Sweet Home Alabama (I'm sorry to say)

Well, here we are, still sitting in Tuscaloosa.  As you can see, we had it all mapped out.  Worked hard on those charts.  The fuel pump came this morning, as promised.    Stuart, that super mechanic at Dixie Air, went right to work to install the pump as promised.  An adapter fitting was stuck and when he applied a lot of pressure to it, it broke.  Noooooo!!  This $6.00 adapter needs to be overnighted from Dallas. 

So, there you have it.  We have to be done with the course by 5 p.m. tomorrow and it's not possible.  We have only completed two of the eight legs of the race.  We'll leave for home after the silly adapter gets here and is installed, weather permitting.  We are all disappointed.  This is all part of the adventure, I guess.  And, given our track record so far, the trip home will probably be another adventure.

Hoppin to Hot Springs - Not Today!

Tuscaloosa Alabama is nice but not where we expected to be for a second day.  Darn fuel pump had to crap out on us.  I guess it's an important device to have when you're burning about 15 gallons of fuel an hour racing to an airport.  Pump is on order and is expected to arrive by 8am Thursday.  Should be back in the air and on to Hot Springs before noon.

Fly-bys are pretty cool!  Imagine flying 300 ft above the ground over a runway at full speed.  Quite exhilarating.  When we got to Waycross, GA (51 planes converging on the airport doing full speed fly-bys) there was a welcome party.  It was exciting to see the community so involved and happy about our arrival.  One young boy, maybe 6 years old, asked for my autograph.  How cool is that.  I don't think of myself as a celebrity by any means but that young man did and that's all that mattered. 

Arriving Tuscaloosa was exciting too but no big welcome party.  Just a few super nice people who made us feel just as welcome (Wayne the airport manager and Betty a writer for the Alabama Aviator). Stewart our mechanic from Dixie Air is our hero; taking care of our fuel.

Stay tuned,

Reb

Ta Daaa!

I bet you thought we'd never make it.  Up at 4 a.m. this morning, in the air by 6.  Came down the rest of GA and straight through the middle of Florida to Ft. Myers.  Arrived about 9:40.  It's all good.  That's us.  Classic 22!  YES!!!  For  those of you from southeast Michigan, Tony Schmitt from Vital Signs, Inc. made the numbers for you and a fine job he did.  Several people mentioned how nice they were.

We spent the rest of the day running around trying to get all the things done we would have gotten done Friday and yesterday.  Rebecca and I need to be at the airport tomorrow morning by 6:45 a.m. to have our handicapping flight.  And I bet you thought this was a vacation!

  We'll have briefings and safety seminars the rest of the morning, including telling us about our fly-bys at the different airports.  The afternoon and evening will be spent getting ready to go.  Breakfast at 6 a.m. Tuesday and by 8 will be on our way back up the state of Florida.  First waypoint - Waycross, GA.

Sometimes Truth is Stranger than Fiction (I just made that up)

So after our first refueling, we flew southeast and decided to land at Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge Airport and spend the night.   It was about 8 p.m. and the sun was just above the horizon, so it was time to stop.  Ahead of us were the Smoky Mountains and we had made pretty good progress.  And maybe we'd see Dolly Parton.  The airport there was absolutely beautiful.  A couple small, personal-sized jets.  Well, a Citation for those of you who know such things.  Anyway, we got a taxi, spent the night and were back at the airport before 8 a.m. this morning.  After checking weather, we took off heading directly south over the mountains.  By the time we had flown half an hour or so, we found ourselves in danger of getting caught up above the clouds, so we returned to Pigeon Forge, looked at weather again and talked to a guy working there who said we should have gone southwest toward Chattanooga, then south missing the mountains except for a few small hills (aka mountains in Michigan).  That's what we did, got just south of Chattanooga and listened to more weather that said there were severe thunderstorms just west of us with 1" hail.  Guess what.  We landed again, this time in Dalton, GA.  Called for a weather briefing and they said to leave again right away and we should be able to make it to Ft. Myers ahead of the weather.  Southward we continued on the west side of the Atlanta airport and then turned southeast again to Macon.  We needed to stop again for fuel and landed in Eastman, GA.  Decided to go get some lunch before we set out again and here we still are.  Thunderstorms south of us in a line across the northern part of Florida.  It looks like, if we leave early, we'll be able to go the other three hours straight south to Ft. Myers.  We will be a day late arriving.  It is now 9:30 p.m. and I'm going to bed.  We need to get up at 4 so we can get going as soon as the sun comes up.  How's that for a day in the life?  Oh, I didn't take any pictures today.  Too hazy.

First Fueling Stop

This airport is right across the Ohio-Kentucky border.  The name of it is Fleming-Mason Airport.  Note that there are no signs of civilization around.  The fellow running the airport filled our tanks for us.  Wow!  He must be a Southern gentlemen.  Anyway, there was a nice FBO and we were able to check weather and move along.

Rosemary, Rebecca and Pam Ready for an Adventure

Here we are at Mettetal Airport in Canton, Michigan - just prior to taking off.  Nancy - notice my pin.

And Pam Palmieri says...

Invariably, a sudden disappointment, a bit of "bad" news, or a flock of butterflies gathering in your stomach, are all omens that a fabulous adventure is fast approaching.


Hit me baby,

The Universe