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The next morning Juvy was up for the sunrise, getting some great photographs as the day dawned. We walked over to the nearby Fort Buford historic site, which we had been camping next to, to take a look around. Fort Buford State Historic Site is the preserved remnants of a frontier plains military post. The fort was built in 1866 and became a major supply depot for military field operations. Features still existing on the site include a stone powder…

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The following morning we spent a little time in Cody, before moving on. We started off with breakfast at the Hotel Irma, a Buffalo Bill themed establishment in the center of town. The food was tasty in and enormous quantities! The commitment to the theme was impressive, with even the waiting staff being decked out in old time wild west clothing. We feasted on pancakes, bacon, and other American goodies to get our day off to a solid start. Before…

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The night in Spearfish was cold and damp. Thank goodness for good tents and sleeping bags. By the next morning, however, the weather had improved and the sun was starting to show itself. We took off VFR out of Spearfish and headed west across Wyoming. Regrettably, most of the photos from this section have also gone missing, although one does remain; it records the radio navigation beacon that we found on the IFR charts with an interesting name. Our destination…

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It was a peaceful night next to Lake Mitchell. At this time of year in South Dakota nighttime temperatures were nice and cool, ideal for camping. After packing up the site, we drove back out to the Mitchell airport and returned the crew car with a full tank of gas. It really is a great service that so many airports offer, a loaner car to get around after you’ve arrived! Our flight today would take us 200 miles west across…

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We set off on a sunny October day from Zelienople, PA, the base of my old flying club. We were flying ‘573, a four-seat Cessna 172 with an engine that had been upgraded from 160hp to 180hp. It didn’t offer much extra speed, but definitely gave a significant improvement in take-off distance and climb rate. With three of us on board plus camping gear, a little extra power was very welcome. We had a pretty long way to go on…

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