To Idaho and Back...Again!

My mission to pick up the new bird started on Friday.  I had not really planned on making this trip so soon, but an enclosed trailer popped up for rent on Craigslist.  I called the owner Donnie and made an appointment to look at it.  The trailer was great, the only problem was that it would not be available the next couple of weekends.  It was however available this weekend.  After calling my Dad to see if I could borrow him and his truck to drag the trailer, I made a quick decision to rent it and make an immediate run to Idaho.

My Dad came down to my house Friday night and we made a plan to get an early start Saturday.  We awoke at the crack of dawn, actually 3-4 hours before the crack of dawn, at 3 am.  After a quick shower we drove to Donnie's house in Eugene to pick up the trailer.  By 4:30 am we were officially on the road.  We basically drove straight through only making short stops for fuel.  Eight hours later,  or about 1:15 pm Idaho time, we arrived at Caldwell Airport, Idaho.  The seller Kim let us in through the locked gate and we arrived at the hangar.

After a quick inspection we started to load the plane.  The wings were already off, the only question was the tail going to have to come off?  The width of the horizontal stabilizer was 7' 6", and the width of the trailer was......7' 6".  Yikes!  Was this going to work or not?  After several different attempts at getting the tail to pass the opening, we realized that we were going to have to break it down.  After assessing the situation, we started the task of removing the necessary bolts, actuating cables, strobe wires etc.  We ended up not only taking the tail off, but removing the vertical stabilizer as well.  With that done all that was left was to load the wings and fuselage and nail it all down.

By 5 pm we were back on the road.  We had initially planned on staying the night in the Caldwell area, but since there was plenty of daylight left we decided to head back towards Oregon.  We drove about 3 hours west until we reached Burns.  We found an inexpensive motel, parked the trailer and had a meal at the nearby Apple Peddler Restaurant.  By about 9:30 we were in the rack and sawing logs.

I had set the alarm for 6 am as I did not want to end up oversleeping.  Guess what?  Promptly at 3 am I awoke completely rested and ready to go.  I guessed that this was going to be my new waking time for a few days.  By 3:30 am we were back on the road again heading home.  After a couple of hours of driving we arrived in Bend, had breakfast at the local McDonald's and moved on.

After leaving Bend we noticed something different with the road.  So far, with the exception of some cold wind, the weather had been completely clear on our trip.  Now we realized that there was now snow on the road.  Not only snow, but a significant amount of snow.  As we headed up hill it only got worse, with heavier and heavier conditions.  After putting the truck into 4 wheel drive we continued on.  Going uphill was a matter of just trying to keep forward momentum.  Downhill was another matter.  We had to be extremely careful as we were dragging a 20' trailer, and the slightest mistake could see our little plane flying past our truck down the road.

Fortunately, we survived the blizzard and after getting out of the pass the sun broke, making the rest of the trip a cool breeze.  We arrived at Creswell airport about 10 am, unloaded the plane, returned the trailer and arrived home about 1 pm.  Must be some sort of record set here.

"I will never, ever, ever make another trip to retrieve an airplane!" (until the next one)