Post-Oshkosh Trip Ideas

[Danb]

looking awesome Bobby Boy...

[Skates97]

4 hours ago, 65C_flier said:

@Bob_Belville  I have been watching this closely as I plan to do a similar trip before Osh. Currently planning KDSM, KRAP (although I'll have a look at KCUT now) then into KWYS. We are currently thinking about going into KWYS from the north (via KBIL) and out west-to-east through the park to KCOD, depending on the wx. I'm still trying to figure out the KCOD to KMSN bit. If your trip is organized as well as you and Nancy organized the MAG clinic I might need to scrap my plans and just copy what you do!

@Skates97 thanks for the pics and tips. We will plan to follow the main road as you suggest. Any other tips / advice would be very welcome.

Just the standard "Fly in the morning." Not that you have to fly in the morning, but in the West you have a better chance of getting to where you want to go in the morning than the afternoon. Afternoon in the Summer means there will be buildups somewhere, the only question is where. Have alternate plans.

When we flew over Yellowstone it was in the afternoon. We left CA in the morning and I had made plans to go up through Jackson Hole. When we made a fuel stop in Delta, UT and I took a look at the next leg there were still tentative plans to go through Jackson Hole, but monitoring the weather as we flew, we instead stayed west of Driggs-Reed (KDIJ) and into the park from the west, making a loop and going back to Idaho Falls. Another nice thing about flying in the West is the visibility is often unlimited so you can see the buildups from 150+ miles away and avoid them. We could have just as easily had to scrap the whole thing that late in the day, but it was just a side trip so that wouldn't have been a big deal.

This was a trip from SoCal to Rexburg ID (near Idaho Falls) a couple years ago where we ended up going west around Pocatello to avoid storms.

Idaho Adventure

[M20F-1968]

I will jump on this thread as well.  I am thinking of taking 2 weeks off after Oshkosh and heading west.  Washington, Oregon, down the west coast and taking the southern route home.  Any must see stops along the way?

John Breda

[carusoam]

Doc John,

This is a great thread that covers most of the great spots you might be interested in... (start at the top...)

Some other spots can be found in the Today’s flight thread... national parks can be pretty interesting... Grand Canyon, Bryce, Vegas...

Go international...

Fly to the Coast first, then decide... North or south...?  Canada or Baja... Bring your passports... 

Will you be Traveling alone or with friends?

Best regards,

-a-

[Becca]

I feel like I owe a "what we did" post here.

We ended up going to the Homestead in Michigan, right next to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g42241-d90041-Reviews-The_Homestead-Glen_Arbor_Leelanau_County_Michigan.html

The area:  Glen Arbor is a great little town with little art shops, touristy restaurant cafes, and lots of tubing and kayaking outfitters.  The drive around the peninsula from Traverse City to Glen Arbor is littered with wineries.  Sleeping Bear Dunes is beautiful with a scenic drive and lots of hiking and also swimming holes.  We only sampled a tiny bit of all of this, but felt like we could go back.   If you like cherries, there is cherries in everything here.  I left feeling like I could come back for a week (as an outdoor enthusiast) and fish, hike, kayak, tube, and swim new places every day.  The goal of this trip was of course to find someplace more resort-y because we had been camping for 6 days at Oshkosh and would want, you know, the indoors.  But a trip with a tent out to the Manitou islands is now something I really want to do! 

The hotel:  One guest that goes every year described it as "never perfect, always fine."  And that was a good description, there were several hotel areas and several condo rentals.  Two pools.  And a little lakefront area with a beach.  The pools were pretty overwhelmingly full of children, but the lake front was lovely and the swimming was a perfect respite after the hot days at Oshkosh.  They also rented tubes (though you could bring your own) and you could float down their little river to the lake.  My biggest complaint is the room price was a little steep for what you got.  The nice thing is they didn't make it worse with junk fees like resort parking and resort fees, the price was the price.  Both the hot tub at the pool area and the whirlpool Jacuzzi in our room were perfect after 6 days at OSH.  The restaurants were only ok, but they were convenient, and the beach bar had a gorgeous view of the sunset over the lake.  Other advantage for pilots is their cancelation policy - you can cancel any time, even day of arrival.  If you cancel close into your trip though, you don't get refunded but the money can be applied to a visit any time the following two years, so if you don't make it one Oshkosh you can always go the next year.

TVR Airport:  We flew into Traverse City, there are a couple closer airports but they are run down, but more importantly they didn't have rental cars.  Though the FBO at Traverse City will arrange you a rental car, there's was priced $200 for 2 days.  We got our rental car from a company at the commercial terminal for $60 for 2 days.  The downside of that is we had to shuttle back and forth to the commercial terminal, whcih is a 15 min drive around the airport, to pick it up and drop us off borrowing a courtesy car to make the trip, which was a little annoying.  

Next time:  I could easily see myself going back to this area.  Also, though, Door County and Makinac Island are really tempting.  Ultimately we did not plan ahead far enough to get rooms over the weekend in these places pre-booked, and all that was left was a small number of $700-1000/night rooms.  Looking ahead to next year it might be great to actually book one of these places ahead of time.  Also, with Door County, I think finding a place to rent a boat would be ideal and actually spend a day out on the lake.  Another place that no one mentioned that I would try is the Apostle Islands, truly beautiful from the photos.  

 

[gsxrpilot]

1 hour ago, Becca said:

Next time:  I could easily see myself going back to this area.  Also, though, Door County and Makinac Island are really tempting.  Ultimately we did not plan ahead far enough to get rooms over the weekend in these places pre-booked, and all that was left was a small number of $700-1000/night rooms.  Looking ahead to next year it might be great to actually book one of these places ahead of time.  Also, with Door County, I think finding a place to rent a boat would be ideal and actually spend a day out on the lake.  Another place that no one mentioned that I would try is the Apostle Islands, truly beautiful from the photos.

We went to Makinac Island last summer. You are correct that it's CRAZY expensive. Our solution was to fly into Saint Ignace, MI. The FBO tossed us the keys to the crew car and told us to keep it for the three days we were there. We got an Airbnb in Saint Ignace and stayed there. But in the morning, we got up and flew the Mooney over to Makinac Island, spent the day and flew back. The Airbnb was $60 a night, the car was free, as was the overnight parking for the Mooney.

It's about a 5 min flight from Saint Ignace to Makinac.

The ramp was full so we parked in the freshly mowed grass. There was another 252 on the ramp as well, but with curled tips on it's prop, it wasn't going anywhere.

[jetdriven]

By the way I think the car is newer than the plane