Hello Everybody!!!! So nice to have a couple funny stories to blog about as we're counting down the weeks 'til the race. On Thursday, Joyce and I were so excited to don our cute matching Team Bessie shirts (big UPs to her students for the awesome design and bright color...LUV IT!) for our flight to The Tuskegee Airmen Fly-In this Memorial Day weekend. We started out with a good flight plan that would have put us in Tuskegee, Alabama -- Moton Field Airport (06A) around 5pm right on time for a nice dinner.
Thirty minutes out of Topeka, Joyce does a one-eighty degree turn out of some pretty scary weather. Good decision too! So we opted to land at Butler Airport (KBUM) located in Butler, MO. We waited, and waited, and waited, which is normal for waiting out Mother Nature. The fun facts about this tiny little FBO is that they run a very interesting crop dusting operation. The people we met were so very kind and knowledgeable; they shared lots interesting facts about the crop dusting business and how lucrative it can be. I'm thinking I might want to get a tail wheel endorsement....ASAP! Check out the Pics.....Athina
Thirty minutes out of Topeka, Joyce does a one-eighty degree turn out of some pretty scary weather. Good decision too! So we opted to land at Butler Airport (KBUM) located in Butler, MO. We waited, and waited, and waited, which is normal for waiting out Mother Nature. The fun facts about this tiny little FBO is that they run a very interesting crop dusting operation. The people we met were so very kind and knowledgeable; they shared lots interesting facts about the crop dusting business and how lucrative it can be. I'm thinking I might want to get a tail wheel endorsement....ASAP! Check out the Pics.....Athina
Even though we were "stuck/grounded" for some time waiting out the weather, we didn't let the time go to waste. Several months ago, Athina and I decided we wanted to be like "real military pilots" for this year's race and personalize "The Joybird," so we purchased "our crew position and names" decals and utilized this 'wait time' to affix them to the doors of the plane. WOW!!! How cool do our names look on "The Joybird" :-). A touch of class and everybody will know just who "Team Bessie" really is :-). Now that we have practice, in a few weeks we'll be affixing the winning race number ~"37" to "The Joybird's" tail section, so stay tuned!..Joyce
After chatting about crop dusting and watching them fly in and out, loading and unloading, and of course waiting and waiting and yes, waiting out the weather, I knew it was time to load my rumbling tummy. So we hopped in the courtesy car that drives in second and reverses in drive and set out for......you guessed it.... MAIN Street. I've got to tell you, Butler, MO has some good chinese food!!! :-). And that's coming from me.......a real FOODIE! It was DELISH and so inexpensive. That place should be on "Diners, Drive-In's and Dives." I think I'm gonna give Guy Fieri a call :-)
Six hours later from wheels down in Butler, full and completely satisfied, we set out for the closest point to our intended destination for a good night's rest. Time was not on our side and we didn't want to push past the weather minimums for VFR flying at night in unfamiliar territory, so we landed at West Memphis, Arkansas (KAWM).
The airport was closed when we arrived therefore, we had to cab it over to the hotel (the airport had nice looking courtesy cars too--BUMMER!) Anyway, we once again waited, and waited, and waited, for the one and only ONE cab driver working the entire West Memphis area and he was so gracious to take us on the nighttime scenic tour of this 'teeming metropolis.' As we discovered the next morning, though, what took us 15 minutes to arrive at our hotel, could have been only five minutes, had he just continued through the traffic light!!! Oh, well, he didn't know :-). We were so tired, almost too tired to rest. Well, at least I was because I didn't hear a peep out of Joyce, so I'm certain she rested well. Good Nite!...Athina
RSS Feed