The Breakfast Club
An Affiliate of the
The Knife & Fork
Breakfast Club Visits Valle, Grand
Canyon Inn
11 Sept 04
by Warren McIlvoy
The September
Breakfast Club event saw the group travel
a bit further north this time to a place called Valle. Valle is
about 20 miles or so south of Tusyan the
"gateway to the
We departed
The traffic pattern of the day was right downwind for runway 19 and after
turning-off at the mid field taxiway, I parked in one of the few remaining
spaces that was available. The Breakfast Club folks were gathering in small
groups waiting for the last of the masses to arrive. The Grand Canyon Inn was
about a half mile hike down the road and in all, there were about three waves
of Breakfast Club folks making the short trek.
Valle is somewhat of an enigmatic place in that I could not really
discern why it exists. I could not find any printed history in any of the web
search engines and other than the fact that it is located at the highway
junctions of US 180 and
Meanwhile back at the Grand Canyon Inn, the size of the Breakfast Club group
dictated that we would be seated at a number of different tables. This allowed
for a wide variety of hangar flying and swapping of
tall tales and lies. The food was typical of a motel dinning room and
acceptable for a fly-in but remember, it is the
journey not the destination. We had in attendance some folks that I had not
seen for some time and then there were some who have been on the email list for
a while but this was their first experience with a group fly-in.
After our breakfast and the mandatory tour of the motel gift shop, it was back
to the airport to take a gander at some of the old fighter aircraft that are
part of the Planes of Fame Museum. Since our last visit several years
ago, the Museum had constructed a new building to the south of the terminal.
From the outside, it looked larger than the old facility that is north of the
terminal. Outside of the new building stands the Lockheed Constellation
that was used by General Douglas MacArthur during his Pacific campaign
when it had the military designation of C-121. We took the tour through
it the last time that we were here but not this time. Another interesting
change from our last visit was the antique car collection that is housed in the
terminal building. They are all Fords ranging in vintage from the mid teens to
the early 30's. All are in excellent condition rivaling those on the showroom
floor in their day. I have included a few of the pictures at the end of this
story.
Fuel at Valle was listed at $3.10 and more than we pay at
After fueling-up, we walked over to the new terminal building to check into
transportation on the 24th when we will take the Grand Canyon
Railroad up to the Canyon for the weekend. There was not a soul in sight
and only the office door was open. After "casing the joint" looking
for a card with the office phone number on it, and finding none, we exited the
office and began the short walk back to our aircraft. But just then a truck
pulled-up and an elderly gentleman greeted us. He said that he was the airport
manager and I inquired of him about getting a ride into town on the 24th.
He said that they have two "airport limos" for our use.
I told him that we would need it for the three days that we would be up there
and he said that would not be a problem. He said to "just leave the
keys over the sun visor and if they need the car, that they would know where to
find it". That works for me. So, with everything all squared away in Williams,
it was back into the air for the ride home. A great day for aviating, meeting
new friends and some old ones, and a plan coming together, what more could you
ask for?
The Valle Gang
What's Next?
The October Breakfast Club event will see us making an encore visit to Page and
the Wahweep Marina. In November, we will be returning
to
Click on the Valle link to view photos of the fly-in event.