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Flying a Helicopter

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  Helicopter Flight on 4 Jan 2023 History I wanted to start the new year off with a new experience, so this is the story about that adventure. I guess I must be odd in that unlike most people, I have no bucket list of things I want to do someday. I’ve always had varied interest and when I found something new, I would find a way to make it happen. This was even through the lean years of being an enlisted guy in the military and low paying jobs. One constant in my life is since I was 6 years old, I’ve always loved anything aviation oriented. By The Way, anything aviation oriented is also usually very expensive. When I graduated High School (barely!) in 1965, all my friends were going on to college plus the Viet Nam War was going full throttle. I knew I wasn’t going to college as indicated by my lack of interest for anything academic (terrible grades in High School). My parents were getting worried that I would soon be drafted into the Army and be in the Viet Nam jungle shortl...
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TAT 2020 Post-07 Last Update For This Year

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  Our original plans to go back and do the eastern half of the TAT from Charleston, SC to Little Rock, AR this year was abandoned due to the pandemic. With the hope of a vaccine and something approaching normal in 2021, I have started planning for making this trip happen. That being said, it may take a totally different approach than what I’ve been posting recently. A lot has taken place in 2020 and it has made me realize that there are still a few things I would like to accomplish before I am unable to make them happen. I turned 73 in October and although I am still very active with mountain biking and white-water rafting, I can tell that it takes more effort to accomplish the same old tasks and I definitely feel it a few days afterwards. Our original plan for 2020 was to use my 2006 Jeep Wrangler and do support for my son and a few friends while they rode dual-sport motorcycles. This was primarily for my son, Jeff, who joined us on our TAT 2016-18 ride for the Little Rock to Port...
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TAT 2020 Post-06 Nov 2020

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  Jeep Trip on the Arkansas TAT The Trans-America Trail (TAT) runs from the East Coast to the West Coast on unpaved roads and trails and passes through Arkansas from Helena to Summers. It enters the Ozark National Forest west of Damascus then to Devil’s Den then north to Summers. Several of us rode the whole 5,623 miles on dual sport dirt motorcycles in 2016-2018. My son joined us for the second half and now wants to do the eastern half. We had planed on making this happen this past summer but had to delay due to COVID-19. He and a couple other friends will ride dual sports, but I will be providing support in my 2006 Jeep Wrangler with Liz as my co-driver. To give Liz a taste of what driving 150-200 miles a day for 9 days on rough dirt roads will be like, we made a 2-day run from Damascus to Devil’s Den a few days ago. The total TAT miles were around 200 but 50 paved miles to Damascus and another 175 paved miles from Devil’s Den back to North Little Rock for 425 miles total. The ...
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TAT-2020 Post-05 16 Feb 2020

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This is a quick Oklahoma detour update for those planning on doing the TAT this season. My group completed the TAT through Oklahoma in August of 2016. We had to bypass a good chunk of the eastern side of the state because of a road closure. I always wanted to go back and do that section and this past week-end I had the opportunity. I was in Tulsa, OK visiting family so on the way back home to Little Rock, AR I drove to Salina, OK to intercept the TAT then followed it back to Mountianburg, AR (137 miles).   I did finish the section we missed except I encountered another issue that I want to share with anyone doing the TAT in the future. We used SAM’s TAT maps that I bought in the 2015 time frame so this may be updated on the newest version. I found the Combs Bridge over the Illinois River is totally missing. The bridge foundations are still there but the bridge is gone. In addition, the property on the west side of the river is now private property and marked no trespass...
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TAT-2020 Post-04 18 Jan 2020

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This post is an update of our preparations for another run of the TAT starting in May of 2020. It’s been many months since my last update in May 2019 plus we are only 4 months from our launch date (mid May 2020) so an update is well past due. Vehicle Status: Jeff’s Dual-Sport – His original plan was to use the KTM 350 EXC-F I had used on Leg’s 3 & 4 (Lake City, Co to Port Orford, OR). As a result, he had parted out his Yamaha WR250R to many riders across the world (including Australia) so it is no longer available. As I stated in my last post, Jeff finally admitted to me that he preferred the WR to the KTM for several reasons. The KTM is a great bike but it is very throttle sensitive and the powerband is almost instantaneous. This caused me some issues early on until I got used to it but it would still occasionally catch me by surprise. The WR is rock solid and much easier to control in difficult terrain plus it will carry a much heavier load on the rear rack than the K...
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