Short hop to check in on the boat

It was such a beautiful weekend!! The weather was just teasing us with those shirt-sleeve temps! (Because it's dreary, overcast, windy and chilly today!)

We flew down to the boat just for a look. We've not been sailing lately- just too cold!! We prefer the warm wind-in-your-hair to five-layers-of-clothes-and-you're-still-freezing!!


Nothing much to report from the boat - still just like we left her, floating lonely in her slip. Oh - except we turned the boat around in the slip (it used to be "backed-in") so that the lovely Marina Otter would not come visit with his/her fish carcasses and putrid poop in our cockpit!! Seemed to work as there was absolutely no evidence of their visits.

The flight home was just perfect - into the setting sun. Just page thru these few photos. Love, love,love to watch the sunset. It's amazingly fast once it touches the horizon. The time difference between the first and last photos is about 100 seconds! Peaceful....

Trip to Jamestown, Va last weekend

Forgot that I had these photos on my phone from Sunday....we jumped in the plane for a quick trip to Jamestown, Va. With this fast little plane, we can make it a bit further in an hour. This is important because you only want to sit in an airplane for about an hour for it to be considered "just good fun". After that, it becomes a chore. In our old airplane, Myrtle Beach was about the limit for "fun". Now the coast of Virginia is in that radius too!

There is a small restaurant in the terminal building at the Jamestown (Williamsburg) Airport. Uneventful but bumpy flight there.



Had an absolutely scrumptious Greek salad with a delicious dressing! (and an uneventful flight home...)

Helicopters visit at Siler City Airport

We had a couple of nice National Guard crews visit yesterday. They do a good bit of training in the area and stopped by for a quick top-off with jet fuel. I always like to sell that jet fuel!!

Happy Birthday to Robert

Happy Birthday to my firstborn! 22 yrs old today...wow, what a ride so far.

Here's to many more, Robert-o!

(silly song at the restaurant last night)

More airplane stuff

I know, I'm probably boring you with airplane photos.....

We went to pick up our airplane from the shop yesterday - happy to report that the landing gear goes up and down as it should now!

When we got to the airport, I noticed that a salvage company from Texas was there disassembling another "oopsie" airplane from several months ago. Hopefully, that will be the last one for a while!

A little fix-it on the airplane

Not a lot happening around this chilly place lately!

An update on the airplane - the shop has fixed a little "limit switch" that kept the gear from retracting....we pick it up tomorrow.

It's always cool to see the airplane on jacks. I went into the shop and practiced an emergency gear extension. Good to do that when there is no emergency!

Short trip up to visit Granny

Granny recently had a full knee replacement surgery and is just now at home recovering. Carolyn was with her most of the time in the hospital (as was Cordy) - and Sharon flew in for this upcoming week to help out. So, Granny is a well-cared-for lady!

We flew in for a quick visit on Sunday - beautiful weather (but still cold)

Here is a photo out of the front of the plane - weird how the camera interpreted the propeller!


It was a little hazy, but the terrain was lovely with all the snow still on the ground.



Still lots of snow at the Asheville Airport, but the runways and taxiways were all clear.


The flight home was equally lovely - actually even better because we had a 25 knot tailwind (of course, we had a 25 knot headwind on the way up - but the tailwind is so much more fun!)


We stopped in at Siler City Airport for fuel before going into our home strip....unfortunately, the landing gear would not come up on takeoff. No problem - we just landed again and left the plane for the mechanic to look at in the morning.....pretty sunset, though!

Busy Saturday

Saturday was filled with fun - first was our annual EAA chapter "Holiday Celebration". Saw lots of folks that I hadn't seen in a while. Good fun and really good food!


Then it was off to Durham to the beautiful (if a hotel can be beautiful...) Millenium Hotel for a Ronald McDonald House charity poker tournament.


A great crowd - we raised over $14,000 !!


Fun, fun, fun!! Duane nor I placed for a prize, but it was a good time!!

Icy

It's just ccccoooollllddd here!

Pretty, though.....

Pretty cool fruit

We're kindof in a "holding pattern" right now - lots of slush and ice fell over the past day. Nothing pretty enough to photograph - just enough to close everything down in the area!

So here's a little ray of tropical sunshine! We had a jet in at Siler City Airport the other day. The nice pilots brought in some of the extra catering from the jet. I love it when they do that!

This jet had just flown from Atlantic City for a meeting in Siler City (go figure). We enjoyed the fruit plate - knowing that it probably cost $75 from the caterer! I suspect the little orchid flowers were edible....but we did not try them.....

Latest on the OOpsie at the airport

The owner of the airplane that ran off the runway hired a crane to come move it back to his hangar. It was interesting to watch the process. Just page thru the photos - this was about an hour's worth of work. They would lift it, reposition, lift again.....but all turned out pretty well with little extra damage to the airplane.

























So the airplane is back "home" - they'll have to decide what to do now. I know it looks pretty intact...but there really is alot of damage. But happily, only metal was damaged, no flesh!!

Had another little "oopsie" at the airport!

Fortunately, the pilot is fine. The plane, not so much!








I was interviewed for the local news after all the excitement was over....can we all say "Karen is a Southern Girl??"

Key West!!

Last of our little mini-vacation!! We took off from Homestead and flew about 40 minutes south to Key West for a day-visit.

Isn't the water beautiful??


Approaching Key West




Pat and Diane were staying at a campground on Key West - so they picked us up at the airport.




We wandered the streets for a little while - enjoying the sights (always gotta take chicken-photos!)





Pat being silly at the Shipwreck museum (that we didn't tour because they wouldn't let the dog in!)


For lunch, we went "up" to Gieger Key to visit with Reid and Lori -(Buddy and Sharon's friends) who were staying at a different campground. Small world!

We had a very nice lunch at the campground restaurant.




Diane visiting at the Tiki bar owned by one of Reid's friends at the campground.


Reid trying to hush his doggies.....just a little barking!


Really neat place!




But, sadly, we had to get back to Homestead to our hotel.....the weather was a little threatening and we had some pretty desolate terrain to cross.....







Nothing eventful on the trip back to NC - 4 hours 15 minutes!! Fast little Mooney!



And this is all that's left of the snow!!!