Re: Packard Trips

Posted by DavidPackard On 2020/6/21 17:51:21

Somehow the first section of this thread got disconnected from the later postings by rblum, Ross, and Ernie. I'll resume posting on the original thread.

Let me also congratulate Chris on his '39.

Many hours after Ernie the '54 Cavalier stuck its nose out of the garage and toured eastern Scottsdale in search of the equestrians, but alas I couldn't find any. Even the large facility that I pointed out a few weeks ago was completely empty. I guess Ernie scared all of the wild life away. . At mid-day it was getting quite warm, so I cut the trip a little short.

For those that have seen the Arizona wild fires on the evening news, the largest 'Bush' fire was supposedly started by a vehicle fire at the intersection of State Route 87 and the Bush Highway (hence the name). That would be about 9 miles from the town of Fountain Hills. That resulted in SR 87 being shut-down from that intersection all the way to Payson, some 50 miles. Closure of SR 87 leaves the folks in Payson three choices, 150 mile trip through Camp Verde, 225 miles through Globe, or stay home until the road opens. Or make a full day of it and drive to Winslow to stand on the corner.

The YouTube video portion of my posting of 6/6 will give some idea of the terrain in that area of the state . . . I got off SR 87 at the Bush Highway . . . few roads, but lots of helicopters and bombers recently. I saw a Sikorsky Skycrane S-64 (likely Erickson Air Crane) a few days ago, flying towards Mesa, perhaps returning home. The only good news is the close proximity of dams and lakes on the Salt River, which would be the Eastern boundary of the fire zone. Perhaps as close as 20 miles between 'suck-up' and release for the helicopters. The 'bombers' frequently will 'home base' at the Mesa AeroDrome, home of the local chapter of the Commemorative Air Force. An excellent place to get a good drink of red Coolaid, and jet fuel, which the helicopters will also need every few missions. Last Sunday, when the fire was much closer to home, the smoke cloud dominated the horizon and the odor of 'fire' was quite strong. Lucky for us, but bad luck for others, the wind was blowing the other way!

dp