Helicopter from Los Angeles to Maskachusetts, Part 7 (Kentucky to Great Barrington)

by philg

I was delighted that the brief trip from the hotel to the airport included a view of the following car:

Not sure if I love the reference to Talladega Nights or “I Identify as a Problem” more.

A powerful politician directed a river of federal tax dollars into the KSME airport back in 2006 to build a world-class commercial airline terminal:

It has never been used.

We fired up and vaguely followed the Ohio River to Parkersburg, West Virginia (KPKB). We enjoyed tailwinds of up to 30 knots, but combined with the terrain that also made for bumps so we once again climbed as high as 7,500′. Note the Tesla charging station, below.

Parkersburg features a sometimes-used commercial terminal, thanks to continuing applications of your tax dollars into the Essential Air Service program. We enjoyed some breakfast there and got a lesson in philately as well as in how wrong people are in their perceptions of inflation. A luxurious four-seat piston-powered aircraft, the Beech Staggerwing, cost $9,250 and first class postage was 32 cents in 1997 (the stamp is now worth about 1.75 Bidies).

A photo of the Ashokan Reservoir in the Catskill Mountains about 20 minutes before descending into KGBR:

Here’s Torrance’s finest product with 30.7 hours on the collective meter:

The happy owner supplied us with an Enterprise rental car, pre-tuned to NPR, for the trip to Boston/Cambridge.

As previously noted here, we were offered free samples of healing marijuana within 30 minutes of our arrival in Maskachusetts:

Every crosswalk in Great Barrington is painted in the sacred colors:

Retailers post signs for the world’s smartest humans:

They also worship the Sacred Rainbow in Stockbridge:

The world’s smartest humans are provided with instructions for how to use the devices depicted above:

Except for the final trip down the Mass Pike, including an inflation-free $15/person meal at McDonald’s, that was it!

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4 thoughts on “Helicopter from Los Angeles to Maskachusetts, Part 7 (Kentucky to Great Barrington)”

  1. What lake is pictured in the photo of the berkshires (don’t recognize it)? Also, thinking you meant KGBR (not KBGR)?

    • I fixed the airport identifier. Thanks!

      Let me do some archaeology on the photo. The EXIF data says Lat 41 51 53N and Long 74 20 18W. So I think that’s actually Catskills and the lake would be Ashokan Reservoir. I will correct the original post.

  2. One of these days I will go down the dark path to determine how the “Traditional” airport lounge seat came into existence. No matter where you can you can always seem to find the black, 45-degree-ish angle lounge chair in an airport, whether that is a local FBO or BOS.

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