Startling way to be woken up -

Last night we flew into the airport at Petaluma, CA (O69) about 6:30 p.m. It's a large airport and it was absolutely quiet - no one there, yet lots of hangars and planes on the ramp. There's a small, clean FBO and Dennis set up his new tent on the outside deck, while I made myself comfortable with my blow-up mattress and sleeping bag inside. We spent the evening reading e-mail (free wifi) and responding to texts.

This morning a harsh voice woke me saying, "You have to get out of here before I call the police." It had never occurred to either me or Dennis that we'd be considered homeless!! Once I apologized for assuming I could sleep in the FBO, and pointed out our planes, the fellow became really nice. The airport is having a Display Day (the public invited to come and see the planes,) and he said we were welcome to stay and participate...and please immediately get our camping gear put away. Of course we complied.

This morning we're socked in, so might not be able to fly until this afternoon.

Re-winding to yesterday, our second day of flight:

We knew the coast would be socked in until mid-morning, so we had a leisurely time getting ready to leave Cave Junction (3S4).

Wolf decided that he would fly with us as far as Arcata, CA, so it was three Aeroprakts that left Cave Junction to fly to the coast. Mountains and forest for about 40 minutes. Great to hear the continuous  hum of my Rotax 912ULS. 

We flew high, about 5000' to the coastline; I dropped to 4000' briefly and then got down low - about 800' AGL. Had a strong tailwind: my airspeed indicated was 70 kts. and my GPS was showing 98-105 kts. over the ground!!!

The air was smooth up high, slightly bumpy down low. Wonderful flying!

At Cape Mendocino we saw a solid blanket of clouds as far down the coast we we could see.

So we turned inland, climbed back to 5500' and flew over the mountains to Garberville (O16). 

Garberville is nestled in a small valley which made for a very tight pattern. The airport was deserted. 

It was 1:00 p.m. and very hot. We landed, refueled, and took off again. 

I had completely forgotten that I had only the Seattle and Klamath Falls sectionals on my tablet, and the K. Falls sectional ends at Garberville! Thankfully, I had a paper sectional, and Ukiah was only 80 miles away, following Hwy. 101. Dennis shepherded me so I didn't have to fly every curve of Hwy. 101. 

Ukiah was VERY hot, but with a large blissfully air-conditioned FBO and really friendly staff. It is a base for the huge fire-fighting planes.

I downloaded more sectionals onto my tablet. We had dinner at an authentic Mexican restaurant (beef head, tongue, and tripe on the menu,) and then took off again. We flew at 3500' through a large, beautiful valley to Petaluma. We could see the coastal clouds to our left but they didn't hinder us as we landed. An easy four hours total on my Hobbes meter for the day.

Here's our flight path yesterday.