There’s truly no place like home, and after a few long years, the prospect of reconnecting with my roots filled my heart with joy, especially since our summers are typically whisked away by wildfires. With Aaron tirelessly battling fires in Ontario, I seized the opportunity to dedicate a week celebrating Zoey’s early 8th birthday alongside my parents, who were camped out at my brother’s Idaho haven.
Todd has devoted countless summers to transforming his getaway into a dream retreat, and this year was no exception. With our dad— the official “professional”— by his side, Todd seized the moment, building a magnificent lean-to on his pre-existing structure. Each morning unfolded with the promise of shared labor as they worked on that project while Mom and I cherished precious playtime and storytelling with Zoey, all against the backdrop of stunning scenery.
When the boys reached a point where lunch beckoned, it was our turn to share cherished childhood memories with Zoey, introducing her to the thrill of shooting a BB gun and mastering the bow and arrow under Papa’s expert guidance. I even crafted a delightful birthday scavenger hunt, a labor of love that brought immense joy to both of us.
Our adventure included a serene visit to the river, watching others float down while sharing a sweet ice cream cone from town. Yet, as always, the moments with loved ones slipped by too swiftly—filled with laughter, radiant morning sunrises over steaming coffee, card games, storybooks, and Zoey’s entertaining concerts. As we savored every second together, the bittersweet moment arrived to bid adios, holding on to the promise of our next reunion
Aaron and I consider ourselves worldly travelers. But in the next paragraph or so, you will read where we made some major oopsies and probably need to be downgraded to “most of the time” great travelers. The night before our departure, Aaron tried to check us in online, but there was an issue with his passport. I figured we would just go a little earlier in the morning and we would figure it out at the airport. Aaron had a sinking feeling as we knew his passport only had 2 more months until it expired. We started doing some research. Why didn’t we do this before we booked this destination? Well, that’s oopsie #1. French Polynesia requires 6 months before expiration on your passport to enter. I was confused why we would be allowed to buy our tickets, entering our passport information, and not be able to travel so I wasn’t worried—Aaron was!
After a sleepless night, Aaron decided to call the US Embassy (located in Fiji) that was in charge of French Polynesia. As it turns out, Aaron was right! If you don’t have 6 months on your passport, you are not allowed to enter. We pled our case, told them our situation, why we were working in Australia, and killed her with kindness. She said she would see what she could do and would call us back. After maybe 45 minutes, she told us to email this Chris guy Aaron’s passport, our itinerary, and our tickets, and he would handle it. We thought we just hit the jackpot and saved about 8k in lost vacation bookings! We got ourselves ready and headed to the airport, awaiting the document letter from Chris. After 2 hours of waiting, our only option was to try and call this Chris guy. He ironically picked up the phone and he thought we were traveling the next day. Aaron said, no, we literally leave in 4 hours. So with no time to spare and about 25 minutes before they closed check-in, we miraculously got the letter and headed to board. We were so relieved and excited! We couldn’t believe what just happened and that we pulled off the inevitable—well, Aaron did!
After Aaron surprised me with a first-class upgrade, we headed for Auckland. I was still on cloud nine that this vacation was going to happen. We would have a short 1-hour transfer in Auckland and then off to paradise. We landed in Auckland on time, but we noticed there was a lot of rain. We had to run to catch our next flight, but got there when it was boarding and went to our seats. Once we got settled in, we noticed the rain was really coming down. After almost an hour delay on the plane, Aaron started looking at outgoing flights and noticed many had turned around. Departure was set for 6:40 pm and at 10:30 pm the captain came online and said there would be no flights leaving Auckland as the airport was flooded. It was a complete shit show; they told us to get off the plane and find a place to sleep inside the airport as everyone was locked in for the night. We went up to the Air New Zealand lounge and got settled in for the night.
To make a long story short, the airport was shut down for 3 days, we lost Aaron’s AirPods and Bose headphones on the airplane, barely could find hotels in Auckland as the flooding impacted everyone, and after day 2, Aaron luckily went ahead and found us a flight or we would probably still be there today waiting on a rebook. We canceled a few of our reservations and everyone was willing to work with us, which was amazing. Once we finally arrived in Papeete (at 1:30 am), we realized we were a whole day off and one day early for everything—you know, that thing called time change—oh yeah! Nonetheless, we finally made it; we had 8 days in paradise and we can laugh about it all now!
