Finally on the move

Valentine's Day, languishing at the airport in Laredo waiting for the fog to burn off. Yawn. Yawn. One by one the planes that did not leave yesterday, leave today. Finally at 1PM, they decide that maybe IFR is not so bad after all and about 30 minutes later we launch. We are above the clouds in the sunlight in 5 minutes. Blessedly it is not cold. In fact, we are shedding jackets. There are just four of us so we are all in the cockpit for most of the flight.
At San Antonio, the clouds go away and we can see the ground and landmarks from then on. We have a hefty tail wind and so the trip is shortened. We are happy to see the hangers of Alliance ahead of us. No on is happier than the Flagship. Though a winter in Florida is great, she is glad to be home. Jeff has arrived at Alliance about 20 minutes ahead of us and meets us with a cart to transport us and our luggage. He whisks us out to the front where Lynn Buffington awaits and soon we are off to a Mexican restaurant and margaritas.
A quick call to my cousin Betty in the car enroute establishes that they had no special plans for Valentines and they are soon part of the group. Ken flew in Viet Nam, as did Jake and Buff, so the war stories were soon flying.
At last we are delivered to Jake's condo in Ft. Worth, where the view is spectacular. There are some new fushia rope lights outlining buildings since our last visit. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired and ready to get home to my own bed. On Wednesday Jake delivers us to DFW ans we are soon on a jet for home. New neighbor, Carrie Oakes, picks us up in our car and we are homeward bound. Carrie also thoughtfully provides a generous portion of lasagna for our supper. We are blessed and so glad to be in our own beds.
Last photo is of the red carpet donated by Stuart Jet Center so the Flagship can truly be a first class operation. This should cut down on debris tracked in to the plane. Alas, although Dennis washed the floor cloths while in Florida, they are pretty dirty from our soppy trip across the country.
Footnote: Learned with shock tonight that Dennis Pugsley, who was perhaps the least prepared for the cold in Laredo, is in the hospital with double pneumonia. Get well quick, Dennis!

And Wait Some More

Monday morning there is much study of weather patterns on laptops, ipads and smart phones to see if we can get to Fort Worth today. The forecast looks promising for later in the day. Buff takes Peggy and Jim to the commercial terminal and when he returns, the remaining troopers pile in the cars and head to the airport. The headquarter for the air show was a very large and very empty part of the building. Barren except for chairs and tables in a break room. Unknown to me there is a large and luxuriously appointed FBO on the left end of the building. It has two large rooms, the first with a group of leather recliners sofas and chairs surrounding a huge TV. It also has several computer stations and a dining table. The second room has a large circle of comfy couches and the business end of the operation. This morning it is full of fly boys and girls looking to get back home. We get our airplane fueled and oil and do some more study as one by one the other planes fire up and launch.
A group enters the room and suddenly a small dog wearing a hoodie leaps into my lap and cuddles up. I had seem him with his owner in the break room the day before. His owner approaches and berates him, urging him to come with her, but he just snuggles down closer. In disgust, she walks out of the room. Somewhat later she returns and again calls the dog, who sits at attention, ears up, but does not move. She comes over and whacks his bottom and says "Come on!" and he does. Never in all of this does the woman look at or address me. I found all this to be highly amusing!
In early afternoon, the skies clear and the weather finally begins to warm. It is looking great here but not at Alliance in Ft. Worth where we need to go. Alas, we turn in the rental cars, make reservations and are picked up by a Fairfield Inn shuttle to stay another night. View from our room is illustrated on the right. The hotel is across from a mall and we spot a Logan's Roadhouse that we can walk to. There the beer and tequila flows and the nachos and queso along with them. After awhile Sheryl leaves to do mundane chores like laundry. She and Gene have been on the road twelve days. Dennis leaves with her and bids fond farewell to his new "mates" as he is catching the shuttle back to the airport and flying back to DFW and then Palm Beach this afternoon.
Meanwhile, the "boys" move the party back to the hotel and continue swapping lies until late into the evening.
Tuesday morning, things are looking promising for Ft. Worth, ground fog along the way that should burn off. At breakfast we notice the waffles are in the shape of the state of Texas. That is one of the things I love about Texas...ever seen a waffle shaped like Alabama or Georgia?
Back in the room we notice that the fog has worsened. Gene reports that Jeff's flight to DFW has been canceled due to the weather. He now has the dilemma of taking the 1PM flight and being late to work for sure or gambling on going with us and perhaps being on time to work, but having a car at DFW.
We pack up and head to the FBO. As we travel, the fog gets worse. By the time we reach the airport it is like pea soup and we can barely make out the shape of our airplane even though it is really close by.
We stow our luggage in the airplane and work on cleaning up the cabin and doing all the things we need to do to prepare for take off. Then we return to the lobby to wait for the weather to clear, amusing ourselves with TV and computing. There are an increasing number of other people in the same situation. Right now it is noon, and while the visibility has improved, it is still nowhere near clear enough for us to launch. Stay tuned........

