In May of 2009 Sherri and I loaded our bags into the plane and pointed the nose towards West Yellowstone. The plan was to spend a few days visiting the park, and then to fly to South Dakota to meet up with Gene and Janet Larsen who would be flying in from Iowa to meet us. In South Dakota we were planning to visit the Black Hills before attending the "Dakota Thunder" airshow at Ellsworth Air Force Base as the grand finale of sorts to our vacation.
Our first flight leg would have us crossing the Sierra Nevada's and then making our way across Nevada and into Utah. We picked Wendover Field as a planned fuel stop due to its distance from our home, thereby meeting our biological needs. We also wanted to see the museum on the airport honoring the bomber crews that trained at this location during World War ll. It was at this location that the crews trained for the upcoming atomic bomb missions that would ultimately end the war. On display at the museum and gift shop is a replica of the Hiroshima bomb called "Little boy."