Home again!!!

 Sunday, Aug. 6

Sunday morning was overcast. We had made arrangements to fly with Rebecca Graham, who lives in Bremerton and owns an Aeroprakt A-32 (like Dennis' plane, but orange like mine.) Dennis wanted to fly the western perimeter of Washington, around the Olympic peninsula, but the weather didn't look good at all for that route. And Rebecca was reporting a 600' ceiling at Bremerton. So we'd just wait.

By 10 a.m., after a wonderful breakfast, the ceiling was now at 900' in Bremerton and that was along the route I planned to take. Dennis was ready to leave. He hadn't decided whether he was going to fly to Oshkosh, get his RV and drive it home, and then have a friend fly him back to Oshkosh to get his plane - or whether he was going to fly back to Arkansas (which I've been mistakenly abbreviating as AK instead of AR throughout this blog,) and have a friend fly him to Oshkosh to get his RV. He said he'd make his mind up in the air. (He ended up flying to Independence, OR, then to La Grande, OR, spending the night there due to weather, and then continuing on to Oshkosh.) 

It was difficult for me to see him go; it meant that our flight together around the perimeter of the contiguous U.S. was really over. He was an amazing flying partner and I know I could not have made the flight without him. His knowledge and experience are over the top and his willingness to share them is outstanding, as is his patience with a pilot who has a much lower risk tolerance than he does. THANK YOU, DENNIS!!!!

After Dennis left, Rebecca and I stayed in touch by text and she reported how the ceiling was slowly lifting. I didn't really mind the wait, as I was having a delightful time visiting with the Browns. By 2:30 p.m. Rebecca texted that she was taking off and would meet me at Sequim Valley Airport in about 45 minutes.

I hadn't realized that she has an orange Aeroprakt. Hers is a slightly different shade of orange, yet it was so much fun to watch her land and know what my plane must look like in the air.

She and I discovered that we both like to do planning with a paper sectional!

Since this part of the world is Rebecca's playground, I asked her to pick a route that would avoid long stretches of over-the-water or over-big city flying. Then with hugs for Skip and Ken, we were off! It was a wonderful flight and I loved seeing her orange plane in the air.

The Seattle skyline was pretty wonderful too.

And more island hopping:

Rebecca turned back at Chehalis, while I continued on south. Now I was in my home territory and yet I found myself reluctant to go home.

As the Columbia River Gorge came in sight, I decided not to land at Sandy River Airport but instead to continue on to a near-by airport and spend the night with friends. I wanted some transition between my amazing seven-week journey around the U.S. and being at home. It was the right decision. By the next day (Monday, Aug. 7) I was ready to go home. An easy 20 minute flight and I was flying over our farm and then in the pattern for 03S.

Some statistics:

20 flying days. (Left June 14, arrived home Aug. 7.  35 days, of which 15 were at Oshkosh)              

135 hours in the air 

434 gallons of gas (Fuel burn: 3.2 gal/hr.)

Total cost: I don't want to know!!! 

Total miles: Dennis is going to figure it out. He thinks we covered between 10,000 and 11,000 miles.

Now...I need to figure out "what next?"