Rained out

The rest of the week is forecast to be warm and balmy, but it is 42 degrees, windy and threatening rain when we leave the hotel. Two hours later the only thing that has changed is that now it is raining. It is surprising that people are lining up to see the plane in this weather. Reminds us of Dulles last September. Those of us who came from Florida are not prepared for the cold as up to two days ago the forecast was for 69.
Since we have a large group and are not selling merchandise, there are plenty of us and we can keep cycling people through the FBO to warm up.
We have a constant stream of very polite people with well behaved children coming through the plane from the moment the gates open, in spite of the weather. We are astonished when Dennis starts conversing with them in flawless Spanish. Seems he was born in Spain and moved to England as an infant. Spanish was spoken in the house his whole life.
Most of our men are standing out in the rain and they vote that Gene, who is essential to flying the plane and recovering from illness should return to the hotel to preserve his health. Sheryl, who is coming down with his illness, left also. The weather got even worse and the ceiling dropped and the air show was eventually canceled. Some displays remained, but the freezing Flagship crew closed up shop and came home. In spite of the weather, we took in about $600 in admissions. This show is part of the Washington's Birthday Celebration which is a really big deal in these parts and is well supported by the community. We were sorry that the people were disappointed.
With the weather still drippy and cold, we stayed in the hotel for dinner and found that the incredibly slow service from breakfast was not a fluke. While drinks and appetizers seemed to come out fairly quickly, we still didn't have our meals an hour after ordering. And the dining room was only half full.
The next challenge is to get back to Fort Worth. During dinner people started getting calls that it is snowing in Dallas/Ft. Worth. If this system has not moved out and warmed by morning, we will either stay here or fly to a location closer. Zane flew out after the show. Peggy and Jim will leave from Laredo via commercial carrier in the morning. Dennis and Jeff are waiting to see what will happen. Jake, Buff, Gene and Sheryl will be with the plane regardless.

Hurry up and wait

Saturday morning dawned sunny, windy and COLD!! We arrived at the airport a little after 9AM and again were greeted by the enthusiastic employees of Top Gun Aviation. The plane was oiled and fueled and toured and photographed. Dennis sold about $70 in merchandise to various people. We handed out literature and luggage tags.
We braved the cold to pose for photos in our Top Gun tee shirts. We were not in a hurry as we found out that we cannot land in Laredo until after 4 PM due to air show practice. We finally take off about noon and head across Texas. We paused at Galveston for some practice take offs and landings. Jim Skelly did some excellent ones for a first timer, heck, for an any timer.
We disembarked for a few minutes to use the facilities and scarf down junk food from the machines and then were on our way.
This last leg seemed very cold, especially as the sun, which had been warming the left side, went behind clouds. It seemed like a very long trip by the time we landed in Laredo. But, looking out the window, I spot Jeff Selby from Dallas, who remarks at how dirty his airplane is. Also awaiting our arrival are Zane Lemon and Dave Buffington with rental cars. They whisk us off to what has been touted as the best Mexican restaurant in the area.
Zane told us of a bit of miscommunication. Seems Jake had texted him that we were holding over in Hammond, LA, but the message read "Hammond OK" as in Hammond. OK? The guys in TX were trying to figure out where the heck Hammond Oklahoma was and why in the world we would go there. There has been much frivolity over Hammond, Oklahoma.
The service here is unbelievable. They even bring out wrought iron stands to hold Peggy and Sheryl's purses. The chip and dip routine is different with about five things to dip in, we indulged way too much before the real food came. A nice evening and good to be warm.
Then it was off to our hotel, La Posada which is on a quaint square backing up to the Rio Grande. The hotel is Spanish Colonial style, newly renovated, and quite beautiful with a lot of attention to detail. Our room is across a lovely courtyard and turns out to be a suite with a bedroom, living room and a hath and a half. Standing at just the right angle you can see the Rio Grande out of the window

