Driftless | Part 5, Old Man River

Choices

August 7 was our last full day in Wisconsin. We planned an early departure on August 8 to attempt reaching home in a single day. Due to the avgas outage at Viroqua Municipal, I needed to fuel up somewhere else and did not want to waste travel time on August 8th to do so. Our first stop the next day would be La Crosse to return the Dodge, but I had no desire to top-off there at $7.94/gal. After all, I needed a lot of gallons.

August 7 was also a dynamic weather day, but with the onset of early evening, the storms lost their energy. Conditions were solidly marginal VFR; I could scud run (within reason, of course) someplace close or even launch on an instrument clearance if the weather was that poor. Conditions were not ideal, but at least I could make a fuel run without being pummeled by the atmosphere. Doing so on August 7 would leave more time on August 8th to attend to the business of getting home.

A quick search in ForeFlight turned up Houston County Airport (cool name) in Caledonia, MN with the lowest fuel cost in the area at $6.27/gal. It was just a quick hop across the Mississippi River from Viroqua. Besides, I had never landed in Minnesota before.

I made my decision and gathered my things. Pam asked if I wanted company and I dearly would have loved to bring her along, but the conditions did not look suitable for a joyride and I declined with an apologetic comment about the marginal weather.

"Choices," Lisa editorialized.

Exactly right. See the above.

The Mighty Mississippi

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
07 Aug 2022	N21481	Y51 (Viroqua, WI) - CHU (Caledonia, MN) - DEH (Decorah, IA) - Y51	1.3	2503.3

By the time I reached Viroqua, the ceilings were actually higher than I expected. A local pilot in a homebuilt Wittman Tailwind landed and quickly taxied to one of the hangars, granting me a quick wave as he motored past.

Late afternoon sunlight penetrated tattered vestiges of the overcast with an odd quality that coaxed an emerald glow from the landscape.

As I continued west toward the Mississippi River, conditions improved dramatically and I regretted not taking Pam up on her offer of company. As day mellowed into evening, it became a wonderful time to fly. What a shame that there was no one with me to share the experience. Choices. Dammit.

The last time I flew Warrior 481 across the Mississippi River was in 2004 on the day I flew her home to Three Rivers, MI (KHAI) from Guthrie, OK (KGOK). I intentionally did not carry a camera that day to capture the sight, so this was my first opportunity.

The river barge below struck me as particularly evocative of river transportation. Then again, I suppose that it had to be. After all, there it was.

With wing.

Without wing.

To the north, I could see La Crosse and French Island where we would be landing early the next morning on the first leg of the journey home.

Just like that, I was flying over Minnesota for the first time. Frankly, it did not look strikingly different from Wisconsin.

Houston County Airport (KCHU, #245) was a quiet, well-maintained field in the midst of a vast expanse of corn.

It had a charming, lived-in feel to it. Unsurprisingly, the field was deserted on a Sunday evening after a day of foul weather. After all, I was only out because I was on a mission.

The little terminal building at Houston County was actually smaller than the restroom building beside it.

As in Viroqua, the door was unlocked and the interior cozily welcoming. It was obviously a place that people cared about and that alone made it important.

Make It a Round Robin?

I climbed back into Warrior 481 after checking the fuel sumps and contemplated the chart. The Iowa state line was a mere five nautical miles to the south. 

I had never been to Iowa before.

Warrior 481's shadow on departure from Houston County Airport.

So I flew to Iowa.

I found Decorah Municipal (KDEH, #246) on the chart and deemed it suitable after determining that there were no prohibitive NOTAMs posted.

Iowans in these parts like their crop art, too.

Entering the pattern at Decorah, I wondered if a wormhole had taken me back to Sodus. Just look at those candy stick painted hangars! But it was no wormhole. That was a shame because a conveniently placed spacetime anomaly would have made the next day so much easier.

As I maneuvered in the pattern for runway 11 at Decorah, I noticed a neighborhood of large, newish homes northwest of the runway and wondered if they were a source of noise complaints. I flew a slightly extended pattern to avoid passing directly over any of them.

It was a quick turn at Decorah.

"I'm in Iowa for the first time ever!" I announced aloud to nobody. 

Ceremony over, I launched for Viroqua.

Crossing a more diffuse section of the Mississippi River.

This part of Wisconsin reminded me of the area east of Dansville, NY.

Once east of the Mississippi again, my tri-state round robin flight came to an end at the now very familiar runway of Viroqua Municipal.

Landing on runway 11 at Viroqua, I realized that it was probably the last at my Wisconsin home base. 

Unless something went wrong the next day. Based on the forecast, that was a distinct possibility.