Friday, September 27, 2013

C-46 Cargo Plane Saga of 1974


In the early days of life on the Colville River, our family chartered large cargo planes to bring the year’s supplies into the homesite and also backhaul our commercial fish to market in Barrow and Fairbanks.  In the fall of 1974, Jim’s parents Bud and Martha were living in Fairbanks during the winter months so the younger sons Mark and Jeff could attend public school.  The folks did all the arranging of the supplies and cargo flights from their end in Fairbanks and Jim was in charge on the receiving end of the flights here on the Colville.  One flight turned out to involve the most amazing set of circumstances we ever experienced in all the years of flying.  I will insert direct quotes from my journal at times, but use brackets for the added information needed to help clarify comments.
    To begin with, we had a number of extra people living here with us and helping that fall with our commercial fishing operation and all the various activities of daily life.  My brother Mark Wartes and his wife Denise (& baby son Marwan) lived here on the Colville with us at the time, plus my close friend Brenda Smith was here and a young man, Roy Nieman.  We ran numerous nets and caught thousands of pounds of whitefish during the fishing season, so much of this product needed transported to market.  These fresh-frozen fish were sacked or boxed up as whole, individually frozen fish.  They were stacked and made ready for transport to market when our annual supply plane came from Fairbanks.  We also had to ready empty fuel drums and propane bottles to return to Fairbanks.  Some years there were other “backhaul” items, like trophy hides and horns taken by our hunting clients from earlier in the fall.
    Another job in preparation for a cargo flight was building a runway out on the river ice, since our dirt runway was too small for a large plane like a C-46.  Jim would have to chose the best location on the river right out front of our property and spend many hours clearing snow off the ice to create a smooth surface about 5000 feet long for the big-wheeled ship.  This was done with the John Deere 350 tractor. Once the runway was done, then drums were lined up along each side from one end to the other about 100 yards apart, thus giving the pilots a clear view of the runway’s position and length. We used flare pots on top the drums for light in dark hours.  These had to be lit by hand and were shaped like large, hollow cannon balls about 6" in diameter with a wick sticking out of the top.  We filled them with diesel fuel.  We also used 42 oz. cans with rolled up pieces of burlap as wicks.  Someone would have to drive up and down either side of the runway to light or extinguish these flares before and after a plane landed and took off. Once the runway was made, it had to be maintained until the flights were over, which could be several weeks long, so if the wind blew, the runway needed re-plowed to remove any snowdrifts.
       
    We had no radios to communicate with a plane, nor phones or radios at this time to communicate with people on the Fairbanks end of the scheduled “Supply Run”.  Jim would have to drive the approximately 15 miles to Oliktok, the closest place that had a phone available to us at the US military Dewline Site called POW II.  This trip took at least an hour each way over rough ice or frozen tundra with a snowmachine. From there Jim could call his parents in Fairbanks to get and give the latest news. We also could get messages from Jim’s folks over a regular broadcast radio station that aired personal messages twice a day, morning and evening. However, this was not foolproof, due to occasional bad radio reception. But it was the best we had in those days.