Change of Plans

The plan for Friday was to go to Hammond, LA, about 30 miles north to buy fuel as Top Gun Aviation there had a really good price. We were impressed when they offered us sandwiches from a very good place at no cost.
After breakfast, Gene checked the weather and, to his surprise, found a large area of rain and thunder storms just to our west. After a conference, the men decided that discretion being the better part of valor, we would sit it out. We had, after all, left Florida a day early as a precaution against bad weather. As Peggy and Sheryl anticipated a day of touring New Orleans, the men made arrangements. Alas, it was the weekend and there was not a room to be found for less than the price of a King's ransom.( A Madi Gras King) Therefore, we went to Plan B, which was to fly on up to Hammond and spend the night there. A van appeared to take us to the airport driven by a young man from Bosnia. He told us how as a young child he was sitting in his bedroom when a mortar round hit the house next door and his arm was mangled by the blast. We take our safe lives for granted sometimes.
The short flight was a gloomy one. There was thick haze making everything we saw from the windows appear largely to be the same color. Much of the flight was over Lake Pontchartrain, again adding to the grayness of the landscape. Just before our arrival in Hammond, we ran into a wall of water and Jim came back from the cockpit for paper towels to stem the flow through the emergency hatch which was dripping on the pilots. In spite of challenging conditions, Capt. Jacobson made a nice instrument landing and taxied to Top Gun.
Four young men immediately approached the plane in the driving rain and helped secure it, depositing four golf umbrellas into our open doorway. They then backed a van up and loaded our luggage, then escorted the women to the FBO under the umbrellas. As we approached the door, it flew open and a lovely blonde woman greeted us with a broad smile. This proved to be Ava, who had made all the arrangements for our visit. There were several other members of the ground crew, the airport manager and other folks inside. Soon a reporter arrived and began to interview us.
Now I have traveled fairly extensively with the plane and never received a reception like this one. We felt like rock stars, or at least the crew accompanying one. To a man (and woman) everyone was wild about our airplane and interested in hearing about her. In spite of the pouring rain a few people toured the plane, including the reporter and Jake and Peggy retrieved literature to share with our new friends. Ava appeared with a huge platter of mufalettas and we repaired to the break room for lunch. Then we were presented a Top Gun tee shirt, which we all plan to wear when we launch for Laredo the next day.
We then headed to our hotel, passing through the downtown area of Hammond which looked quite charming. We were armed with the recommendation of a restaurant there called Tope La which everyone said was the place to go. The staff at the hotel could not have been nicer and put themselves at our disposal. After long naps, we gathered in the lobby for what Bubba Jake called vespers, but turned out to be margaritas. The quest for a good one is what keeps the crew going day in and day out.
Tope La lived up to our expectations. There was a short wait for a table during which cheerful young staff members informed us of the progress. We were then led to a large booth where we met our charming server, Shane. Peggy observed that everyone here in Hammond is so pleasant and helpful. The same folks who ordered half dozen oysters the night before, got a dozen each tonight and again pronounced them wonderful. Again, all the dishes were great, but tonight it was Gene who got the prize with Chicken Maurepas. This was a chicken breast stuffed with crawfish, and crusted with Japanese bread crumbs. It was crispy on the outside, tender and flavorful on the inside. Oh, did I mention that Friday is $3 margarita night??

