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Lewis and Clark Route by Parachute

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

After taking months to decide whether to tackle the Lewis and Clark return route from the Pacific by a powered parachute, I finally settled on June 15th as the date for departure.  The time was moved back to the 21st and now with the advent of good weather, Leonard Greenwalt and I will load the PPC in the back of my old Dodge Dakota with 136,000 miles and head for Astoria, Oregon on the morning of Thursday the 17th for takeoff on the morning of the 18th.

These last two days will consist of finishing small adjustments om the chute, packing clothes, two cycle oil, extra fuel containers, anticipated tools, sufficient maps, camera, battery chargers and other miscellaneous items.  One important thing is the snowmobile suit to bundle up in for the early morning flying and the high altitude temperatures in Idaho and Montana.

Through the courtesy of Judith Tramayne-Barth of Soap Lake, my website (agbob.com ) will be updated as to where we are every day or two after departure with some events of that days progress if a site is available to send information.

We are anticipating a minimum of two weeks in transit with a three or four day drive back.  We can be contacted by C-phone 509-398-0775, or greenwalt@nwi.net

Our goal will be Leavenworth, Kansas or Lexington, Missouri.

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 — 9 P.M.

I think we are ready to drive to Astoria in the morning.  It has been a long day starting about 4 A.M.  After a test flight yesterday we found oil leakage from the exhust manifold.  This morning I drove 240 miles round trip to pick up new gaskets from Steve Camp.  Justin Camp from Ephrata put them on later in the day.

Pete Romano from Quincy helped with my laptop computer this P.M., trying to teach me how to get on line when we get away from the home area.  Starting tomorrow evening we'll see how good of an instructor he is, if Judith doesn't hear from me, I get a failing grade.

Bob

Thursday, June 17, 2004

Email from Bob's wife, Agnes:

Bob called and wanted this sent to you because he was unable to send from the motel in Astoria, Ore.  He and Leonard Greenwalt, his chase driver left this morning with the machine loaded in the pickup to go to the beginning of flight in Astoria.

They stopped at a small town off highway 12 near Mossy Rock at a cafe.  The waitress noticed smoke coming from under the hood of the pickup and provided a fire extinguisher.  The cause was probably sparkplug wire against the hot manifold.  When the fire was out, the truck was towed to a nearby shop and fixed within three hours.

They are now in Astoria and planning an early start east tomorrow morning.  Bob will send you something to post as soon as he can.

And now the rest of the story from Bob:

June 17, 2004

The adventure has begun and we haven't even got off the ground yet.  It was a beautiful day for a drive across the Cascade Mountains and White Pass in particular.

We left Quincy this A.M. before 8 A.M. and doing great.  We thought we could reach Astoria before 3 P.M. and take off and get to Hood River, Oregon by evening.

At Silver Creek, just east of I-5, we decided to stop for lunch at the Mayfield restaurant.  We were at a table looking over the menu when our waitress, Rita, asked if our pickup was overheated.  Looking out the window we could see smoke curling out from unred the hood.   By the time I was able to get the hot hood propped open bright hungry flames were blazing two feet high on the left side of the engine next to the firewall and the smell of rubber and burnt wiring filled the air.

Leonard quickly ran back into the restaurant to get the fire extinguisher that Rita was offering.  A few short blasts and the flames were out.  Rita then called her boss and he contacted Robert of Robert's Repair in Salkum nearby.  Robert himself appeared a few minutes later with a tow truck and after we all had our lunch, Robert loaded us up and hauled us to an auto repair shop a few miles down the road.  Robert talked to the owner of the shop and explained what we were doing and where we were headed and why.  He didn't leave until he knew they could cure the problem.

Leonard and tow truck

Wayne, Rocky and Jim at the garage called the "Twisted Wrench", were terrific.  They got on the phone to find parts they didn't have including spark plug wires, vacuum hoses, heater hose and throttle cable plus miscellaneous items.  The throttle cable wasn't available any where including wreaking yards for our old 94 Dakota, so they improvised and repaired the old one.  They were busy with other customers at the shop but made time for complete strangers and did a quick professional job It was less than three hours from the time we arrived at the Twisted Wrench until we on the road again.

It was almost worth the problem to meet such nice dedicated people of that area on Highway 12.  They were all great.  Rita for observing the smoke and offering the fire extinguisher, if it hadn't been noticed for another two or three minutes we would have lost the pickup, the chute, the avionics along with 40 gal of gasoline in the bed. Robert was so helpful for his promptness and getting us to the right place for repair.  Then of course the cheerful professionalism of the crew at the Twisted Wrench who got us back underway so soon.  If you have a mechanical problem on the road, just hope it is in their area.

We finally arrived in Astoria about 6 P.M.  There was some wind, in the wrong direction or we may have tried the first leg.  We will try in the morning.

Bob

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