International Fellowship of Flying Rotarians Americas Region proudly hosts IFFR events at the 99th RI Convention in Los Angeles and the Golden West Fly-Away June 15 - 28, 2008

A trip writeup by WPP Tony Watson
June 27, 2008
 

2008 IFFR Golden West Fly-Out

Some three dozen IFFR members and spouses began our post convention fly-out on Thursday June 19 to Mariposa, California, the closest town to the western entrance of Yosemite. At the Mariposa airport we were greeted by local Rotarians who shuttled us to our hotel. Late afternoon we were given a private tour of the California State Mining & Mineral Museum, the largest of its kind in the Country.

Early on Friday we were met by 2 small buses with driver-guides to take us sightseeing in Yosemite National Park. Due to a rockslide a couple of years ago, there is a detour going into Yosemite from Mariposa using a couple of temporary bridges The detour crosses over to the opposite side of the river we follow, then back. Quite a slide to behold, still being cleaned up.

Our tour took us to the famous Mariposa Grove of Sequoia trees, magnificent giants often living beyond two millennia. After that, the highlight of any visit to Yosemite is the overlook at Glacier Point, and it did not disappoint. It’s much like looking over the rim at the Grand Canyon for the first time. What a beautiful creation. After getting the necessary photos, movies, and simply being awe-struck, we headed back down to the bottom of Yosemite Valley, where we ate lunch at the old lodge before heading back to Mariposa.

That evening Mariposa Rotarians hosted dinner at a nearby park. We enjoyed a time of fellowship and barbecue with them, and many of our group exchanged banners. At this point, we had 6 Rotarians and spouses from the U.K., 4 from New Zealand, 4 from Texas, 2 from Delaware, 2 from Rhode Island, 1 from Washington, 2 from Colorado, 2 from North Carolina, and a whole slew of Californians.

The next morning we headed for Mariposa Airport where some of us headed for Columbia, California, an interesting “old west” town, then to Monterey (plan originally to avoid morning marine low cloud layer). That area experienced a freak thunderstorm that afternoon, lightning set off some fires which took weeks to contain. Several planes had to divert or land to avoid the storm.  

The next day was our trip to Hearst Castle. It was supposed to be via Pacific Coast Highway 1, along the coast, passing by Big Sur. However, the fires and the need to fight them closed down a stretch of the famous highway, so we executed plan B and went there through the Salinas Valley (also known as the salad bowl). It was not as picturesque as the coastal route, yet still quite scenic, as we saw such fertile land with all those crops and the hills and mountains in the background. Our excellent guide for this trip was a John Steinbeck fan and quoted numerous passages from various Steinbeck novels, especially those which described this area.

The Hearst Castle is aptly named, and is an amazing place. William Randolph Hearst had visited Europe when he was just a boy with his mother, and was very taken by the castles, chalets and the like he saw, as well as the ancient art. What he created on this California mountainside is simply amazing – part castle, part cathedral, part ancient, part modern. The thousands of acres around is a natural wild life habitat. Upon his death, the castle was given to the State of California, and they operate it as a tourist destination. They say it’s number 2 behind Disneyland as a destination in the state. We had an excellent tour by the state operated tour bus and guides, and had lunch there after we finished. We drove about 5 miles or so north on the coastal highway so we could see a beach populated by elephant seals. By the time we got back to Monterey it was almost dinner time.

The next day was free for everyone to enjoy the area. Some rented a car to explore the scenic 17 mile drive, the artistic town of Carmel and down the coast towards Big Sur until it got blocked by the fire, others spent the day visiting the famous Monterey Aquarium and local museums

Tuesday, June 24 was scheduled for the flight to Grants Pass, Oregon. Flying about 370 nautical miles in 2:35. Members of the Grants Pass Rotary Club met us at the airport, providing transportation for us all to the Riverside Inn, with balconies facing the Rogue River. We had a couple of hours free before transportation would arrive to take us downstream to the back lawn of one of the Rotarians there, where an outdoors setting for a dinner celebrating the outgoing President of their Club was taking place. Our ride was in the boat going to the dinner and in the van coming back. This was a beautiful setting on the shores of the Rogue River. The house was built to withstand the occasional flooding of the river, and we heard more about its ability to do so on our boat trip the next day.

Sam Bishop and Rankin Whittington decided to try their luck at fly fishing the next morning, while several of us had some time off and prepared to go to the noon Rotary meeting. That meeting was a roast of the outgoing President, and was as such pretty entertaining.

Our next stop was the unusual and quite unexpected Bear Hotel. The community has created some different large bears (may be ceramic) for their holiday displays, between the holidays they “live” in the Bear Hotel. However, there was much more there than just bears. Various other decorations for national holidays as well as Thanksgiving and Christmas were stored there. It was really quite interesting. We had a group picture made with a bunch of bald eagles that were all carved looking the same way.

That evening was our boat trip down the Rogue River to Hellsgate Canyon, then back to a dinner spot up the hill from the River. The boat pilots do things to make sure you get a little damp, and we all did – some more than others. Anyway, the barbecue chicken, ribs, and fixings (including pitchers of beer and carafes of wine) were a hit. We observed some wildlife, birds of various kinds, but the highlight was our spotting a bald eagle up in one of the branches of a tree high overhead.

Smoke had been a bit of a problem on Tuesday when we came up to Grants Pass from California, but seemed to be worse in some areas on our way to Reno from Grants Pass. The smoke issue found both the Mores and the Vosses headed back to their home airports in southern California, and later 2 or 3 other aircraft decided not to fly to Reno from our position due to smoke en route and a mountain range to get over.

Circus Circus, our hotel in Reno, has as its theme, well, a circus. There is a midway with those kind of games of chance (more for kids, but adults have fun too) and scheduled performances of acrobats of various kinds. And of course, a casino, which is no surprise in Nevada.

We had a full day tour on Friday around the eastern portion of Lake Tahoe, including a fine cruise on a riverboat to Emerald Bay and return. The smoke stayed away pretty well for this day, the lake was calm, and the scenery absolutely stunning. We had a sandwich buffet on board the ship, and that kind of food always seems to taste better when you’re on a water trip like that.

Our coach took us to the CalNeva property that was at one time primarily owned by ol’ blue eyes himself, Frank Sinatra. The hotel portion is in California, but there is a casino – in Nevada. We visited some rooms where the state line is made visible, took a picture of the swimming pool, same thing. We then returned via a scenic vista (that was beginning to smoke up a bit) to Circus Circus.

Our farewell dinner was that evening. Sam had to guarantee a number the first day we were in Grants Pass, and at least 8 folks didn’t make it to Reno because of the smoke. So, we had lots of extra food for our group. We recognized Sam (and Elena) for their excellent planning of the fly about, IFFR “poet laureate” Herman Hassinger read his big poem about the trip. We had some “spoof” prizes since George had won many little stuffed bears using a rubber mallet to loft rubber chickens into a pot (he got so good that he was banned from the game).

Saturday, June 28 everyone dispersed beginning very early morning. Some took scheduled airlines, some drove, the East Coast pilots took a few days to get home, but all eventually got home safely.

...Mariposa/Yosemite pictures here