Westward, HO!

Judy, Gene and I rushed off to a doctor's office this morning, hoping for a minimal delay in departure, which was scheduled for 10 A.M. They had him back in the treatment area for an hour, but gave him an inhaler and antibiotic. A quick stop at the pharmacy and we arrived at the airport at 11. The plane was loaded already. and Peggy had gotten lunch for us which was stowed in the cooler. There will be 7 traveling. For the first time when I have been aboard, one of our new members is riding with us on the first leg. Kathy Wright is an RN Midwife and a fun person about our age. She will fly back home from New Orleans. This will also be the first destination ride for Jim Skelly and Dennis Pugsley.
It was almost noon before we took off, but still in a good time frame to make New Orleans before dark. Once we were across Florida, we flew over the ocean, just off shore with a lovely view of the beaches and coastline. Unfortunately, my sleep deprivation made me stupid and I did not take photos. Jake's ipad was set up in the cockpit in GPS mode and you could follow the little blue airplane to see where we were. Dennis took the controls for awhile and could not figure out why he had difficulty maintaining his altitude. Gene explained that as people went in and out of the cockpit, it changed the pitch of the plane. With headphones on, he had not been aware of the comings and goings. At one point, I looked around and noticed I was the only person still in the cabin. There were six in an around the cockpit.
We landed at Lakeside Airport which is the original one, and close to downtown. There were two cabs waiting. We loaded up and were delivered to the Drury Inn prior to 5PM local. They are on central time here.
The Drury is a downtown hotel, vintage and nicely appointed. Dark wood, crystal chandeliers. The cab driver says they have the best breakfast in town. Our room is also nice and quite spacious. A far cry from some we have had on our treks. The FBO (fixed base operator or manager of the airport) makes deals for crews and the cabbie tells us we would pay around $200 for a room otherwise. I think we are paying $76. Gene is startled to realize that he has stayed here before in his corporate flying days and remembers that the breakfast is great.
We gather downstairs for happy hour. An extensive event with beer, wine, and mixed drinks along with chips, dip, hot dogs, chicken fingers and salad and potatoes. All this is free. We only partake of the liquids while perusing local dining guides. Jake is such a foodie that we generally defer to him on making choices.
The decision is a seafood place called Deenies in the French Quarter. We set off on foot and as we approach Bourbon Street, the crowds and noise level increase. Many folks are in costume and wearing the madi gras beads. Many of the places we pass are decked out in Madi Gras decor. Kathy says there was a King Cake in the FBO at the airport. Much merriment is happening.
We soon arrived at our destination and are seated right away. They bring us a platter of steaming hot red potatoes and butter. The potatoes are cooked in crab boil and are quite spicy. A wide array of food is ordered, from soups to salads to appetizers. Folks love the seafood salad, the crawfish etoufee and charbroiled oysters on the half shell. I got shrimp stuffed with crabmeat dressing and topped with crawfish and a cheese sauce and it was to die for. The waiter had told me to order it.
After a delightful dinner we make our way back to the hotel, parting ways with Kathy along the way as her hotel is two blocks away. She will fly back to Palm Beach tomorrow.