After a day in Papeete, we jetted off to Bora Bora, one of my bucket list places to visit. We had to take the ferry over to Moorea as our flight left from there…we were playing catch up with some of our previous bookings before the Auckland setback. The flight from Moorea was 45 minutes, and we had to wait for a quick weather storm to pass at the airport before we could land. Once we landed, you can see why this place is absolute paradise. From the luxury overwater bungalow resorts to the colorful turquoise crystal clear waters below…the natural beauty of the island just set the mood. Our 3-day stay consisted of renting scooters which took us around the island and in full view of Otemanu, stopping along the way in the major settlement of Vaitape, snorkeling with black tip sharks and stingrays, eating the most amazing seafood, attending a Polynesian luau, and much-needed relaxation…in paradise!
It was hard to imagine another utopia such as Bora Bora, but Moorea proved to be just that. The island was definitely more laid back and much more reasonable than our previous stop, without giving up its surreal scenery. We had to take the ferry back over (which by now we were pros). Once we arrived, we couldn’t check in for about 5 hours, so we figured since we were also professionals at renting scooters, we better get going. So after dropping our luggage off at the hotel, we rode around the entire island (50 miles), zipped up to the Belvedere lookout giving us panoramic views of the island’s peaks, stopped by Opunohu Bay, and traveled through Cooks Bay, whilst stopping at yet another incredible lunch spot overlooking the ocean. The overwater bungalow had the best snorkeling out of all the places we went, so every day I went out for a few hours…it was absolutely breathtaking and I saw different fish every time…truly one of the most amazing things I have witnessed. We had a few Mai Tais for our buddy Nancy Pants and just enjoyed being in true paradise. Life is good and we are humbly blessed!
Little did Aaron and I know this would be our last winter for a while working in Australia for bushfires and flood relief, which I am excited to share more about in a later blog post! Normally, we arrive in Victoria and prepare to respond to bushfires around our Mansfield home base, but we were thrilled to be called in early to assist with flood relief in New South Wales. Our relief efforts took us all over the beautiful state of New South Wales, providing us with the wonderful opportunity to explore and discover new surroundings and environments, which was a delightful change from our usual time spent in Victoria.
We had a few days off this time around to go and explore other parts of Australia so we took advantage of having that time away and headed off to the Gold Coast for a few days and then up to Cairns in Queensland. The one positive about working 24/7 and working all over the globe we are able to collect hotel points along the way. We were able to score an amazing hotel room right on Surfers Paradise Beach.
After a quick trip to the Gold Coast, we made our way up to Cairns. Our first stop was the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway and the Kuranda Riverboat Tour, where we floated just a few meters above the stunning tropical rainforest in the Barron Gorge National Park. Next, we zoomed over to Fitzroy Island for a chill day soaking up the sun and playing in the sand. To wrap things up, we went on a fun croc spotting adventure at Hartley’s. North Queensland is home to the biggest and most dangerous reptiles out there, and we definitely didn’t want to miss seeing those guys!
After spending a few days away, returning to reality reminds us that we’re concluding our final Christmas in Oz and bidding farewell to what may be our last bushfire season in Australia for the foreseeable future. Our time in Australia always fills us with joy, and it truly feels like a second home to us. The warmth of the people, the stunning landscapes, and the rewarding work draw us back year after year. As we leave this beautiful place, it will forever hold a special place in our hearts. Until we meet again, dear Oz… please remain the kind and welcoming haven we’ve always cherished!
To celebrate Aaron’s birthday, we decided to tick off another destination from my bucket list. It’s a win-win situation: Aaron’s birthday and my bucket list! Alaska has always been a dream destination for me. My parents have taken cruises there multiple times, and the sheer beauty of the land is simply breathtaking.
We spent a day in Vancouver to fully celebrate Aaron’s special day. Then, we boarded the Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas for the next seven days. Our itinerary took us along the Inside Passage, stopping at Skagway, Haines, Juneau, and Icy Strait Point.
Juneau, the state capital, may have only 30,000 residents, but it’s incredibly remote. This town, created by the gold rush, is filled with outdoor activities. We decided to take a bus to get closer to the Mendenhall Glacier. After a walk to the glacier, we indulged in some delicious Alaskan crab to satisfy our hard-earned appetite.
Skagway, another gold rush town, is much smaller compared to the other stops on the Inside Passage. Here, you can immerse yourself in the 1800s through its well-preserved historic relics. Aaron and I took the train through the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, which was a scenic and authentic way to experience the local sights.
We departed Australia on March 17th and by the time we touched down in LAX both of our phones were blowing up with phone calls and text messages. We panicked as normally this is never good news, but as it turns out, the USFS awarded our helicopter company 2 Exclusive Use contracts…which was inconceivable hat we were awarded one…let alone two!!! Our S61 was awarded Oakridge, Oregon with a start date of June 1 and our SuperPuma was awarded Libby, Montana with a June 17 start date. The reasons I mention the start dates are for many reasons. Once we stopped jumping up and down and hugging each other uncontrollably in the International Terminal of LAX…the realization came of what needed to happen in order to even begin to fulfill these 2 contracts. SEVENTY-SIX DAY’s… 76 days were all that we had to pull the rabbit out of the hat. Good news…we had the helicopters….bad news…we had NOTHING ELSE!
