Christmas In California

 This year we had to forgo the annual hut trip for Christmas.  We decided to take a trip to Tahoe area to visit with the family and get some skiing in.  We arrived on the 23rd to a snowstorm, which continued through the 24th.  We had arranged to meet up with Scotty Jones down at Kirwood which was a bit of a trek from Alpine meadows where we were staying.  As you can see the 3 hour drive was a little rough, but the snow was great!

 Some of the upper lifts never opened, but the skiing was plentiful below what was open.  As you can see there was a bit of digging to free the car from the drift.

Another 3 hour trek home after skiing with a quick stop to visit Chad from Coda Boards, followed by a flat tire.  We had it changed in under 7 minutes...

 The skies cleared for a day at Squaw with the family.

 And always take those picture of signs that you can't resist!

 The truck got it self into a little trouble at one point...

 Mark and Andrea were able to come up for a visit, it was loads of fun skiing with Mark and Laura in some epic Pow under the Granite Chief char at Squaw.

 A little fun for the Christmas dinner.

 And more fun after as Andrea is trying to guess that she is a tree.

 Karyn doesn't often get to meet movie stars or Olympians...

 Thanks Joe and Liz, we met up for a beer in Truckee, and they gave us a license plate to represent at Monopalooza this year! 

 A nice visit from Drew and Lawson gave the FB watchers quite a surprise about who's little one that was!

There is an Aircraft Museum in Pueblo

I visited the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum Today.  



The Weather was forecast to be good for flying today so I rented 811MS and flew down to Pueblo.  

Turns out the winds were pretty high and gusty.  Departing KBJC 8kts no gusts.  Arriving in Pueblo 22kts gusting 29kts. It felt like I was almost stopped when the wheels touched down...

This airport was used in WWII as a bomber training facility, B29s among others.  It is difficult to explain the scale of the B-29.  I had to stitch pictures together to capture it in 1 shot.  Much larger than a B-17 or B-24.  A 141 wing span almost double the B-17.

P2V-7

These Jets have had the engines removed.  If you look closely you can see the air inlet at the front of the Jet.  These are a wing with an engine, the cockpit is an after thought...

 Lockheed C131-A -- Not the C-130 by a long shot.  But it looks like the Coast Guard used it for people transport.

 Look closely,  You can see my house!

Returning I left Pueblo in 28kts gusting 36kts.  KBJC had 14kts gusting 22kts.   I still managed some great landings in the piper.

Someone had a nice snack

This Hawk was chowing down at the end of our street.

South Dakota Hunt

 Dad and I went out to South Dakota for a little pheasant hunting.

We flew the Piper Arrow to Aberdeen, and got picked up by John.

 Nearing the end of the first day of hunting in Millette, everyone was checking cell phones!

 Limited out at 3pm.

I rushed off to the airport to shuttle the plane from Aberdeen to Highmore.  Highmore was named for it's high elevation not for it's short runway, but I didn't need much at 1800' elevation.  The airport is used for crop-dusting operations with several big hangers and no FBO.  They did have tie down hooks, but no ropes.

I went banging around on the hangers and met Dillon who said the airport doesn't provide those, but he offered some ratchet straps from his pickup, I said I'll drop them here by the door on Saturday when I leave.

 While I was in Highmore I went to the nearest restaurant.  Maybe the only one in town 790 population.  The rest of the hunters finished packing up their stuff, (minus the ham) and had the birds from the day cleaned and ate dinner before heading the 75 miles down to pick me up.  I hadn't intended on sitting by the clock, but I was watching it...  "Time to spare go by air" -- Bill Brown

 After ~3 hours they picked me up, and off to the new hunting ground.

 The wind picked up for the next couple days, 20-30 sustained and gusts to 60 in the forecast which I believe since we did have trouble standing at times.  I'm glad I had the plane tied down with ratchet straps, we checked on it after the first day and the plane had moved enough to loosen one strap.

 They have very pretty sun rises and sunsets.  Click for the full size image.

 Plenty of dogs to help us out, and one cat that helped with the bird cleaning after the hunts.

There was a lot of big ground to hunt, probably too big for our group of 10.  We didn't limit at the new place, but there were a lot more birds in this area.

Sunday, Funday, Ski day - WHAT? **or 'the things we see on a ski day'

So, yesterday was Halloween and Handsome wanted to be a cat wearing a pink fleece cat onzie.   As with any good (cat) mom, I obliged his request.

Today was a different story - A Basin and Loveland FINALLY opened this week so we headed up for a few runs this morning.

 We planned to see Alex but ran into Paul as well!

On the way home we saw some interesting sights.......

As we drove over Loveland Pass we saw the following.....  We were apparently 1 of the last 2 cars allowed over before it was shut down completely due to this lovely semi full of honeybees that rolled over in front of us.   The police hadn't arrived yet but a tow truck a CDOT truck and an ambulance close behind.....  we saw the police en route later.

 Read all about it on 9news.

A little further down the road I spot something that looks odd in the back of a pickup.....   A closer look as we drive by reveals a dead body and nothing more.  whew.

Then a walk up for some sushi for lunch - we've had our eye on this all you can eat sushi place (on Sundays).  Of course, for the amount we eat it was a draw on whether or not there was any savings with the all-you-can-eat route so we just ordered off the menu normally.  It was delicious.

On the way up there we saw this laying on the ground.....   The SUPER-DUPER FUN PAGE.... with a corndog....?