    Excerpts from my journal:
        11-12-74   “...We got a message from Dad tonight saying the C-46 flight is planned for the 19th.” [Message came over message hour on KIAK radio station from Fairbanks.]
        11-18-74    “...We were up early and doing all the pre-flight preparations for the C-46 flight due in tomorrow.  Fish bags and boxes, drums, propane bottles, and trophies were all loaded on the two tractor sleds [30' & 20'] and then pulled down to the river by tractor and positioned beside the ice runway. It was after 8 P.M. when Jim and Mark were finally done, having worked straight through all day with only a short break to eat. [Mark and Jim were the only guys here now, since Roy had returned to Fairbanks earlier.] I did daily chores of feeding the dogs, checking fox traps across the river, and the usual house and baby duties. Plus, I sawed enough firewood to last for two days, since tomorrow is expected to be extremely busy.”
        11-19-74   “We got up at 6 A.M. and Jim went out and put heat on the tractor. The radio message last night said the C-46 would arrive at 10:00. We all got ready [which meant tractor running, dressed in outdoor gear, snowmachines ready to drive out on the river, and out-going mail ready] but soon fog and low overcast skies made the flight questionable in our estimation. However, we waited in a state of readiness until 11:00 before concluding the plane wasn’t coming.” [At some point over the next few days we got another radio message indicating the next C-46 attempt would be on the 23rd.]
        11-23-74   “Jim got up at 4 A.M. and put heat on the tractor...the plane was due in at 9:00. We all went out to the runway to meet it, but after waiting about ½ hour, we all came back to the warm house.”
        11-25-74   “Jim got up at 4 A.M. again and put heat on the tractor, but at 6:45, we heard a radio message that the flight had cancelled. Later in the day, Mark and Jim drove to the Dewline to call Dad to order snowmachine parts for Mark’s Johnson, in the hope they could come up on the next flight. Plus, both guys asked Dad to order new snowmachines for them from the Shontz store in Barrow to be picked up and returned to us on the C-46 back-haul, after delivering fish to Barrow.” [The normal routine was that the C-46 brought supplies from Fairbanks to us here on the Colville, we reloaded the plane with fish that was then flown to Barrow, drums of fuel that had been delivered by supply ship earlier in the year and other supplies from Barrow were then loaded on the plane and flown back to us on the Colville. Next the plane was loaded again with fish and rest of the backhaul to go back to Fairbanks.]
        11-26-74   “Again Jim got up at 4:00 to put heat on the tractor, but at 5:00 he woke me to tell me he was very ill with dizziness and nausea.  We think he had gotten carbon monoxide poisoning from driving the Nordic snowmachine yesterday with the broken muffler.  I got up to help watch the tractor.  Jim started it at 7:00 in-between lying down to rest.  The plane was due in at 11:30 and Jim felt well enough to drive the tractor down to the ice runway by then.  Mark, Denise, and I drove down to the runway by snowmachine shortly before the arrival time. [Both Denise and I carried our babies on our backs under our parkas: Marwan at 7 months old, and Derek almost 2 years old.] We all waited beside the runway for about ½ hour before returning to the warmth of the house.  By 12:30, we had given up hope again for the day and went about our usual daily activities.” [That night our radio message on KIAK told us the flight was rescheduled for Saturday, the 30th.]
        11-30-74   “Up again at 4:00 am to begin another “C-46 Day”.  Again we went through the usual routine and again waited to no avail.”
        12-03-74   “Another scheduled C-46 flight today and we proceeded as usual with Jim up at 4 A.M. and subsequent preparations for a 10:30 arrival.  But again, NO PLANE!  Today was the 6th failed attempt. The evening radio message from Dad told us that the plane had actually started to leave Fairbanks today, but lost oil pressure in one engine and aborted take-off.
        12-04-74   “We had another C-46 preparations morning. Again no plane. After lunch, Jim got ready to go check his trapline.  I was outside feeding the sled-dogs when Brenda ran up to me and said a big airplane was circling us. [Not sure why I hadn’t heard it.  Maybe the barking dogs.] It was the C-46 and it came in and landed. It was about 1:00 P.M. Jim had just put the tractor away, so he ran and got it started again and quickly drove down to the ice runway.  Mark and I dashed for a snowmachine and drove to the runway also.  Dad and Jeff (Jim’s youngest brother) were aboard besides the pilots. Dad gave us the story of woes from his end of the stupidity and incompetence of Fairbanks Air Service’s operation.  After taking 4 hours yesterday to get the plane loaded [and this was with heavy equipment to help], the oil lines on the plane froze up, thus the loss of oil pressure when the plane was ready to take off. Then this morning they were ready to take off when the pilot discovered the gas tanks were low.  The company personnel had drained gas from the plane’s wing tanks to fill the Herman Nelson heaters that were keeping the plane warm while sitting there on the ground.  So, a fuel truck had to be called to come refill the wing tanks, taking several hours.  The circumstances for all the previous cancellations and delays were all just as ridiculous. We were able to unload the entire load in 40 minutes, all by hand.”  [The only mechanized equipment used were the tractor and one snowmachine to pull sleds up below the big cargo door.  Supplies were handed down to us to stack on the sleds.  The outboard plane engine was kept idling for heat on the -30° F. day.]
C-46 arriving at Colville_1973
       C-46 arriving on Colville River Ice Runway 
Loading C-46_1973
 Unloading Supplies

Unloaded hay for goats_1973
Unloading Hay for Dairy Goats

12-04-74 continued  “All our non-freeze groceries were frozen, so Dad asked us to make a list of it all so it could be replaced or we be reimbursed by Fairbanks Air Service for the loss due to their incompetence (letting it freeze aboard the plane during the delays). It was cases of fresh eggs, fresh produce, can milk, pop, and other things.”

