I believe I can fly

[Major Nikon]

7. I've done that

A couple of years ago I tried to fly my plane to the San Juan islands for a vacation. Unfortunately I couldn't get over the continental divide. I made it as far as Butte, Montana but there was clouds obscuring the mountains. Inside the clouds was severe icing, so I couldn't go through them, and I couldn't go under them because of the mountains. The weather wasn't due to clear for days. So we parked the plane in Butte, and rented a car for the drive to Seattle and beyond. While in Seattle, I bought a ride along on Kenmore Air's float plane as they delivered passengers to the islands. It wasn't that expensive and it was a great experience. I got to talking with the pilot about my bad luck getting over the mountains, so he let me ride up front. Later I bought a ride on an old beautifully restored open cockpit Travelair bi-plane on San Juan island. That was pretty cool.

The really sad part was the last part of my trip took us to Victoria, Canada. I could see Victoria from San Juan island. It would have only taken me 15 minutes or so to fly there. It took us 4 hours to get there by car.