More of the story

Don't know where the sun is in Florida this year, not around now. Mostly over cast with scattered showers. We did manage a trip out in the boat on Sunday afternoon. We decided to try to find out where Gene's old friends, Dave and Barbara live.
We had some clues as to what their subdivision was, what kind of boat they had and that the house had been remodeled from top to bottom. We turned out to be pretty good sleuths as we did find the house! And there was Barbara in what looked like the den, cleaning. We could not land as their boat took up all the space. So we blew our horn....no reaction. She then moved over to the windows and began washing them. We hovered in the canal waving and blowing the horn and though she was looking right at the windows, she never noticed this large boat with frantic people right in her backyard. Finally she finished washing and went on to do the ones on the front of the house so we gave up and went back home. We had a real good laugh on that one! Gene plans to call her and tell her she missed a spot.
Later, when we talked with Dave and Barbara, they said that neighbors on both sides had asked them about the people on the boat waving and yelling. Obviously she is serious about her house cleaning work.
Our hostess, Judy, is half of a singing duet and had a gig at a local hospital auxiliary on Tues. Tony is their sound man. I tagged along also and that worked out well, as it was raining, we were delayed and so my help was welcomed in getting all the equipment in and out of the hall. The performance was of Italian love songs and they did an excellent job.
On Wednesday night we had a "Fly Away Party" prior to our scheduled departure on Thursday morning. There were about 30 people there who were already Foundation members or had just joined. It was a fun time.
Gene has been sick all week with a respiratory problem that he keeps saying is getting better. Neither of us has gotten much sleep as it seems to worsen when he is lying down. After hearing him wheeze all night, I suspect pneumonia and am advocating seeing a doctor before we launch.

More photos from fly in

Among photos here: Claude the parrot monitoring throttle, Peggy begging for gas,
Gene driving the plane like it was a '57 Chevy with his elbow out the window, Tony and Peggy doing pre flight briefing, Shery and Judy in Piper Lance

Another Florida happening

The Flagship made a lot of new friends at a recent Ferrari event in south Florida and by virtue of a very well written article by Tony DeSantis that appeared in the Stuart newspaper last week. As a result, she took off from Stuart on Saturday morning with a full load of new members (20) headed for a fly in breakfast in Sebastian, about 40 miles to the north. Cockpit crew were Gene Christian and Tony DeSantis, wearing his brand new reproduction uniform. Peggy Fairchild occupied Mrs. Roosevelt's seat as cabin crew for the day. Dr. Shawn Engebretsen, along with wife, Becky, piloted his Piper Lance with a load of tee shirts plus Judy DeSantis, in full regalia as the Hollywood starlet and Sheryl Christian, as herself. Another plane brought more set up equipment and Dennis Pugsley. Dennis has been a wonderful benefactor to the Foundation, donating a banner to sit next to the door of the plane, full color business cards with photos on both sides, and luggage tags that we can give with memberships and sell. He also donated a great lucite donation box complete with sign attachment and printed new signs to tout our merchandise. We are looking quite professional at the moment, thanks to Dennis. And, last but by no means least, Bill and Michelle Brooks drove up with the table and yet more equipment.
It was a unique experience to be flying in a small plane and observing the Flagship. Judy, Sheryl and Becky took about a bizillion photos. Alas, the weather was overcast, but some of the shots are quite good.
This fly in happens monthly and is unlike any I have seen. They had some acrobatics by a member of the Aeroshell team (who did the awesome show at the Stuart air show in November), sky divers and several interesting presentations in the hanger including a raffle which two of our passengers won. They also had a wide array of breakfast foods available, just about anything one could imagine.
We made a lot of friends, including a new member, a life time member and an offer to do tee shirts for us for free. We sold as much merchandise as we generally do at a full air show. Some of our passengers got in the spirit by arriving in vintage dress. The most interesting passenger was a parrot named Claude. Claude entertained at the pre-flight briefing by a dead on imitation of a cat that had people looking all around for a feline they could not spot. We were told that he learned this from watching the Animal Planet on TV. Claude was happy to help out on the flight by aiding in navigation.
After a few hours in Sebastian, the caravan of airplanes and the car headed south again to Stuart. The airplanes went on south a little further to do fly overs of Celine Dion and Tiger Wood's homes. Both were eye catching, but there were quite a few others of equal note. We delivered 20 very happy new members and the bird safely back to Stuart.
Gene had found that his old Digital Equipment flying buddy, Dave Carlson, and his wife, Barbara live just blocks from the DeSantis home, where we are staying. Gene has not seen them for 30 years. They joined us for drinks and dinner, much to Gene's delight. We hope to see more of them before we leave here.

