Feeling ready to take on a new place, I flew the last few miles and using the radio freq I was given, got an immediate invite to stop by. As I got closer, something looked wrong, I thought I was having vision problems.
This was going to be the toughest landing of the day, these long and wide paved runways make me nervous. Not even noticing the several thousand foot long grass strip, and not wanting to mess up the gravel on the side (it looked, like everything else, perfectly arranged) I did my best and taxied over towards.... wait for it: the tower 
Then the airshow started, a nice little aero routine by what I presumed was my host in a Pilatius Porter Go Fast of some sort.
To say this was all taking place in a very rural part of Idaho, VERY rural, doesn't quite get the idea across. Upon meeting the friendly owner, my mind got further blown by the elevator ride to the top of the tower. Not just a regular elevator, though there's one of those also, but a pneumatic, one person device, operating just like the one at my bank's drive through. Not homemade either, but an obviously fully engineered and manufactured machine. Actually I rode the regular elevator up, and the air one down. Normally I only ride an elevator once a year, when I get my taxes done, down town in Pocatello's high rise office building, 5 stories.While admiring the view out the tower, we started talking about our strips. His was excavated 55" below grade, then brought up to finish with a carefully engineered and compacted specified gravel mix, all before the final top layer of asphalt. It has easily supported 737's that have also stopped by. His was 7700' long, and fully fenced to a wild life biologist's recommended height, as meeting some of the local's when reaching takeoff speed in one the Lears, or the Gulfstream IV, would not be a good thing.
I then told him how mine was 400' long, twice as long as needed, as I like to make reduced throttle takeoffs. That led to me mentioning it's about a 12% grade, and the only obstacles a 9200' mt. a 1/4 mile off the end, right behind the antenna farm. A few light homebuilts and a Maule seemed to work OK there.The width was determined by 4 passes (I got bored after that, and the landing gear is only 5' wide anyway) of the brushhog I have on the Kubota, about 18'. He must fly at night as his appeared to be lighted.
I go to bed when the sun goes down.While still up in the tower, he pointed at one nearby high ridge, and commented how it was pretty smooth up top, and he landed his helicopter up there from time to time it was about 9600'. Then I got a look see at the other birds in the hangar, all except the the sailplane hung from the ceiling, too hard to get to. I got to sit in the Pilatius Porter 12, that door on the right is big enough to load a couch or a ATV. The warbird was nice but not my style. He apologized for the lack of aircraft currently in the hangar, "usually we have more", I may have mentioned then my hangar was 28' by 40'. Walking by one of the Lears, I told him how once in Rock Springs WY, getting into my bird with a thermos of coffee in front of a couple of corporate pilots in a Lear, when asked by one what I did when I had to take a leak, I bragged about the ability to just land anywhere. The two pilots looked at each other, then one said "we have a bathroom".
After declining an offer of breakfast (I had wasted too much time on the tour, it would be a bumpy ride back home) we shook hands and I was able to successfully lift off that challenging strip, but then I remembered the 9600' ridge he had pointed out, and I thought what the heck, if he can land a helicopter there I may be able to set down the S-7.
All smart ass sarcasm aside, Joe and I, being about as opposite on the economic scale as possible, had one big thing in common, ELEVATORS. No not really, flying of course. But... it turns out, with all his wide based aviation experience (not even counting what he does for a living, also aviation related, big time, and I don't mean as a airline pilot ((not that there's anything wrong with that )), this whole off airport, WAY off airport thing I was doing kinda blew his mind. When asked about training for such, I realized Lori MacNichols has a cabin right around the corner, probably 2 minutes in the Lear (but the landing would be a bitch), but still only 30 minutes or so in the PC-12, so I partially paid Joe back for my nickel tour by giving him Lori's contact #'s/info. It will be interesting to see where he goes with that, he was REAL interested in the S7-S. At one point I believe he asked how much air I had in the Airstreaks, he guessed 15 lbs. close i told him, 1.5 lbs.
A great trip, great host, incredible setup, world class doesn't come close to describing it, and perfect weather, though I finally ate breakfast at home about 2:30 in the afternoon.