Loading Fish Sacks From Off Tractor SledLoading C-46 w-tractor & sled_1973Loading C-46 w-fish bags_1973


12-04-74 continued    “By 3:00, the plane was reloaded with several hundred bags of fish for Barrow and it took off, with Dad aboard.  Jeff stayed with us on the Colville, and helped Mark and Jim load the big tractor sled with another load of fish that is for Fairbanks.  At 6:00 the flares were lit in preparation for the returning C-46 from Barrow.  We waited and waited! Jeff kept the flares filled with fuel...we finally gave up and picked up the flares at 10:00 P.M. ...we fell in bed exhausted about 11:30, wondering what had happened to the C-46 this time.”
        11-4-74   “The morning’s radio message said that, ‘the C-46 lost an air cooler and is down at Lonely [another Dewline site between Colville and Barrow] - everyone is okay.’  The message gave us no indication whether this happened going or returning from Barrow. [It turned out to be on the return from Barrow.] At 11:00, Jim left for the Dewline at Oliktok to call Dad at the Lonely Dewline site to find out what was happening...When he got back, he told us that another C-46 bringing parts for “our” C-46 was due to land at Lonely at 4 P.M. and if all went well, they hoped to be back to the Colville by 9:00. [At this point, to add to the problems of the delayed flight, Jim had problems with equipment.  He couldn’t get the tractor started due to battery problems, so had to start our small portable Onan generator in order to use the battery charger.  To his exasperation, that little generator wouldn’t start and Jim had to take it apart to trouble-shoot the problem.  He discovered a rusty magnet, sanded it clean and reassembled the generator. Now running, Jim was able to put the charger on the tractor battery plus also rigged up a bright electric flood light on top the house for added visibility of our place for the approaching plane.] Jim finally had the tractor out on the river waiting for the flight to come in and all the flares were lit again shortly before the flight was due.  We waited, and waited! Jim drove the tractor back about 12:30, but kept it running.  Jeff picked up the flare pots about 1 A.M.  Jim and I finally lay down on top our bed with our clothes on in case the plane suddenly showed up.”
        12-6-74   “No message heard this morning. Jim had kept the tractor idling all night, but soon put it away.  In the evening, a message from Mom in Fairbanks said that the the C-46 was returning direct to Fairbanks and we were to listen for a further message concerning how Jeff and Brenda were to get to Fairbanks.”  [Jeff was missing school and Brenda was scheduled to return to her home in Washington state.]
        12-7-74   “We heard no message about any flight, so went about our day. The guys went trapping and gathering firewood until mid-afternoon. Around 5:00, we heard a C-46 fly over us and circle the buildings.  The guys rushed out and lit the flares.  [In December, the sun is no longer rising above the horizon at all.]  However, the plane did not land, but flew on to the POW II Dewline and landed on the big runway there. [We could see this by watching the plane lights.] Jim debated as to if this meant we were to take Jeff and Brenda over there, but we decided to wait a bit to see what might develop. About an hour and a half later at 6:45, the C-46 took off from the Dewline and returned to the Colville complex, circled twice, buzzed low over the runway and came around again and landed.  With the guys all out at the runway, Denise, Brenda and I sat at the house wondering what in the world was happening. I was getting ready to walk out to the runway when Jeff drove up on a snowmachine to get Brenda for leaving on the plane.  We all went along to hear the story of what had been happening.  Two days ago the crippled C-46 from Lonely had unloaded our 30 drums of fuel from Barrow while at Lonely, but had kept our two new snowmachines and mail aboard and attempted to fly to Deadhorse.  However, more mechanical problems forced them to land at the Oliktok Dewline, POW II, where the snowmachines and mail were off-loaded. [Remember, this is the Dewline about 15 miles from our place.] The plane then made it back to Fairbanks in the wee hours of this morning. Dad got another plane in the afternoon to fly north again...this is the one that circled and then went on to POW II at Oliktok.  It landed there to pick up the snowmachines and mail and bring them back to us. The guys had off-loaded the snowmachines using large planks for a ramp out of the cargo door. Now the plane needed loaded with all the fish for Fairbanks stacked on the big tractor sled up by the house.  It would take too long to try and heat the tractor, so we all worked hard to move all the fish bags by snowmachine and small sled.  A platform was created half way up to the cargo door of the plane by laying a sheet of plywood across the top of 4 fuel drums.  Fish bags were handed up from snowmachine sled to a person on the plywood platform and that person threw the bag on up to someone standing inside the plane.  These are 70-90 pound bags, mind you.  All of us girls helped right along side the guys.  The plane was loaded, Brenda and Jeff aboard, and on it’s way back to Fairbanks by 8:00.  What a job! 
        “The biggest irony of the whole ordeal was over the tractor.  Jim had worked so hard heating and having the tractor ready for days on end...then when the plane finally did show unexpectedly to be loaded, we didn’t have the tractor ready.” [The tractor pulled the loaded sleds of fish right up to the cargo door and the sacks could be loaded directly from the sled, which acted like a loading platform in itself.  The heavy sacks had to handled twice as much without the tractor.]
        [ To conclude this saga, there were later attempts to retrieve the 30 drums of our fuel left at Lonely, but the several attempts I mention in my journal failed due to bad weather.  I never found further reference to them, so do not know if we ever got that fuel. Another note is that we experienced many flight delays during the years we chartered large cargo planes to deliver our supplies, but never to the degree of this particular episode.]

