Lovely flying - the first leg.

 Sunday, June 25

After a completely refreshing day doing absolutely nothing but talking, eating, napping and relaxing at the Hilberts', we took off from Burnet, TX and headed for Tony and Carol Bolstad's in Port Isabel, TX (KPIL). We agreed our first stop for fuel would be at Alice International Airport (KALI) in Alice, TX. (Alice was established in 1888 and named after the daughter of Captain Richard King, who established the famous King Ranch.)  

This was an absolutely lovely flight. I flew at 2200' and then climbed to 4800' to get over the scattered clouds. (For my non-pilot friends: "scattered" is a technical term, and according to the FAA, means that approximately 3/8 to 1/2 of the sky is covered with clouds.)

As I'm flying above these clouds, it looks as though they're gathering thickness farther out. (To what the FAA calls "broken", meaning that half and up to 9/10 of the sky is covered with clouds. I don't fly when there are broken clouds.) But the closer I get, the more I realize that it's all scattered.

The air is smooth, below me are plenty of fields which will make good landing spots, and I am utterly relaxed.

We see oil wells and some sort of tree/bush plantings that neither of us can identify.

We land at Alice International in 100° heat and a frustrated airport manager tells us that their gas pumps aren't working, and she's been waiting for an electrician for two days. So we get back in our planes and head for Brooks County Airport (KBKS) in Falfurrias, TX. Again, hot, hot, hot!!! The "pilot lounge"/FBO is a tiny building, probably 20' x 30'. But blessedly cool inside and cold water in a tiny refrigerator. Since we've been in Texas, refrigerated water bottles are available free. Most airports in other states charge a nominal fee, like a dollar.

No self service gas here: you call a number and someone drives out to turn on the gas pump, fill your gas tanks, and take your payment. It is so hot that when he asks if we want to pump our own gas or if we want him to pump it (for about 20 cents/gallon more,) neither one of us takes long to decide. We wait inside while he pumps our gas.

The leg from Brooks County Airport to Port Isabel was fairly miserable. Again, hot, hot, hot, and with lots and lots of thermals, making for a rough ride.  I did a lot of "yankin' and bankin' ". To top it off, as we got closer to the coast, dreaded wind turbines began to appear. The fact that they were turning slowly was no consolation. They terrify me.

I went off-course, to try and avoid them, but they seemed to go on forever. The only bright spot was finally seeing the actual coastline and knowing we were really close to Port Isabel and the Bolstads.

We were greeted warmly by Tony and his son Sam when we landed at Port Isabel. We went out to dinner and Tony's wife Carol joined us for a great Italian meal. Then off to their air-conditioned home (do you see the theme here?) for the night.

I know this photo was taken today; I just don't remember at which airport. 

Here's our track for Sunday.