If only I had documented each day of the 76 days we had. It actually gives me a bit of anxiety typing this entry thinking back about those days. The tasks ahead of Aaron and I were insurmountable. At one point, Aaron and I considered asking them to take one contract back as we just didn’t think we could pull this off. We are good…but maybe not that good.
Here is just a sample of some of the items we needed to have done by June 1: Find 2 “workable” Jet A fuel trailers (not an easy task at all and still during Covid mind you), find drivers to pull those trailers (this is TOP priority as no fuel…no flying), weigh both helicopters to make sure they make weight (won’t even start on that topic), once we obtain fuel trailers, make sure they have all the required equipment on them (also a lengthy list), make sure helicopters have all the required USFS equipment installed in order to be carded…oh ya…carding…each helicopter and fuel trailer must be inspected by a designated USFS employee to make sure it makes contractual requirements and must be scheduled before your start date (you would think scheduling would be easy, but not this time of year as every other vendor is doing the same thing also during Covid), hire Pilots, hire Crew Chiefs, hire seconds, get 2 service trailers to haul all our equipment, order more Bambi buckets, order fire shelters, once we have enough pilots, get them all carded by the USFS (also must be scheduled with a USFS representative and on each helicopter), rent trucks to pull the trailers, work visas for our Canadian workers that don’t already have them, travel letters to get them across the border that they are essential workers, company training, have required paperwork documentation, pilot records, mechanic records, all things that usually take a good year to put together….we had 76 DAYS…and it was just Aaron and I.
There are too many stories to even begin to tell during these 76 days and I am sure I would run out of blog space…but unbelievably Aaron and I pulled off one of the most epic USA seasons we have ever managed. We had both helicopters fully staffed for the entire duration…during Covid, during a Jet A Nationwide shortage, crossing International borders with employees during Covid, all things Covid! The S61 did 150 consecutive days on contract only missing 2 days for scheduled maintenance. The SuperPuma did 120 days on contract missing a total of 1/2 day availability due to not getting a part…COVID.
It honestly still gives me chills that we pulled this off. The S61 never did one day in Oakridge, OR (which is actually another funny story…sorry mum and dad). It started in Weaverville, CA and ended in Chico, CA. The SuperPuma started in Helena, MT…did at one point go to Libby for a couple of weeks, then finished its contract in Porterville, CA. We were so very proud of the crews for their tireless efforts all summer long. It took each and everyone of us to make it happen….and we did it….with 76 Days and counting…
While most of the world shut down for Covid, Australia Bushfires didn’t. One of our helicopters transitions from Indonesia fighting fires during the summer months to Australia for the winter season (summer season for the southern hemisphere) to assist with bushfires. Our base in Australia is out of Maindample, VIC and we have been going over for years. It works out perfectly as our USA season ends around Oct/Nov and Australia is just about to start…so with a few weeks off to reset, we head over around the end of November and go until about March. Australia has almost become a second home for Aaron and I…we absolutely love it there! The people are incredible, the landscape is dreamy, and the critters are abundant.
Due to Covid, travel for everyone basically stopped. Fortunately for us, the jobs kept coming in, but it became almost impossible for us to go anywhere and get the jobs done. When we go to Australia, work visa’s are always required and normally are very easy for us to obtain and once submitted it usually takes no more than a week to receive. As with everything during Covid, these became nearly impossible to get and if it wasn’t for some pretty influential folks, I don’t think we would have been able to get them to fulfill our obligations over there.
Normally crew changes are not a big deal, but due to the fact that ticket prices were astronomical and everyone coming in had to quarantine for 2 weeks, we basically were left with a small handful of employees that either had to do 2 months on or do a stay-on-stay-on schedule for the entire duration…something Aaron and I are both unfortunately used to.