A Perfect Day

Note: This post is out of order as I was waiting for a time of sunshine to take flower pictures. However the sun has been very fleeting since we have been in Florida)
Having been born into a military family, I have traveled by air from a young age. However, I have never taken this mode of transportation for granted. It has always seemed rather magical to enter this metal tube with wings at one point and come out of it a few hours later at a completely different location. Books and movies have been made about time travel, but this is space travel. Sort of like" Beam me up, Scotty!"

The only hitch is that for the past ten years, air travel has become a real hassle due to security measures. And then the airlines are encouraging people to carry luggage on board by charging to check bags. Couple that with living outside a large metro area like Atlanta with its unending traffic and traveling just ain't fun no more.

Last Friday morning, Gene and I, along with our neighbor, Carrie, got into our car and drove to Hartsfield Airport. Traffic flowed as it is intended to -no jams, no slow downs, just effortless smooth flow, even though it was still in a part of the day considered to have heavy traffic. We arrived at the check in area and saw lots of blank curb. We pulled right up to the curb, again no one in our way. We unloaded the bags and waved goodbye to Carrie, who returned our car back home. We walked right up to check in, second in line, where a nice woman said she could upgrade us to business class for an additional $9 each. Well, heck, why not?

Unencumbered by the luggage we had checked, we headed off to security. Again, no muss, no fuss and we breezed right through. We seemed to be the only people traveling today. We boarded the train for terminal C, less than 10 other people in the car and were soon at our destination. Plenty of time until the flight, how about lunch? Delightful sandwiches at Atlanta Bread Company while watching Delta planes arriving at their gates. Then down the concourse to our gate where they seemed to be in a pre-board mode, though it was still an hour until takeoff. Sure enough they were intent on getting everyone out on time and very soon called business class to board and on we went to our front row seats.

And so for the next two hours we read in our wide comfortable seats while a bevy of young women plied us with food and drink. In what seemed like no time we were preparing to land in West Palm Beach, FL. We were first off the plane into a very beautiful terminal. There were beautiful stores arranged in a village setting and the merchandise looked out of this world. Then I reminded myself, "Oh, yeah, this is West Palm Beach." Unable to stop and shop we were among the first at baggage claim. And, true to the tone of this story, our bags were among the first to appear on the carousel. We turned, and there was our new friend from last trip, Michelle, who directed us curbside where her husband, Bill, awaited to whisk us away in a spacious Cadillac.

We were chauffeured down scenic boulevards lined with Palm trees and blooming flowers until we arrived at a lovely Villa. There was a circular drive bounded by green lawn and wonderful topical foliage and flowers. We entered the large double doors into a large reception area and were greeted by our hosts. From here we could see the pool, the water and the boat at dockside at the rear of the structure. We were then taken to our room, a private enclave upstairs of two bedrooms, bath and sun room. This will be our home for the next 5-7 days.

Now doesn't that seem like a magical fairytale or a miracle? I thought so. I cannot recall such an easy journey in recent times and how nice it was to take a trip with absolutely no hassle. I should also add that the reservations were made only three days prior to travel at a very good rate. That there were only a few seats left and that the plane was completely full.

Yes, we are back out on the road with the Flagship Detroit, which has wintered in sunny Florida in celebration of her 75th birthday. She has spent the time "getting a little work done" down Miami way and basking in the attention of a myriad of fly-boys at Stuart airport. Recently she stole the show at a Ferrari event nearby. Tomorrow she is off to a fly-in breakfast with a full load of new members. The downside of all this is that us mortals are to be at the airport at 6 A. M. Ouch!

We are once again staying at Villa De Santes home of Tony and Judy. They are real troopers to keep us for a week. We are here that long because after this we make the long trek to Laredo, TX. Stay tuned.