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Airports covered on this page: SQL, BAM, EKO, RKS, CYS, DGW, RAP, MLE, DBQ, ENW.

I just got my pilot's license in August 97, so what better way to celebrate than to fly from California to Oshkosh 98! My father, Robert , also a pilot, flew with me. He brought his new handheld GPS and we definitely gave it a workout! We planned to leave early morning from SQL but the ceiling was low so we waited. With all weather sources checked, a flight plan filed, we left at 1300 hours. It was still hazy, but was clear once we left the bay area. We saw small rain showers starting in the Sierras, but we were able to find a hole over route 50.

We flew over South Lake Tahoe at about 11,000 feet and over the pass into Nevada. The weather was going through Nevada. We planned to follow Route 80 most of the way. We eventually came to our first fuel stop, Battle Mountain (BAM) . We flew only a couple more hours and spent the first night at Elko, NV. (EKO). A motel shuttle picked us up.

The next day, while talking with the weather briefer, a DC-9 started it's engines just outside the door. I finally had to put the briefer on hold until it left. After we left along the route we saw thunderstorms to the north , so at one point we called for permission to fly through the top part of an MOA. They gave us a squawk code and let us through. We flew just north of Salt Lake City . We stopped for fuel in Rock Springs, WY (RKS). Then headed for Cheyenne . Cheyenne was having a cowboy convention, so the only motel which had a vacancy was downtown. We had a 3rd story room on a street corner, above the town bar, with an industrial train depot nearby. . Needless to say we couldn't sleep until 3am. The next day we slept in, the weather again was low ceiling so we couldn't get out early anyway. Cheyenne airport had really neat aircraft tiedowns which retract like an automobile seatbelt. Sure beats having to deal with chains or ropes.
I wanted to see Devils Tower so we took off and headed due north. Again, we flew over a lot of . We both had a little too much coffee, so we got to test out the "Nearest Airport" button on the GPS. This brought us into DGW for a pit stop. We took off again and finally found the mountain I had built out of mud in the motel room, but the only close encounter we had was with the mountain itself . After a couple of circles we headed east. Since Mt. Rushmore was nearby we decided to see that , then landed at Rapid City (RAP) for fuel. I wanted to see the new SAC (Strategic Air Command) museum, so we headed South East for Omaha. On the way we flew over the "badlands" . Since the SAC museum is between Omaha and Lincoln, we decided to land in Millard (MLE). The weather going toward Millard was .

There were no car rentals here so we took a shuttle to a Holiday Inn in Omaha. Since a cab would be too expensive and too much hassle to go all the way out to the SAC museum, the next day we took a shuttle to Omaha airport, then rented a car. We finally made it to the SAC museum . As you walk in the front door you see an SR-71 . I do not have many pictures here. Many of the airplanes here are HUGE, and being indoors the flash on my digital camera at a distance far enough to get the whole airplane in the lense, just didn't come out too well. But the SAC museum is definitely worth the visit.