and bed bugs. The next morning breakfast at the local greasy spoon at 6:00 AM gave a great example of life in our USA. Old men gathered for their morning coffee and workers arrived for breakfast. Food was good and the walk to the airport showed clear sky in all directions.



Once in the air again Grover easily made the two hour flight to Provo over the mountains and through the Salt Lake valley. Biggest challenge was dealing with travel through the big class B airspace around Salt Lake City. Grover was expecting the worst but it turned out OK. Air traffic controllers were good to deal with and weather good.



Upon arrival at Provo, Gary & Kirsten picked Grover up at the airport. After lunch at a Chicago Style hot dog stand Kirsten, Grover & Dayton went up to Salt Lake City to tour the big Masonic Temple and to see the sights around the LDS Church Temple Square. The Masonic Temple was a great experience and our tour guide, Rick, did a nice job of telling us all about the building. Dad would have really enjoyed this tour.



Once done at the Masonic Temple we drove over the Temple Square for a look see. The gardeners were working on the flower beds and there were brides waiting to get married everywhere. We even went into the building where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings. After Salt Lake City we went back to Provo and had dinner with Michelle & Derrick's house.



Saturday morning we planned a hike to the top of "Y" mountain which is located a couple of blocks from Kirsten's house. We climbed up to the "Y" and then kept going all the way to the top of the mountain. We got so high that we even had to traverse snow that was several inches deep. The climb was good and everyone including the dogs made it to the top. View from the top is good but it was not a real clear day. Still we got several pictures and afterwards we went out to a nice steak dinner at Goodwood's Restuarant.



The next morning the weather was clear for the flight home to Troutdale. No problems getting through the mountain passes and a stop in Caldwell for fuel was uneventful. Got up to LaGrande, OR and ran into some clouds but they were low enough to fly over the top of to the Columbia River Gorge where things cleared up. Landed at Troutdale at 3:30 PM with clear sky and warm weather. It was great to be home (no bugs from the motel made the trip)!