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Winter/Spring on the Colville 2013

 

In looking back over past posts, I realize that I post a lot about when I leave home on the Colville, instead of life here.  This is supposed to be mostly about life here on the Colville homestead. So this post will be a summary of winter conditions that make up our life here on the homestead. 

FIVE things define winter in the Arctic here on the Colville:

1.) DARK DAYS

The sun sets for the last time approximately November 24 of each year.  It has been decreasing in height above the horizon and later the time above the horizon since the “longest day” of the year on June 21st.  Although we do have twilight during several hours of mid-day as the sun approaches the horizon from the underside, most of the 24-hour day is dark. Of course, this period of a little light wans to the very darkest day of mid-winter and grows again as we get closer to the first sunrise on January 18th of the new year.  This lack of sunlight and long periods of darkness does affect our lives. winter twilight

 

Probably the predominate effect on us is less physical energy. Lack of daylight requires us to need more sleep.  A house full of electric lights lessens the decreased energy problem, but it still exists. We’ve learned to live with it – just get more sleep.

If you are interested in a detailed graph of the sun ‘s movements as we see it from our home, here is the link to a graph I created for our family web site: http://goldenplover.org/user/Colville_Village_Sun_Chart.pdf

2.)  WHITE LAND

Outside is white with snow, and abundant winds cause blowing snow to build drifts around buildings until we are surrounded and covered in blankets of white.  By the time spring thaw commences, we can have snowdrifts over 15 feet high around our buildings. We live in a land of strong winds which beat the drifting snow into rock hard mounds. We often have to dig out windows on the lower floor to see out and let light in.  We cut steps in the hard-packed snow to climb up and over drifts from one building to another, such as when walking between the main house and generator building. Jim is shoveling out the Powerhouse door.

Snowdrifts between buildings

house ground-level yard, grass15 foot snowdrift

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are two pictures near the same spot summer and late winter to show how deep the snow drifts get.

 

Although we do have days with blue skies and calm winds, fog or blowing snow and overcast skies produce many winter days of “white-out” conditions. This is when ground and sky blend together in all white, obscuring all shadows that allow a person to have depth perception.  You can try walking or driving a vehicle, like a skidoo, and not be able to see a thing!  It is like being blind in white, instead of all dark. You can step over a drop-off on a drift of snow, or suddenly bump into a wall of snow, never being able to see either.  When I have needed to get between buildings in such conditions, sometimes I’ve had to crawl, carefully feeling my way along.

Outdoors is this world of unending WHITE!  Few breaks in this ground whiteness exist in winter other then buildings or structures added by man, such as our buildings or recent petroleum industry facilities. Below is our house after a storm and the second picture is snow drifts out my kitchen window – snow that is mostly over 6 feet deep.The snow at the bottom of the picture is just out the window on our deck and is over 5 feet deep.

house in white worldsnow out kitchen window 

3.)    SEVERE COLD

Winter brings our coldest weather.   Temperatures in the minus Fahrenheit are most common, with –68 degrees the lowest ambient, and –105 degrees the coldest windchill.  Winter temperatures are almost always below zero.  Outdoor chores must continue regardless of conditions, and travel continues in all but the most severe conditions. Teena in parka

 

We dress for it!  Parkas with fur ruffs, mittens, mukluks (or “bunny” boots), etc.  We travel with survival gear and backup communication procedures. Life goes on.

