All Starts to Feel Familiar Again

Hello. I am in Lovelock! Yes, in Lovelock Nevada a ~2000 inhabitants town in the Nevada high plains, at 3,907 ft.

The most delicate point today was exiting Ogden to the South West. Why? Because there's a big lake (The Salt Lake) and there are plenty of military areas in the vicinity (See pics below). Also the radar showed rain right in my corridor. Later I confirmed that this rain although real it does not reach the ground. It is called "virga". (See pic below)

After that all was about negotiating mountains and the best winds. After 3 days of headwind today I had some tailwind! Not much, but it is always appreciated. I finally landed in Lovelock for the simple reason that it sets me up for a relatively short final leg back to Palo Alto, back home.

As I could experience yesterday Ogden is a city plenty of attractions, confirming what I was told.
I had a delicious BLT salad with avocado and a Honey beer at Rooster on the 25th, which is a street plenty of cafes and restaurants. Then I had some time to wander around and found among other things two very cool activities; Indoor skydiving and indoor surf (See below).

Town with all the advantages of Salt Lake city but none of the disadvantages of a big city. Good temperatures and snowed mountains in the background.

If you want to attend the Ogden Pioneer Rodeo, you are still on time.
Just reserve some days in July.

Nice walkable avenues with restaurants, cafes and outdoor and indoor activities as the day dies out with warm colors.

There it is: the indoor skydiving place. For $55 you can experience 2 minutes of skydiving in full safety without leaving the earth. (And even needing a parachute)

The pics are not very good, but here you can see some parachute-less skydivers "floating" in this vertical wind tunnel and performing all types of acrobacies.

It was noisy, but very intense. They would not just stay level, they would go up and down and around. Sometimes they would hit the glass walls.

 Here the indoor Surf. Very funny and ingenious! The prices were ~$30 an hour.
What do you prefer? Surf or Skydive?

This is what I was mentioning at the beginning about exiting the Ogden area to the South West. This was my final selected route. Avoiding Class Delta, crossing the lake and heading west parallel to I-80.  As you can see there are 2 areas that say Air Force, and only one corridor in between.


All this is better appreciated in the aeronautical chart below: (Same area but with all the additional aeronautical information)

This is Antelope Island, which is also a State Park. It is worth visiting. I spent some time with Maite and Julia when we last visited the area, and even adventured ourselves in the salty waters on those beaches.

Arriving at the other side of the lake.

Salty and sandy terrain which probably long ago was also covered by water.

This picture has more than it appears; This are the Bonneville Salt Flats. Remember the movie "The world fastest Indian"? by Anthony Hopkins....? .... where he beats the land-speed world record riding a motorcycle?  Well, all this happened here in 1967.  Many other speed records have been attempted and beat since then in these same flats....

These are the cloud producing rain that the radar was detecting. Only that the rain evaporates well before it reaches the ground. This picture is not perfect but we can appreciate this effect.

More clouds with precipitation in the mid distance and vasts extensions of high level desert.

Here I am crossing a range of snowy mountains. Obviously I selected the lower section.

Another range of mountains with snow.

Details of the pass as I fly over it.

For a while I was parallel to this majestic mountain range.

Here we can appreciate the old and the new I-80 routes with a tunnel.

This is the famous S mountain. Unique in the world and part of the known universe.

The selfie of the day.   :-)

Nothing special, just lower mountains as I pass range after range after range....

View on my right side as I head south west and getting closer to my destination today.

Following 3 pictures about how it feels to land at Lovelock (K-LOL) 

No one to be heard on the radio during the traffic announcements. It seems an empty place.

Can you see the runway? 

 Touchdown !  (Very gentle, i promise. Despite the 14 kt with 20 gusts winds)

The Parking lot. Only one airplane, and it is a Cessna-cousin! 

Nobody to greet me but a sign stating all I could find in there. All was true. The door was open, and I could use the pilots room, the restrooms, the telephone to call to one of the recommended Motels on the list with comments and I refueled in the self service, so that the airplane is ready tomorrow morning. 

(Yes, Lovelock airport is also known as Derby Field, and KLOL) 

Nobody around. Literally. So I take another picture with the "tower" and N669TW.

 An airplane that looks like a Mig-3 (?)  No one to tell the story behind this plane...... and I am sure there is one.

By now I am already in my Motel room writing these lines. The owner of the Cadillac Inn came to get me and will bring me back here again tomorrow for a modest fee.


My track today:

From Ogden, Utah to Lovelock, Nevada  (KOGD-KLOL)














The Day Totals:

• 318 nm
• 3 hours, 5 minutes 

(Finally a little bit of tailwind!)

Well on my way back home!  Only a 2.5 hours leg away from Palo Alto!  

I can't wait to meet Julia and Maite who have promised to come to the airport.

All the best form Lovelock, Nevada.

Eduair   ;-)