Pilot sets down on a 'river of lights'

Eisenhower's ghost was looking out for him

Nice story. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Also good that the FAA isn't going after him.

I've been through Coeur D'Alene a couple of times on the interstate, and I don't recall there being any places at all to land other than the highway. There is a giant lake with mountains all around, and that's about it. That makes this a pretty impressive story to me.

Good job, well done.
Were the fire works worth it?

Shortly after I got my private, a friend of mine and I spent the weekend touring southern Georgia and Florida in two of our club's cessna's. On the morning we headed back to the club's home field my buddy lost power right after take-off. I was already on my take-off roll and when he shouted over the coms that his engine quit he asked me what to do! I had visual on him and told him that he was too low to make the return back to the runway, "You're too low man, you got a field in front of you?" As he set up for a straight-in shot at a cotton field, I climbed up over him and talked him down. When I saw three puffs of dust and dirt spray out from under his gear I shouted "Awesome job, man! Great landing! You did it!" I don't remember him ever saying a word until he got on the ground.
The airport manager broke in on the radio and asked me what the status was and I reported our location and that everything was alright. He drove out and picked up my buddy and we all returned back to the airport. Later that week the club mechanic came out and made repairs on the spot and flew the plane out of the cotton field. Happy ending.