Now for the fun part…14 DAY QUARANTINE! All incoming flights to Victoria, Australia had to enter Sydney for the 14 day quarantine period. There were many hotels that were only used for quarantine purposes and you never knew which one you would end up in. We got super lucky and were right downtown Sydney with a view of the harbour. Honestly, I thought we hit the jackpot. We came with another crew member, and he was down the hall a few doors down but on the opposite side with a view of the street (this becomes crucial info later 🙂
I will admit, getting off the airplane in Sydney, being transferred through the airport like prisoners, having to take an immediate covid test upon arrival, waiting in lines for hours, continuing to be led to unknown places, put on buses, transferred to an unknown destination…it really made me realize I can’t do prison! Once we arrived to the hotel, we were all put in separate lines, had to give lots of personal information incase we were taken to the hospital, pay in advance for the hotel stay, and then go over all the rules and regulations. Once again….prison info! We were then led to our rooms where once the door was shut, you could only open it up 3 times a day for meals…and you must wait 10 seconds after the knock on the door so the person didn’t come into any contact with you….you guessed it…prison.
Once we got settled in and checked out the view, we thought..this is a cakewalk. We had more paperwork once we got inside, we realized we could order food from door dash if we didn’t like what we got for food from the hotel, we also could order one bottle of wine a day, but they did daily checks to make sure you weren’t drinking in excess and they also had mental health checks everyday as well. We thought this was odd…but then realized after a few days how your mind can really take over! One of our friends that had just got out of quarantine explained it the best. He said days 1-4 you are just getting used to the new environment, getting great sleep as you always have so much work to do at home or on the job, binge watching tv and eating junk food. Days 5-9 your mind takes over, you can’t open a window to get fresh air, you start panicking that you can’t live like this, you have watched every possible channel on the t.v., you have taken 4 showers and 2 baths in a day just to kill time, you hand wash your clothes to kill time, you start a new fitness routine only to realize how out of shape you are, and you start thinking about how to escape. Then days 10-14 roll around and you have anxiety of going back out into the real world again, how you have enjoyed your quite time, maybe this isn’t so bad, you don’t really have responsibilities in life lol, maybe this is what you are meant to do for the rest of your life! ROLLERCOASTER OF EMOTIONS!
That’s pretty much every thought Aaron and I had. Aaron brought along a adult coloring book and I mocked him for packing it, yet I became the sole colorer. I started a website for our company. We went through years of emails, text messages, and stored cache on our computers. We organized music on our iTunes. We became super efficient at guessing the next letter of the sky writer airplane in the sky. We had a fun game once we ordered door dash with our coworker on the opposite side…once we would order the food, we would all take guesses at what the person looked like and what kind of bicycle they would be on (this is why his location at the hotel was so important in the end lol). We figured out when the doorbell of the elevator would go off, that meant our food was coming down the hall! You know, all the important things. By the end of it, we obviously couldn’t wait to walk more than 10 steps in one direction, feel the importance of wind in your hair and breathe fresh air! We also realized how lucky we all were to get to experience this and how precious each day really is.
Once we got out, we made the drive to Maindample to get busy getting the helicopter ready for bushfires where we would spend all winter and early spring hopping around to different places in VIC (Victoria, Australia) and have a busy season. You know…same old same old…put water where the water needs to go lol! Enjoy the pictures….
My last blog was October 2020. For a few years I was pretty faithful in trying to keep up with our adventures and document our journeys…but then time got away from me and before you know it..3 years passed… Just…Like… That….
My mom is the inspiration for me to get this little blog site back up and running. My parents have been on some pretty amazing adventures the last few years and she has been documenting it on her blog. After reading and enjoying her posts…I decided it was time to get back on the horse.
It’s a little overwhelming thinking of where I should even begin, so I will resort to my pictures on my iPhone and try to fill in the blanks over the past 3 years and remember as much as I can. You would think that 2 years of it would be pretty blank with the whole world shutting down for Covid…but our line of work kept us on as “essential workers” and logistics only became our worst nightmare…more on that a little later. So for now, let’s go back to October 2020….where we last left off.
After years of paperwork, Aaron was finally successful in getting all the required documentation and bids in for the USFS, ODF, and CalFire. We wrote off that summer as it was late in the season and no call came in for us to be used…but one late evening around September 4th, a call came in from the desk of ODF (Oregon Department of Forestry) looking for an S61 for a fire on the coast of Oregon. Our helicopter was in Quebec at the time and Aaron said it was available but that it was in Quebec, Canada. The dispatcher asked where is that…Aaron replied “basically Maine”…the reply was “we will call you back.” We figured that was the end of that conversation when the phone rang back about 4 minutes later and said…great we will take it!
With no fuel truck, no service trailer, no second engineer, no co-pilot…really nothing in place….we said yes to ODF…and off we went. The crew had 2 days to get the helicopter to Oregon, while we tried to source a fuel trailer and the rest of the logistics. Aaron never ceases to amaze me and within a day…was able to pull off the unimaginable. The call came in on a Monday evening and by Wednesday evening the helicopter flew across the country and was in place for a Thursday morning start. Now this is where the story gets crazy. The morning we were supposed to go to the fire…they said to hold our current position and wait for a call. About 2 hours later, they called and said we were released. For those of you not in this industry…let me break it down for you…20 hour ferry flight from Quebec to Oregon, all paid for by ODF… overnight in Oregon…released before we even put one bucket on a fire…20 hour ferry flight back to Quebec..paid for by ODF.
