My boss (the dean of the college) and I flew to Boise from Lewiston and then had reservations to fly on Salmon Air to Salmon, Idaho. So, we picked up our luggage at the carousel and walked down the corridor to an area that has a big Salmon Air sign hanging above it. A man was sitting there with his legs crossed reading a book. He appeared to be in his 60's and had on old jeans and a shirt that read "Salmon Air." He asked if we were looking to get to Salmon and we nodded and he said "follow me." We headed out to an older car and put our small luggage in the trunk and headed about a mile or so down the road from the airport. There we climbed out, retrieved the luggage and walked out to the tarmac area where a teeney tiny little itty bitty plane was sitting. Russ, our pilot (aka - man reading book in the airport) asked us each to sign a waiver and write our weight next to our name. UMMMMMM!!!! YA...this is when it all started getting a bit scary for me. My boss told me to go first...I told him no way! He could write his weight down first! I just think that's too much information to be sharing with a boss (or for that matter, ANYONE!). Russ then went over the safety features (it was a quick speech!). He said that the emergency exit was the door from which we enter. Okay, seriously? How in the world am I going to get through that door if there's an emergency. It is like the size of my dog's doggy door! So, then I was asked where I wanted to sit. I chose the back (it officially seats 4 people including the pilot) as I just thought it best that I be alone and not able to see all of the gears. Mind you, I've been in similar sized planes before, but never with a stranger as the pilot and never for this far of a trip and, quite frankly, not at my ripe old age! Things weren't so scary when I was younger for some reason. So, my boss and Russ sit up front and the journey begins. Russ told me he thought it may be a bit bumpy and that's when he handed me the throw-up bag. He said he'd rather me have it and not use it than not have it and puke in his plane. (How thoughtful!) His plane wasn't anything to write home about (well, I guess that's what I'm doing, but...) as it looked to be from circa 1973. I didn't have the heart to ask how old it was. I did see a sticker that said the plane needed to be inspected in 2022. (Is this concerning to anyone else????) I asked Russ how long he had been flying and he asked me why it mattered. I now know he was joking, but didn't find it at all funny last night. After what seemed to be a lifetime, we were finally up in the air. The plane sputtered and spattered and sounded as if it had a very bad chest cold. Russ kept pulling this notebook off the dash (not sure if it has the same name in a plane) and reading it. I kept thinking it would be better if he would look outside! We climbed to 10,000 feet and I didn't realize how tense I was until I noticed my hands turning white from holding on so tightly. There was turbulence - enough that my boss hit his head on the ceiling of the plane! It took over an hour and then finally I saw Salmon, Idaho ahead out the window. I kept thinking that I hadn't packed very well in the case we went down in the mountains as there is still snow up there! I had on flip flops. I was very glad to land and get out of the Cessna 210. I get to get in it again tomorrow morning to fly back to Boise after we drop my boss off in McCall. I'll share that story when it happens with great hopes that it won't be very exciting at all!
One thing for sure, it is so incredibly beautiful from up in the sky! I was amazed at the number of trees and springs of water all over the land and for the most part, very little has even been touched by man in much of the area. It was captivating indeed.
