Grumpy's Latest Adventures

Got a little time away from work and honey-do's this month for a little fun! Robert wanted to go four-wheeling so I went with him and his friend Will one Saturday morning out southeast of Superior, where we had a great long climb up toward Crater Lakes. The jeep did great, until we started for home. On the way out, Robert was driving and I spotted a little road we hadn't tried before, so I had him take it. It was quite the four-wheel adventure. We eventually reached a point where we had to turn around but I realized I should have stopped him before we got that far, because we couldn't crawl back up. We had to "give it the gas" and ended up bouncing onto a big boulder that bent the tie-rod and prevented us from getting back up the mountain. So we had to leave the jeep in the canyon and walk out. Luckily for us, we came upon friends after a few miles, who gave us a ride back to the truck so we could get home.

I bought a new tie-rod and Robert and Will returned the next Wednesday and repaired and brought home the jeep. It was fun, but we should have avoided that little road!!!

Pop and I went to the Cardinal Flyers Organization's Convention in Wichita, Kansas the week of September 23rd. First though, we flew to St. Louis and spent a day and night with Daniel and Chelsey, before going on to Wichita, where we stayed with Charles and Crystyal at their nice home and ate way too much of Crystyal's great cooking...I actually gained 8 pounds in 6 days!!! It was the 40th Birthday of the Cessna 177 "Cardinal" and Cessna put on quite a show for us. We were given tours of Cessna's three factories, opportunities to talk with Lycoming engine, Garmin GPS and other technical reps, and had two or three banquets. The last banquet featured people who had worked on the Cardinal, including the Project Manager and the Test Pilot (He was 100 years old but you would never know he was a day over 80!), who told some great stories about my favorite small airplane. Over 90 Cardinal planes flew in for the convention and there was quite a variety of paint jobs and modifications among the group. I think Pop had a good time at the convention, but he really enjoyed being able to spend some time back in the old neighborhood. Don't ever let him tell you he had to walk miles to school as a youngster- I saw where he lived, and the school was just across the street! :-) We had a great time.