Couple travels more than 7,000 miles

Sunday, August 27, 2006 HURON, Ohio (AP) — A northern Ohio couple has been through Canada, to the North Pole, across Alaska and over Mount Rushmore. And they did it all from 13,000 feet in a 1968 Cessna 182 propeller airplane that makes a compact car look spacious. Don and Jan Sieg began planning the 18-day, 7,488-mile trip four years ago. "Flying is a possible dream, and there are aircraft available for less than the cost of a motorcycle," said Don Sieg, 53, who has an airplane propeller atop his garage. They started the trip July 5, taking off from Griffing Airport in Sandusky and making their way through Canada before hitting Barrow, Alaska, the state's northernmost point. On returning to the United States from Canada, they landed in Cutbank, Mont. "We saw hundreds of crosses glowing all over the country side. They were all connected by spider webs of glowing thread. As we got 100 feet off the runway, we saw a dozen pair of eyes off the runway," said Don Sieg. "The eyes were those of coyotes which ran out in front of the plane and alongside it as though they were dogs." The glowing crosses, he said, were power lines and poles, which, another pilot told the couple, glow in the dark in Montana if the humidity is right. Worth seeing Barrow, Alaska, a city called the "Top of the World," was described by Jan Sieg, 51, as one of the most beautiful places she's ever seen. But it was in another Alaskan city, Gustavus, where the couple encountered one of the trips' most exciting experiences. On the landing strip, "we saw three little bear cubs walking across the runway," Don Seig said. "The angry mother bear followed a few minutes later." Before returning to their Huron home July 23, the couple tried to take in Mount Rushmore, in South Dakota, from the air, but the sun made it difficult to appreciate from that high, Don Sieg said.