David writes...                                    

After a good night's sleep, Glen White hauled us back to Okotoks' Air Park.  We saddled up and headed northwest with the goal of making Fort St. John or even Fort Nelson.  Our first stop for the day was going to be Whitecourt--2 hours up the road.  About half way there, we picked up some turbulence and we watched the cumulonimbus begin to form to the west of us near the mountains.  Earl and Jim were a bit faster and were 30 miles ahead of me landing at Whitecourt.  The line of thunderstorms were forming and getting thicker traveling north east--coming at me from behind and left.  At 20 miles out I called Whitecourt Radio and got the advisories.  Just as I was getting the update, the wind shear, which was about 2 miles ahead of the storm, hit the plane hard like a hammer.  I turned right and  headed for Edmonton, while relaying a message to Grande Prairie that I was diverting and, if possible, to let Earl and Jim know and update my flight plan.   Looking at the chart, I noticed a little strip just 7 miles up the road--a lot closer than Edmonton would be.  I headed direct to it to take a look.  Turned out to be a nice little strip called Mayerthorpe.  After a pass, I put down and taxied up to the little shack.  There were two Piper Braves (crop dusters) sitting on the pad.  A rough, but friendly, man welcomed me.  I explained why I was there and apologized for dropping in unannounced.  He said no problem.  We took a look back towards Grande Prairie and the sky was black and turning green.  Just as I tied the plane down, the wind hit.  We went inside and had a cup of coffee.

Turns out the crop duster and his wife are running a little business out of that field for the summer.  Shortly after I arrived a local farmer arrived and the three of them settled on a couple fields that needed to be sprayed.  They spoke about what chemical and the time of day it would be applied--both, I was to learn, have a great impact on how effective the treatment would be.  

I also learned that this part of Canada is having a terrible problem with grasshoppers this year.  The crop duster had sprayed several fields three times already this year--good for him, but bad for the farmers.  Walking across the grass to the shack, there were hundreds of them.

I broke out a couple packages of beef jerky that Earl made.  We sat in the little shack for about three hours and had a pleasant conversation on a lot of topics.  When things started to clear up, I called Edmonton Flight Service and verified Whitecourt was open.  It was, so I hopped in and flew the short trip.  Jim was waiting...Earl had gone into town for a rental car.  

After catching up, I learned that just as Earl and Jim parked the plane and tied down, the storm hit them.  They said the tarmac was a lake and the wind was very strong.  Good thing I didn't try to make it in.

While I was in Mayerthorpe, Earl and Jim were sitting in the Whitecourt pilot's lounge striking up a conversation with some other folks flying up the Alaska Highway.  Dave, after two years, convinced his wife, Judy, to take their Cessna 180 on a trip to Alaska.  John and Steve were friends in the software business--seemed one was a developer and the other a distributor.  Anyway, John is from the U.S. and Steve is from England.  Each year for the past four or five years, they have been rotating between the U.S. and Europe, making interesting flights.  This year, they are flying the Alaska Highway in a Piper J-3 cub (this isn't the Super Cub, but the original Cub that you fly from the back seat when you fly solo).  Next year, they want to try to fly to every airport in Ireland.  Interesting people and I got to meet them when I finally arrived at Whitecourt.   It will turn out that both parties will be a part of our trip tomorrow and most likely the rest of the way up the Alcan.

We didn't make a great distance today, but we were happy we all made good decisions, were safe, and got to know some new friends.    

David.

P.S.  We found out later on the news that the storm had done damage all across the northern part of Alberta.  It was powerful and included some tornadoes...

Flying was more concentrated today...didn't take much time to snap many pictures.  This was taken about 40 miles out of Whitecourt--about 10 minutes before the thunderstorm really built up.