A surprise text at 8:15 a.m.

 Friday, July 7

When Dennis and I went our separate ways yesterday, he said he'd see me at Gary and Tana's either Friday evening or sometime Saturday. Imagine my surprise when he texted me at 8:15 a.m. this morning to say that he'd be at Malone Airport in an hour! He had been wheels up this morning @ 5:00 a.m.!!!

Here's what he has to say about his flight:

"I'm on top of the world, actually top of the USA, Aroostook airport Maine. Early start this morning to beautiful smooth air. A little cooler temperatures, and the mountains of western Maine. I flew as close to the border as I could. Some places you'll see a path in the trees that is the actual USA Canada border."

We took off together from Malone Airport.  Today's flight was just lovely. Yes, the sky was grey with clouds, but there was little haze and the air was smooth. 

We followed the St. Lawrence river all the way to Lake Ontario. Beautiful river to our right, farms and fields and forest to our right. What's not to like? We both flew fairly low and had a great time .

We passed Watertown International Airport, NY (KART) and flew on to Lake Ontario, intending to fly to an airport near Niagara Falls. But both our tablets warned of rain up ahead, getting really heavy directly along our route. We could see a wall of heavy lake effect rain ahead of us. Too much to fly around. So we turned back and landed at Watertown. One hour and forty five minutes flight - one of our shortest legs. By the time we got back from a late lunch, it was five p.m. and we couldn't reach any of our designated airports to find out about courtesy cars, Uber/Lyft, or camping out under our wings So we shrugged and decided to stay at Watertown. 

Tomorrow we're heading for Niagara Falls!

Here's Dennis' track this morning.

Here's our joint track this afternoon.