4/20/2008
"Day 4"
Perhaps I should have stayed here: The Dog Bark Park Inn B&B. Idaho's own famous Bed and Breakfast in a 3 Story Beagle.
The opportunities we miss when we're worried about hitchhiking in a foreign state! Next time for sure. As to be expected, I popped out of bed again at 5 am even though my phone (my defacto travel alarm) decided that since it can't receive a signal, that it might as well take a vacation off from telling correct time too. Either way, it didn't take me long to quickly gather my supplies, bundle up, slap some work gloves on that I purchased at the gas station, and begin my 2 mile hike back to the airport. I'm not entirely sure what I planned on doing since, at last look, the Goose wouldn't start, but I went anyway, hoping a “Eureka” moment would hit me at some point. While nothing came to me in terms of solutions, I was able to grab a couple of interesting photos as I walked through town. The first is a clever solution to the popular game of country-road baseball. 
The ingeniously placed vertical grilling grate in front of the mailboxes on the traffic side, prevents a passenger with a bat from hitting a home run. I imagined the semi-transparent characteristic of the grate was a fun way to lure a would-be-batter into the "zone" only to teach them a nice little recoil lesson as the bat collides with raw steel and not an aluminum box. Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but I did like the idea. I may have actually, in the same walk, discovered the would-be-batter. Take a look at what's sitting inside the cup holder of this vehicle... 
Normally I don't peer into a vehicle but this was a tallboy glistening in the sunrise and the glare caught my eye. Hmmm.... Well, I was grateful for the sensory distractions as I'm guessing the temperature was hovering around 10 degrees. The last I had heard, the snow and subzero temps were fixing to hang around the surrounding area for another day or two so by the time I got the airport an hour later, I had decided that if I could get the Goose flying, I'd try to make a quick hop to nearest biggest town I could find and then re-group. As I rolled up the final hill to where the Goose sat tied down snug for the night, I actually was treated by a fly-over by a pack of real geese honking hello. Ever since my mother’s funeral, I look at geese flying above me as my Mom’s way of letting me know she’s still here. 
I definitely saw this as a good sign. When I looked up to see them, the small bit of sun that was breaking through the clouds about blinded me so I reached for the sunglasses that were on top my head; a habit I had acquired after 4 years of wearing safety glasses on While You Were Out, and realized that my glasses had frozen to the moisture still in my hair! Now that was funny Mom! My plan was to psyche the plane out. I'd stroll up to it as if there had never been a problem starting it last night, replace all the screws from the cowling I had left off of it, pre-flight, un-rope her, hop in, and go. The key to my plan was to never show hesitation or doubt that everything wouldn't be as it should. I could display no weakness. As a final thought, I quickly took a snap shot of the squall to my left (my route home) 
and scurried behind the shed to empty my bladder. After all a man cannot display 100% confidence when he's got to pee. So I marched over, greeted the Goose, buttoned up her nose, wrapped up the tie-down ropes and stowed them, threw my trash-bag of essentials in the back, did my pre-flight, turned the key and viola! She went! I could not believe it! I can only surmise that somehow I knocked a loose wire back into place when I checked/touched everything the night before.
I wasn't about to question it now though; I was in operation “get-to-a-big-airport” mode so that I'd have some resources if the problem did come back. I taxied out to the runway, cruised down to the fence end which happened to be right next to a farm house, did an engine run up (sorry farm house residents for the early morning Sunday noise!) and blasted into the sky keeping a keen eye for any other inconvenient obstacles I may have to dodge (like the fence behind me). Once again I found myself doing some circling reconnaissance and determined that my best bet was to head back the way I came about 80 miles to the town of Lewiston, Idaho which has a Class D airport (A Control Tower) and a sizable population. I did a little slalom flying around a few snow squalls and had to take only one true leap of faith around a white out squall hoping that when I came around it, that the airport I was looking for was still visible. Seeing the runway appear as I came whirling around the side of the squall I literally cheered to myself – a luxury afforded to those who travel alone. I called the Lewiston Air Traffic Control who immediately cleared me to land straight in to runway 29. After I landed, I taxied to a tie down area that had a few really stunning crop-dusters sitting there to keep the Goose company. This is a picture of me VERY relieved to be somewhere safe on the ground and close to airplane parts should I need them. I've decide that no matter what, I'm staying put till I know there will be clear skies all the way out of the mountains! I may take advantage of a day off from flying to try and get my oxygen filled again as a backup! It was a good plan anyway…