 

 

 

4.)    INCREASED DIFFICULTY TO CHORES

We heat our house with wood.  Keeping the hungry stove supplied with wood is a major job, involving acquiring the wood year-round, cutting/chopping wood into stove length pieces, carrying it into the house, and maintenance of the stove and chimney system.  Of course, the cold of winter multiplies these chores many times over.wood chores #3

 

 

 

wood choreswood chores#2

Wood is collected and hauled home by snowmachine and sled.  It is cut, split and stacked, ready for use. For many years we had only drift willow that was deposited along the shorelines to dig out and bring home, but now-a-days it is gathered from industrial sites where it is scrap dunnage. It needs procured and hauled home.

 

Another chore that is greatly magnified in winter involves filling our indoor water tanks with water that is obtained from our nearby fresh water lake.  In summer, this is a chore that is greatly simplified by open water, hoses, and a water pump.  But during winter, when our water source is frozen solid, the chore becomes markedly more arduous.  A hole must be cut through the ice down to water with an ice chisel – by hand.  Five-gallon buckets (repurposed five gallon gas cans, in the old days) are used to dip and carry water - by hand – from the hole in the lake to the tank in the house.  Sometimes a sled is used to help move the buckets. It is hard work! Sometimes we have to carry ice chopped from the lake, and melt it inside, for our water. [See my post on “Water Day” earlier in blog for 5-29-2011]

One more chore that winter makes more complicated is moving 55 gallon drums of fuel.  Our electric generator burns diesel.  Much of our fuel is stored in 55-gallon drums away from the generator house and the adjacent  bulk tank that supplies the gen-set.  That tank needs refilled several times a winter, and big drifts of snow around the buildings in winter make it impossible to easily move those heavy fuel drums up to the big tank for refilling. It must be done with a snow-machine pulling a freight sled, and brute human strength, a few drums at a time. [We do not have heavy equipment for keeping snow cleared away from buildings and roadways in winter in order to facilitate moving heavy things, or other logistics.  We have to manage in other ways.]

5.)    WINTER WONDERS

There is so much natural beauty to winter in the Arctic, despite its logistics hardships.  The Aurora Borealis is undoubtedly the most impressive example of this.  Although the northern lights are shining year-round, during the darker days of winter is when we get the show.  (We can’t see them during our increased daylight seasons.) The colors, movement, and amazing expanse of sky filled with dancing lights is breathtaking.  It is never the same, and always awe inspiring.  Jim has incredible pictures of the Aurora Borealis as seen from our home regularly on clear nights:

Aurora & house#2Aurora out of space

 

Another winter phenomena is the bright moon reflecting on the great expanses of snow. You can even read by the moonlight it is so bright.  Yet another atmospheric phenomenon we see in our cold air conditions is ice crystals forming beautiful halos, parhelia (moon & sundogs) and other rainbow-like arc patterns around the moon and sun. These are unique to cold climates where ice crystals can form.

moon & aurora

  Moon, Stars, and Aurora over house.


Upper tangent arc,parhelic circle,parhelian, 22 degree halo, infralateral arc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

              Upper tangent arc, parhelic circle, parhelian, 22 degree halo.

halo, upper tangent arc

 

The snow itself is capable of great beauty.  Wind whips it around into astounding waves and patterns, often called sastrugi.  Sometimes the snow sparkles like fields of millions of diamonds, and when ice crystals fall from the sky on partly sunny days, individual flakes lie on the white ground like scatterings of intricate lace, every flake distinguishable, unique, and beautiful.

