Leslie and I are in the beginning stages of planning our trip from KOMN (East coast of Florida) to KSEA (Seattle) with a required stop in Tucson AZ. We are departing KOMN on Saturday, May 18. The trip will take a few days short of 4 weeks. Some people have to work you know.
Where should we land in night in Tucson? Is KTUS the best choice? We will spend 1 or 2 nights there.
Then we are heading to Seattle. What is a good way to cross the Rockies on the northerly end. We have passports and CBP decals and stuff if we need to traverse or land in Canada.
When we get to Seattle, if the weather is perfect, we may head up the coast to Alaska, but that is dependent on weather or other unforseen circumstances. Hopefully my brand-spanking new alternator and regulator won't be a problem.
Also looking for other ideas and suggestions along this route, but the trip from KOMN to Tuscon will have to be a sprint. From there on and back its pure fun.
If you're in "mad dash" mode to Tucson and trying to make it in one (long) day, I would probably stop for lunch at the Hard 8 BBQ near KSEP. It's a couple blocks' walk from the airfield, which should be welcome after a long leg like that. More reasonable leg lengths would put you at 3 legs for the day, stopping in the vicinity of Baton Rouge and Abilene. Unfortunately, I can't be of much help in those areas.
I hope your wife is comfortable in turbulence, though. That's a long day so you're going to be flying in the bad part of the day no matter what, plus being in the south... It's probably gonna be brutal at some point!
On the way out of Tucson, make it a lazy morning and then make the short (~1 hr depending what kind of Bo you fly) hop to Sedona KSEZ for lunch. The cafe there is excellent, one of the best in the country in terms of airport food, and the scenery is beautiful. Get a copy of the Grand Canyon sectional and plan a crossing - The Tuckup corridor (VPGCA to VPGCB) is right along the way. Or, you could make a stop at KGCN and see it from ground level, fly the Dragon Corridor (VPGCF - VPGCG) and continue north to Bryce Canyon, which is also a great place to stop and spend some time at 0 AGL. In fact, in the spirit of a lazy adventure, I would do that and end the first day out of Tucson there and stay overnight.
Whichever of those two options you choose, you'll be flying over a whole lot of nothing in terms of people, but some spectacular scenery. That isn't for everyone, so maybe you'd rather detour to the west and fly up past Vegas, Reno, and out toward more coastal areas like Eugene before heading north. If you do that, aside from the obvious things, it's worth a stop at KMMV McMinnville, OR to go to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum and check out the Spruce Goose as well as the rest of their collection.
After Seattle, it sounds like you like the recommendation above to head for Kalispell and Cut Bank, so working back to Florida from there, you'll be going almost directly past Devils Tower (a few miles southwest of W43 Hullett, WY), Crazy Horse (marked as "Monument" on the sectional, about 4-5 miles north of KCUT Custer County, SD), and Mount Rushmore (a few miles ENE, about 3 miles west of RULER).
You wouldn't be far from KLNK, so maybe
@jesse has some recommendations in that zone. K81 a little ways south of Kansas City has a good BBQ joint on the field, and that's
@Ted DuPuis' neighborhood. In fact, you won't be too far from Gaston's 3M0, which would make for an easy, no-courtesy-car-needed overnight stop. You also won't be far from KTKX Kennett, MO which reliably has some of the cheapest 100LL in the country ($3.28/gal right now) as well as three courtesy cars. Big E's BBQ is a good place to eat while you're there, it was good, dirt cheap, and has some of the best sauce I've ever tasted (I'll buy some to bring home if I stop there). And, of course, there's Memphis if you're into music or BBQ, but after that you'll be on the home stretch and probably not looking to see much more... Which is good, because I don't have any further recommendations along your route.
Have a great trip, and keep us posted!
