RV7 Flight: Joseph, Oregon in July

The last time hubby and I took an afternoon flight to Joseph, Oregon was a little over a year ago. You can read my first Joseph post here. It was March 2012, and decidedly not yet tourist season for the tourist town.

Yesterday, some friends accompanied us: Vince and Sharon Himsl. Sharon might be posting pictures on her blog, so if you're interested, check hers out in the next day or two. If you look closely off of the left side of our wingtip, you can see their airplane. Vince built a Vans RV-8, which is similar to our Vans RV-7, except that theirs is tandem seating (like a motorcycle), whereas ours is side-by-side.

Here we are, just coming into the Enterprise/Joseph area, which abuts the Willowa mountain range. The mountains rise about 6,000 feet above a plateau that is already at a 4,000' elevation. We left in the heat of the afternoon, and so the air was very choppy with thermals.

Sharon, her husband Vince, and my husband, Mike. As it happened, Joseph had a huge rodeo on Saturday, and so by the time we got there yesterday, the town had that, "day after" quality--it was quite dead, however that suited me fine. It's about a mile walk into town from the airport. Oops, we told our friends it was a just half mile, just a hop, skip and a jump. They complained about having to walk so far, but ultimately decided it was good to get out and take a nice long walk.

Since the last time we were in Joseph, the town's added several more bronze statues, and they are all simply incredible. The bronc rider isn't one of the newer ones, but the one of Chief Joseph, below, is.

Chief Joseph was of the Nez Perce Indian tribe, which was very helpful to Lewis and Clark. 

This mare and foal is also a new sculpture. 

Take a look at this cowboy's six pack. He's swoon worthy enough to be on the cover of a romance novel. His backside looks pretty great, too. Cowboys in leather chaps ... 

As I said before, Joseph was pretty much rolling up the sidewalks about the time we had walked into town, checked out all the sculptures and stores, and were looking for a place to eat dinner. The coffee shops and candy stores were all closing. Coffee and sugar are not on hubby's and my diet, anyway, so we went to the Embers Brew House Restaurant. There, we dined Al Fresco with about 30-40 other dinner guests. Mike and Vince and I are big fans of micro brews, and they boasted the largest micro brew selection in Eastern Oregon. But alas, pilots cannot drink and fly. So we all drank unsweetened iced tea instead.

Isn't this pioneer woman the epitome of faith and hope? I can write a novel in my head by just looking at her.

I love hanging baskets filled with petunias. I've got a whiskey barrel overflowing with petunias on my front sidewalk at home right now. 

 I love the way the sun was shining through both the flowers and the leaves of these coreopsis plants.

Here, we're getting ready to leave Joseph. That's Vince and Sharon. Vince is busy going through his pre-flight checklist, as was Mike at this time. Vince hasn't yet painted his airplane, or attached the wheel pants. He hopes to paint it soon.  Their canopy slides back, whereas ours is a tip-up canopy. 

If you look beyond them, you'll see a private jet, whose pilot kindly allowed us to take off before him. Had he taken off first, we would've been blasted pretty badly by the jet engines. Sharon and I were speculating about the VIP who owned the jet ... Was he a rodeo star? A famous country western singer? A fat cat who likes rodeos? Hard to say ... 

The sun was oh, maybe an hour away from setting when we got home. Picture above shows what's known as "the breaks." This is quite near where we live. It's where the hills drop down to the Snake River, forming the Snake River Canyon. Going the opposite direction, and quite a few miles upriver, maybe 40 or so, you get into the famous Hells Canyon, deepest river gorge in America? 

Look closely at the top of the breaks, and you see what our farmland looks like at this time. In fact, the field you see here has already been harvested. My son started harvesting today in Endicott, WA, which is about 30 miles from where we live. My husband plans to begin harvesting tomorrow or Wednesday, in our own area. 

This picture shows a new variety of wheat that's being tried in our area this spring. It's a lovely amber, almost brown color. 

So that was our last flying adventure, more than likely, until after harvest is over. We sure had fun, and we think our friends probably did, too. Even if we did deceive them about how far the walk was into Joseph.