Day 46 - Brainerd, What now?

Tony Cacciarelli • Jul 30, 2020

Stuck in Brainerd - Day 4 - July 30, 2019

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Got some up-close time with this

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Big food. Empire State Building added for scale

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Original Instagram Post

Very exciting day today. I did laundry, got a haircut and packed up some items I've accumulated on the trip and shipped them back home.

The high point of the day was seeing an F-18 depart from Brainerd airport. A group of us were right there on the tarmac for the startup, but the takeoff was to the north, so away from the FBO and I couldn't get a good shot with just my mobile phone. Still, cool to be that close to such a powerful machine.

Also, I keep forgetting I am in the land of giant food. I ordered a combo plate for dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant and was overwhelmed with what was delivered. Empire State Building added for scale.

Tomorrow I should be on my way...finally. My goal is to reach the town of Minot, ND and then have a long flying day on Thursday to get to Sandpoint, ID. That'll get me closer to my intended schedule, although I'm having to skip over a couple places in order to do it. Worthwhile since it's looking like some good meet ups are in the works for Seattle!

😀👍🏼

I hadn't had time to get a rental car the day before because I was up and out to the lake early. I did get one for this day, so I was able to run around and do a few errands. Waiting on the lone Brainerd taxi guy to shuttle me around would've been a pain in the butt, expensive and probably taken the entire day.

After six weeks of traveling, it had become clear that some of the clothes I'd packed initially weren't really necessary. I'd been pretty careful about not over-packing, but I did want to have some contingencies. That had paid off with the hoodie I'd needed around Harbor Springs, but there was definitely some stuff I could eliminate, even if I hit cooler weather. I'd also picked up some souvenirs along the way and didn't feel like lugging them around any longer. So, I packed it all up and shipped it home. It wasn't a dramatic amount of weight, but it was nice to reclaim some space in the cargo area.

I was also overdue for a haircut and there was a Sports Clips right by the hotel, so I got that taken care of as well. I probably could've just let it go until I got back home, but I had the time so why not. It did feel a bit weird to be doing regular-type errands, though.

I was surprised to see an F-18 at the small Brainerd airport when I got there. Apparently, it was a test aircraft and the pilot had family in the area, so he was able to fly it in to visit. That's one hell of a commuter aircraft!

Someone asked the pilot if he could do a full afterburner takeoff. After some quick mental calculations he said he didn't have enough fuel but would give us the best he could. I wanted to run out to the car and grab my good camera with a zoom lens, but I would've missed it if I did that. He took off and stayed low then shot almost straight up, even without afterburners. Pretty cool, even from a distance.

I talked with the mechanic about my plane and he said a new muffler was being shipped out today that (supposedly) was going to work better than the one that had been sent before. It would be delivered the next day and he would do the installation, test and then I could be on my way by midday. Basically, the same plan as before - theoretically. 😒

Based on this (and ever the optimist) I broke out my planning spreadsheet and determined a course of action. Since I'd be leaving in the early afternoon, I thought I'd just get to Minot, ND, which was just a few hours away. I would've had plenty of daylight to go further, plus I could fly at night if I really needed to, but there was some weather to the west of Minot so I wasn't sure I'd be able to get beyond that.

Having planned things out all different ways, I felt like I'd be OK making the call once I got to Minot. If the weather cooperated I'd push on as far as I felt comfortable. Every bit I could do would be less I'd have to do the following day.

I really didn't like having to approach things this way. It kind of went against everything I was trying to do. But, I'd lost several days at this point and I knew there were some spots coming up further west that I didn't want to miss, so sacrifices had to be made.