Carved snowdriftsSastrugi snow-drifts by Helmericks house on Colvillesastrugi by Jim

Carved snow-drifts can be very beautiful, although very difficult to navigate.  Imagine driving a snow-machine through rough terrain like this that is cement hard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Probably the most unusual atmospheric phenomenon we get to experience is incredible mirages. Without getting too technical, mirages are images of real objects that have been displaced by light being bent due to thermal gradients.  The object, which may be totally out of view under normal air conditions can suddenly appear in the distance in front of you. Made by reflected light from the real object, the mirage is a mirror image, or inverted. Sometimes there are multiple layers of the image, alternating between erect and inverted, but stacked directly above the real object (even below the real object occasionally). These optical phenomenon can cause what looks like entire cities to appear on the horizon – such as when we look toward oil company infrastructure centers, a  mirage can raise towers of  lights (in dark hours), or strange images in daylight, of unbelievable structures in the sky. Rows and rows of lights/objects that are really reflecting small, distant objects unseen under normal conditions.mirage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

light beams

“Light Towers” are other such refracted light phenomenon due to ice crystals in cold air.  These are amazing columns of light that rise high into the sky above real ground lights.

 

I have tried to give you a little insight into winter life on the Colville.  One of these days I’ll give a summary of summer.

All for now.

 

I have included photos here taken by both Jim and me.  For more amazing Arctic photography by Jim, go to his photography website: http://goldenplover.zenfolio.com/

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

HAWAII - Kauai 2013

 

I went to Kauai Island in Hawaii to attend my oldest son's wedding March 7-14.. I shared rent of a house in the Poipu area on the south side of the island with my brother Mark and wife Denise, and with my son Jay and his family, wife Amy and children Natasha, Melody & Elisha - there were 8 of us in a lovely house.

 Front Deck of our house in Koloa

 

 Backyard of our rental house on Puku Street

 

 

SUN and BEACH

About 12 people from both sides of the couple's families had come to Hawaii to celebrate the wedding with Derek and Cindy. Several days on either end of the wedding festivities were filled with relaxing on the beaches or adventurous activities for all of us.  First on the list was lots of beach and sun time.

 Poipu Beach

 

   Derek playing with Jay's kids

 

There was lots of boogy boarding in the smaller surf.  Natasha was unstoppable and quite good at catching those waves.  All three kids, Natasha, Melody & Elisha, had a wonderful time with their first ocean beach time. Elisha and Melody especially loved their sand castles and buckets of sand. I only have one picture of myself (Teena) coming out of the surf with my boogy board.  Because the waves had so ravaged my hair and I was exhausted, I just can't post the horrible picture. However, I'll just have to show the picture to my brother Eldon some day, because he specializes in taking pictures of me that show how hard I work and play.
:-)  Ha ha.

Derek and Melody

 

 Melody & Elisha in the sand. Boogy board surfers in background. 

 

 Ocean fun for all ages

 

  Adventure

One day Jay and family and I drove up and up the winding road to above 3400 feet to see parts of the amazing Waimea Canyon, called the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific”.                                                          

Teena & grandkids at Waimea Canyon Overlook

Teena  with Natasha, Melody and Elisha at Kalalau Lookout over Waimea Canyon

 

Looking way down.To Waimea Canyon (16)To Waimea Canyon (38)

 

   To Waimea Canyon (47)Jay and kids

 

 

River Kayak Adventure

One fun expedition was a guided kayak trip up the Wailua River and then a hike to the Secret Falls on a trail through the amazing trees and foliage that give Kauai the name of “Garden Island”.  This was another outing I did with Jay and family.  It was over 6 hours long.

 

 

 

  

Plants and Flowers

A trip to Hawaii wouldn’t be complete for me without a visit to a Botanical Garden. How I love all the beautiful greenery and flowers!  Below is just a very small sampling of pictures.  Most of these pictures were taken in the McBryde Gardens on the western side of the island.

 

 

 

 

 

THEN THE WEDDING

 

Derek and Cindy were married in the beautiful Plantation Gardens (& Restaurant) on March 11th.  It was a beautiful outdoor wedding, with a small group of guests, a beautiful setting, and lots of gorgeous plants and flowers. The ceremony ended with a pair of white doves being released by the newly- wed couple to signify the new marriage. We also had a wonderful dinner, were entertained with local singers and hula dancers, plus a fire-dancer after dark.

 Mr. & Mrs. Helmericks - beach couple

 

 

 

 

Derek and Cindy with Derek’s mom Teena and brothers Aaron and Jay.      D&C with Teena, Jay, Aaron

 

 

 

 

 


                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

 

Final Day In Kauai

Early on the day I had to leave Kauai, my brother Mark drove Denise and I all around the east and north shores of the island. There were so many beautiful beaches, bays, mountains nearby, farmland, and the famous Kilauea Point Lighthouse and National Wildlife Refuge.

 

A wonderful time was had by all!