Relaxing

Tuesday was our day to relax. When the light started leaking through the window, rather than rise, I rolled over and caught a few more Zssss. Eventually we started moving and were on the road by 10. We were heading back to twin falls.

We had visited the lower twin falls on a previous trip. It’s an easy hike to a great view. Our visit today was a lot like our last. You drive through a rural residential area and then come upon a dirt parking lot. Last time we got one of the last spaces. Today we were alone.  . 

The hike is only about 7 minutes and today we had the falls to ourselves. We stayed on the observation platform as the plants had taken over. Late spring is way more leafy.

Our next goal was the upper falls trail. To be fair, it is not known for its views but it was a bit harder and we needed a workout. We needed to work off those brownies.  It was a bit hard to find the trail head. I think I would have missed it without Google Maps. Only a few spaces on the shoulder and no marking. We started up the trail and found a small sign with somewhat cryptic directions.

We continued down the trail and found the fence. There was no trail head sign but we went with it. Off we went and the trail headed down. This is never a good sign when you are heading for the upper falls. After a long trek down, we started climbing.

The reviews were right, the view from the top is just the the creek heading for the falls. You could potentially see more but you could also fall to your death so we stayed off the wet slippery rocks.

The way back started easy with a gentle descent. Then we came to the up part and we had to work. By the time we got back to the trail head, I was breathing quicker. Our next stop was for some cold drinks to hydrate and we decided to call it a day as the temperature had risen quite a bit.  It was actually hotter in the upstate than back home.

Our dinner was traditional South Carolina pulled pork BBQ.  Not my favorite but CC really likes it.  We tried Little Pigs Bar-B-Q and they did a really nice job.  Even better were the Chocolate chip cookies they had for dessert in the lounge.

Wednesday when the light peaked in we got going.  Rumor had it that there was a tailwind so I was excited for the flight.  We dropped our car and loaded up the plane.  Pre flight checks were good and we were soon taxiing out.  The airport had some construction and the middle of the taxiway was closed.  This was not an issue inbound as I landed long and turned off past the closure.  

Outbound we would need to go on the runway to circumvent the closed area.  Ground turned us over to tower and tower cleared us onto the runway.  We were told to back taxi as long as we like and tell them when ready.  I mentioned I needed a minute or two more before departure and was told to take my time.  Sort of strange to just hang out on the 11,000 air carrier runway but we did.

The checks were soon completed and with 8000 of runway I called for departure.  The sky was clear and we were soon at 9000 enjoying a darn good tail wind.  Our flight down would only take 1:25.  Our arrival back home was smooth but I had a strong gusty crosswind.  It all worked out well and I planted the upwind wheel smoothly, lowered the other two and gently rolled to the end.

the only trouble we had was that the tug I used to push the plane back broke a weld and we ended up pushing the plane the last few feet by hand.  Luckily my mechanic welded it and I had it on the tug the next day.