The Perfect Game

Many congrats to my brother, Ken, who told me today he bowled a perfect 300 during his weekly league match. He's been striving toward this goal for years and I congratulate him for achieving this personal best. Turns out he gets some pretty cool stuff from the league and the alley for this feat. The coolest bit (IMHO) a ring, similar to a class ring or, dare I say it, a world championship ring. Tee Hee. That's so cool.

Sundance Already?

Ten days ago I helped push a couple helicopters into the hanger. I was completely stunned to find we were sharing the space with a multitude of private jets. Among them were Citations, Hawkers and most stunningly, two Gulf Stream IV's (which barely fit inside the hangers.)

"Am I missing some important event?" I asked.

"Sundance." was the unanimous one word response.

The festival had completely slipped my mind but to everyone else it was obvious why so many fancy fliers were in OGD. They had already looked up info on some of the jets. One G4 (N745RS) was owned by Rolling Stone Magazine others were leased or owned by larger holding companies.

Regardless of who owned them or what Celeb Du Jour flew in on them, the aircraft themselves were stunning, especially the Gulfstreams. It was remarkable to walk into the hangers on level with the forward loading doors of these small giants of air travel. It was remarkable to me how the stunning design of these aircraft can hold me in awe.

Even more remarkable to me was how little desire I felt to fly one. I was flying helicopters because of an initial desire to fly passenger jets and yet here I was amazed by them yet unimpressed by their lack of ability to land on a 20 foot square opening or to rise straight from the ground and launch themselves skyward. Faced with the airplane of my dreams (or close to it) I was more ready to dream of VERTOL than velocity. Amazing how things can change.

Drive The Sky Weekend

The greatest part of owning two Jeeps is that it's never hard to find something to do on the weekend. A late summer weekend led us up Farmington Canyon, near Francis Peak, and back along Skyline Drive to "The B". We saw the Radar Domes, a couple moose, and a lot of great scenery - all in a couple hours. Don't you wish you owned a Jeep too?

Editors Note: This article was also posted on dougandhannah.blogspot.net on 09/18/07. Having recently bumped into this photo again, I decided it needed to be on the JeepCruzer blog.

"Put Me On That Peak"

That's me in the right seat on a shelf located between Trappers Loop and Morgan airport (K42U) which is actualy located in Mt. Green. My instructor told me to put him on that peak, so I did. We put the skids down in virgin snow so nice a skier would have cried. The site was exhilerating and the approach was energizing. This is why I started flying. Awesome.

And It Shows

Emma loves to fly. In a broader sense, Emma loves to travel and our recent trip to Montrose, CO. (gateway to Telluride) was a prime example. Flying was fun as always. Emma was calling 1, 2, 3 BLASTOFF after pushback from the gate. But the flight is only the means to an end. The fun of Geocaching with dad, eating out and swimming in the hotel pool were the meat of the trip for her. She always has fun and that makes her a great traveling partner.

It Happened Enough

How often did parent's leave kids unattended at the playground of this Bountiful restaurant? Often enough for the management to feel they had to leave a sign up to explain how this works.