Area author seeks to retrace return steps of Lewis and Clark

Powered parachute flight may take two weeks

By the time you read this, Bob Holloway could possibly be off the ground.

Later today or Friday, Ephrata resident Holloway, 72, will begin the first leg of a powered parachute trip.

He is attempting to retrace the return journey of explorers Lewis and Clark, that will take him from Astoria, Ore., to Independence, Mo.

Holloway called the entire Lewis and Clark party "extraordinary men."

"And they were tough people, they had to be," he said. "I've seen a lot of the country in segments and wondered how they got through. I thought I'd just take a look and see from the air, and really get a look at what they've come through. I know I'll probably be even more amazed when I get back."

Holloway said there were three reasons he decided to make the trip.

"First of all, just to see if I could do it," he said. "I'm attempting it, I'm not saying I'm going to do it, I'm going to attempt it, because I don't know what kind of problems are over there in Montana and the real high country."

Those problems could include higher altitudes and thinner air, which means less lift, he said, and some mountains may still have snow and creates heavy winds.

Another reason is that Holloway wants to let people know that contracting adult diabetes is not the end of life. He said he was diagnosed 10 or 12 years ago.

"You can still do things that anybody else can do," he said. "All you have to do is first recognize that you've got it, admit it to yourself and then take the precautions that you need to do … and you should be able to live just a normal life. This is normal, isn't it?" he asked with a smile, indicating his powered parachute.

The third reason is to try and generate publicity for Holloway's book about the lives of 20 Basin farm families, "Desert of Dreams," available in Moses Lake, Ephrata, Wenatchee and online at Amazon.com and Holloway's own Web site, www.agbob.com.

"This was one of the offshoots of Lewis and Clark, really, just 150 years later, and I'm talking about the irrigated portion," he said. "No one's ever written about the people that came here for the irrigation itself. There's quite a few books about the older families that were here — the dry landers, the Indians. But there hasn't been any about the people that came here to break out the sage brush for an irrigated farm."

Trips like the one he's about to embark on are not uncommon for Holloway, he said.

"I've flown aircraft since the late 1960s, and way back I had a little 90 Honda irrigation bike," he said. "One afternoon I got on it, left a note for my wife at work and said 'I'll see you next Tuesday,' and I took off and I went south through Oregon into northern California. I crossed the desert over into northern Nevada and then up into southern Idaho, the length of Idaho, clear up into McCall and finally into Missoula, Thompson Falls and then back home, in five days. "

Holloway later got a larger motorcycle, and rode into Alaska with that, he said.

Holloway estimated that his flight will be roughly 2,200 miles, 700 miles further than his trip from Canada to Mexico, which garnered him a certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records, he said.

Quincy resident Leonard Greenwalt will drive a chase vehicle, following the parachute across the route carrying fuel, Holloway said.

"He's much older," Holloway said with a laugh. "He's at least 73."

Holloway and Greenwalt will try to meet at small airports for refueling.

Holloway will have a radio connection to the chase pickup.

"We tried it the other day and we had about 1,000 feet above the ground and had about 15 miles of good communication," he said. "When I took the trip two years ago to Mexico, it didn't work hardly at all, so this was a big improvement."

Holloway said that he was expecting the duration of time, if all goes well, would be about two weeks.

"But any type of weather can hold us up," he said. "We might be held in one spot for three days because of weather or something."

Along the way, Holloway and Greenwalt will send e-mails if they can to a woman in Soap Lake, who will place the updates on Holloway's Web site.