The flight across Michigan...both the state and the lake...was uneventful and Milwaukee appeared right where it was supposed to.
Summerfest had just kicked off with over 700 live musical acts performing from noon till midnight for a week at a gorgeous lakefront venue....very overlooked.

Beer is involved in Summerfest...and brats
Think Miller, Schlitz, Pabst and Blatz...all started in Milwaukee


Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava designed the annex to the art museum. It should be near and dear to every pilot.

I've never before seen a building that looks as though it would be more at home in the air than on the ground.

Throw in the Harley Davisdon Museum




and you have a destination worth going out of the way for.
by the way, Timmerman Field has intersecting parallel runways...one paved, one sod. But I digress.

After a series of severe weather events, I said my goodbyes and headed west. I set the GPS on Valentine and the Sand Hills of Nebraska.
A half hour into the flight, Madison, the state capital comes into view

straddling lakes Menona and Mendota.

Menona is where Otis Redding ended his last flight.
The Wisconsin River becomes visible off my right ring and I follow it untill it crosses beneath me at Boscabel.
10 more minutes, the Mississippi.


A scattered layer develops across Iowa.

A couple miles past the Mason city airport is Clear lake, IA...home to the Surf Ballroom...last stand of Ritchie, Buddy and the Big Bopper...now more than 50 years gone.

The sky opens and the land flattens as Iowa runs out.

The James River...over it's banks from days of rain...meets the Missouri just east of Louis and Clark Lake at Yankton, SD.

Further the Pickstown Dam at the Lake Andes recreational area...

and finally, Niobrara fills the windscreen. We're almost there.

Little Keya Pana feeds Niobrara

Valentine ahead. I always mark the beginning of "west" here, where farms end and ranches begin.

Down for the night.

Thanks for the great pictures! I sure would like to make a flight across the midwest one of these years.

I thoroughly enjoy trucking across the midwest/upper midwest/and the whole northeast during the spring, summer, and fall months. I always wonder what the landscape looks like from above. I know to some or most, it's just flat and farm after farm. But to me, the way everything is layed out and the landscape, rivers, lakes, it just seems to be art to me. Just endless landscape and scenery to look at.

For sure....I've done it on motorcycles, but this is my first time west in the air...really wonderful. I'm glad you enjoyed it./ LT

Nice pictures. I have a Harley but it doesn't look like the one in the museum....

Thanks...and just what would you do with a "museum piece?"

Great pictures!! I've ridden cycle thru that area several times, very nice scenery.

Just one thing.. "intersecting parallel runways.." ?? Haha