Breakfast Club


The Knife & Fork

Breakfast Club Visits Globe, Finds Gold



11 Dec 04
by Warren McIlvoy


In honor of the last Breakfast Club event of the year, we were greeted with outstanding flying weather for our event to Globe, Arizona. Globe is only about 60-80 miles, depending on where you fly from, but it offers some great scenery while en route.

Our departure out of Scottsdale would take us over the southern end of the McDowell Mountains and over Fountain Hills. I had to hold our altitude under 6000' until we crossed over the Beeline Highway (St Rt 87) due to the overlying Class B airspace. From there, it a climb to 7500' for the rest of the flight. The trip up the Salt River chain of lakes is always worthy of some serious sightseeing. Sahuaro Lake is the first lake (or last if you are flying westward), followed by Canyon Lake, Apache Lake, and finally, Roosevelt Lake. We did not exactly fly over Roosevelt Lake but, rather, we cut the corner southwest of the dam for a more direct route to Globe.

Chatter on our air-to-air frequency was moderately heavy so the turn-out held promise to be good. Approaching Globe from the northwest takes you over the open pit copper mines that dominate the environs in this part of the state. I could hear on the unicom frequency that the winds were calm and I suggested to the group that we make a right down wind entry to runway 27 as that would shorten the taxi to the ramp on the west end of the airport. Speaking of the ramp, the new ramp was constructed right across the highway from the Apache Gold Resort and Casino. This new location shortened the hike to the casino by about 250 yards. By the time that I taxied-in, the ramp was half full of BreakfastClub aircraft.

The Apache Gold Resort and Casino is not overly large when compared to those in Laughlin but it has it's share of the familiar slot machines dominating the core area of the floor. On an elevated (about 5') level of the main floor, is the balance of the casino with it's variety of gambling opportunities to separate you from your cash. The restaurant is located on the north side of this elevated area and is divided into two choices, a buffet and a menu order section. But there have been some changes since our last visit. The Wickiup Buffet is open for breakfast only on Sunday mornings and evening meals. The Apache Grille was available for ordering off the menu, I guess that we will opt for the Apache Grill. We were seated in the series of tables and booths that kept most of our group relatively in tact. We were promptly greeted by our waitress and our food orders were delivered in a reasonably short period of time considering the sudden arrival of 23 people. The portions were ample and tasty and, best of all, casino priced.

With all the money that we had saved on the morning's breakfast, it made good sense, for my wife anyway, to see if she could double-up our savings. While my wife invested our savings, I wondered around the casino floor area to take-in the show of watching folks invoke their individual techniques of coercing the slot machines to give-up their treasures. Needless to say, our savings on breakfast did not manifest itself into a bonanza at the slots. I had to rescue my wife from the tentacles of "promised riches" before it was to late or at lest, with minimal damage to our IRA.  You can visit the casino web site at: http://www.apachegoldcasinoresort.com

After the mandatory "pit stop", we exited the casino and started our shortened trek back to the airport. While walking south along the Resort entryway and parking lot, I noticed a very amusing sight, a speed limit sign in the parking lot displaying an 11 mile per hour speed limit. I was pondering what the consequences might be if you drove 15 miles per hour. Was that limit imposed to accommodate stray livestock that might have wondered out from the adjoining, new, rodeo and concert arena or what? 11 miles per hour, you've got to be kidding me!

Our return trip was, more or less, a retracing of the route that we took on the way into Globe. I was talking to BC-51 about locations and scenery when we got a call from a guy flying to some place in New Mexico, inquiring about what the Breakfast Club was. I explained who we were and what we did and he said that he flies out of Chandler and was interested in joining our group. I told him to look-up our web site and to send me an email from the site with the information that I needed. Tyler McLain is now a member of the Breakfast Club.

The Apache Gold Crew


What's Next?

The Breakfast Club will "kick-off" our 12th year of monthly fly-ins by making an encore visit to Parker and the Blue Water Resort & Casino. We last did this trip in January of 04 and, for some unknown reason, we had the largest attendance of any Breakfast Club fly-in's. The Blue Water Resort has a very unique indoor swimming pool and water slide that is worth taking a look at. The February event will see the returning to Kingman and the airport café. That's all for now but remember, fly safe.

Below are some photos that I took of the Globe event. Just click on the link and enjoy.

Globe Ramp Scene      Jeri McIlvoy & Patricia Wallace      Apache Gold Resort      BC Group      Speed Limit is What?

New Rodeo & Concert Arena      Resort  From the New Ramp