Hey! Looks like its about time to do another post. However, the subject of this one is a little more exciting for me than my previous one. I just got back from an awesome week in the "far north!" The purpose of the trip was to fly books, Bibles, and other material from the store Good News Books 'N Things in Sioux Lookout to five different northern communities. These communities are fly-in reserves, accessible only by air in the summer or ice and bush road in the winter. Even then, some of those places are anywhere from 12-14 hours north of Sioux Lookout. Which means that for all practical purposes (other than hauling in machinery, building supplies, etc.) air travel is the way to go. And folks, air travel is way cool!!! I love flying and numerous times this past week you would have caught me with a silly grin on my face for no reason except for the fact that I was flying or anticipating the next flight!  I got a lot of pictures, too many to share on this site, but hopefully I'll include enough that you can get a glimpse of my adventure.  
Here is the store, Good News Books 'N Things in Sioux Lookout which was the starting point of our trip. I traveled to Sioux Lookout Sunday afternoon so that we could get an early start on Monday morning. Bad weather the week before had forced David to leave the plane in Pickle Lake, so we both drove up there Monday morning instead of just myself. The original plan was to have Pickle Lake be our base of operations. We were flying a Cessna 170 so we only had room for enough books to do two places at the most. Since we had five in our schedule, the extra books would be kept in the truck and we'd return daily to Pickle to restock and refuel. However, a friend was able to fly our extra books into Muskrat Dam, which was much more central and made for a more relaxed week.  Packed and ready for the three hour drive to Pickle Lake!
  Cessna 170, "Charlie-Foxtrot Gulf Echo India." Loading in Pickle Lake.
We got to Pickle Lake around three o'clock Monday afternoon and packed the plane for the one hour flight to Round Lake. Weather was a little soupy flying out of Pickle, but it cleared up nicely the farther north we went. We arrived in Round Lake in good time and were ready to start selling books by five that evening. Here are some pictures I took at the book tables throughout the week.    
This was definitely the work part of the trip. Often we got into a community in the afternoon and had to keep moving in order to get our tables set up and organized by five or six. The phrase "hurry-up and wait" took on a whole new meaning this week! We stayed in Round Lake overnight at Jonah's place, and then Tuesday morning got a ride to the airport from Ivan. Pictured below is Jonah, and Ivan's son Jeremy.  
Muskrat Dam was our destination on Tuesday. We refueled in Round Lake before heading on north. Ideally, fuel is brought into these communities by winter road and stored in large tanks. Round Lake had about ten of these big tanks and the supply lasts for most of a year. In the event that supplies run low, fuel is flown in.  
  This is most of Muskrat Dam seen from the air. The community hall where we set up Tuesday night.
We got to use an apartment at Rat Dam to store our extras and to stay the night on Tuesday.  A shot of David and I at the apartment. We didn't have supper that night until around 10:30, mainly because we were just too busy to eat before. Needless to say, we were both hungry (and tired)!! Wednesday morning we flew to Keewaywin. We got there about 2:00 in the afternoon only to find the generator that powered the reserve was being worked on that afternoon. The school library was our place to set up, and thankfully it had lots of big windows. We set up in the semi darkness, and around 4:30 when it was really getting dark, the lights in town came back on! Cool! Thursday morning we flew back to Muskrat Dam to repack and were able to take the rest of the goods to Sachigo. We had quite the time of finding a key for the hall in Sachigo. Finally by late afternoon the last person to borrow it was located and we were off to the races. Interesting times . . . ! Friday morning showed us a ceiling of about 600 feet or so, but by noon it had lifted enough that we could continue as planned and fly on to Bearskin. We set up in the radio station and got to hang out some with Jimmy, the manager. He was a great guy and enthusiastically promoted our wares on air, encouraging (or compelling) the people to come and buy! Thanks Jimmy!! 
Saturday morning dawned fair once again, although the forecast called for deteriorating weather conditions throughout the day. If I recall correctly we were in the air by about 9:00 and were treated to some awesome sights on the way back to Pickle Lake. Some things are just better seen from the air!    
Homeward bound. Pickle Lake, 126 miles away at 156 degrees.  On final at Pickle Lake! I'm not sure which is my favorite, landing or taking off. Both are the bomb!
  The pilot, David Herschberger The wannabe, (with one of those grins)
There were seven flights in all, if I counted right. Great times for sure, and memories to last a lifetime! I know I said it before, but the weather was awesome and I see it as a gift from the Lord. David said it's been years since he's been able to do a week-long trip like this without the weather throwing a wrench in the gears somewhere along the way. It was great to see some familiar faces, and to make new friends. Then there's something about seeing the northern wilderness from the air that is awe inspiring. It's a vast expanse of just bush and lakes. Wilderness is truly the right term! All in all it was a great week of flying, selling books, working, flying, meeting new people, seeing new places, flying, soaking in the sights of God's creation from the air, (did I mention flying?) . . . anyway, it was good!  
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I've done more traveling in the past month. Four weeks ago I was in southern Misissippi and New Orleans for a week helping with rebuilding. I've been to Dryden twice in order to take some friends to a seminar and back. I took a friend to Thunder Bay to see his father who was hospitalized out there about two weeks ago. When his father got transfered again, this time to Winnipeg, I made a trip out there. I've been to Virginia MN to go snowboarding. I made a trip to International Falls with Katrina to pick up her visa for Thailand the other week. Last week I went to Kansas with Dad and Andrew to pick up a van. And yesterday I made another trip to Winnipeg. I honestly don't know how many times I've been to Kenora in the past month! (For those of you who don't know, its our closest "big" town, and takes us an hour one way. Or maybe it would be more acurate to say it *should* take an hour one way.) That trip hardly even counts for me any more, cause of how often I've traveled that road. 
Then tomorrow if we don't get weathered in, I'm going to Sioux Lookout. So yeah, I've been doing things and going places. Just haven't taken the time to write about it. 