Aaron couldn’t believe it and really didn’t take no for an answer, so within an hour, ODF came to their senses and hired us for a fire out of Ashland, OR. The next 3 weeks we were hired and the devastation in the pictures below show you how cruel wildfires can be in urban interface. These are of downtown Talent, Oregon and I5.
After working for ODF for 3 weeks…fire season wasn’t over but our time for ODF was, so the only thing left to do was try and get the helicopter and fuel trailer carded for the USFS. Aaron’s quick thinking and Aaron being Aaron…got us hired within 2 days after getting released from ODF and for the next few weeks we stayed in California finishing up our season in Weaverville, CA after an amazing first season ever working for USFS and ODF with our USA side of the helicopter company!
When Aaron and I bought N2205U it was our dream retirement “vehicle of choice.” We always thought instead of traveling in an RV when we retired, that an airplane would be our preferred “ride.” Also, the word retirement never fit our program because we are too young, financially not ready, nor do we see that anytime in the near future or even 20+ years from now. But when the opportunity presented itself to purchase this wagon, we took it and have always wanted to load up the family and use it that way it should be used. So at the end of September, we did just that! We loaded up the family and made a secretive quick trip to see my favorite niece and sister-in-law…oh ya…and my brother! Just kidding Toddie Tu Tu.
It was a 7 hour flight and we broke it up into a few separate stops to stretch our legs and eat some snacks (for some reason road trips always make you hungry)! I think we had Todd totally unaware of our arrival until about an hour left to land…plus we needed a lift to his house and a set of wheels…so logistically we needed to let him know our plan lol. It also let us get Zoey to the airport to see us land, which was pretty exciting from our view to see her excited to greet us.
It was a super quick trip as Aaron only had a few days, and with no one else able to fly this plane back to Arizona, we packed in as much excitement as we could in the 4 days as we possibly could.
On the way home, we had to navigate our way thru a pretty intense thunderstorm and dad and Aaron were checking their iPads and the weather radar minute by minute. It provided mom and I a little excitement but they did an amazing job getting us home safely and one of the most amazing sunsets to touch down and land. We had a surreal experience in the airplane and one that we hope we can duplicate in the near future.
Fire season started off in May in Alberta this year and Aaron and crew were in Red Lake for about 3 weeks and flew almost 100 hours on a fire. I stayed in Arizona for the month of May and June to wrap up a few things I had going on my end and take care of Fraizer as it didn’t look like we had much more time with our 4-legged fur baby. We also were super busy trying to get all of our paperwork submitted to go to Australia with a 61 in the fall once our fire season ended as well as submit for the U.S. Forest Service CWN Contracts for the next 5 years. It sems that work never ends :).
After a month or so apart, I flew to Alberta to meet up with Aaron on our 14th Anniversary (July 5th) and standby for our next “fire call.” Two days later we loaded up the 61 and flew it across most of Canada to Ontario where we met up with 2 other HeliCarrier machines (another 61 and the Super Puma) and had about a 2 week contract on fires there. I love Ontario with all the beautiful lakes…but with lakes and summer come mosquitoes….and not just little guys either…the BIG ones. So after a 2 week stint we were ready to go and head west.
We had a lift job lined up in B.C. so once again, loaded up the machine and flew back across most of Canada westbound. I’m getting pretty use to these journeys and have a perfect seat in the back of the chopper with my own bubble window and 180 degree view, so needless to say the journey or ride NEVER gets old for me.
Once the job was complete we got hired on in Penticton and spent almost another 2 weeks there. We had a little time at night to enjoy the beautiful scenery around us. After our contract ended it was time to get FIZA ready to go for a few lift jobs and then ready for her inaugural trip across the pond to Australia…so you guessed it…back in the chopper we went and ferried it once again across Canada to the head-shed…Quebec!
Aaron spent most of the winter and spring months in Australia for the Bushfires but he had gotten me a very special present for my birthday in March and planned on scheduling it and surprising me when he returned home so we could go together.When March came and went, he had completely forgot about it until they called and told him he better get it done before we missed out completely.So in May, I had one of the most amazing and memorable experiences to date….I got to hand out the starting lineup card at the Dbacks vs Braves game.My face says it all….thanks babe….you are absolutely amazing. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.
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