Still enroute to Florida

We awoke to pea soup fog in MA this morning so took our time over a leisurely breakfast to allow the weather to pick up a bit and for Bill to fix the car tire. We were loaded with wheels up around 11 AM and boy, were we loaded. Between the required equipment and log books, the three of us, full fuel and baggage for three we were at max gross weight.

Bill brought the left over lobster salad so it was a gourmet flight.

Bill flew the first leg with the first hour mostly in the clouds. We started to pop out at times and got glimpses of Newport, RI, Long Island and a peak at New York City. We overflew JFK and could only see the the jets popping out on top of the cloud layer. We continued on uneventfully over the Delmarva Peninsula, over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel and then into Currecheck (sp?) (ONX), just past Norfolk for fuel. The arrival was abrupt, a traditional chop and drop, something Bill admonished us NOT to do on the race. We can guess why he was in such a hurry to land.

On final going into ONX there was a kite landing with two folks on board ahead of us. Luckily it was brightly colored and beautiful to see, but looks to dangerous to me.

As we fueled some of the kite fliers caught Bill and suggested he "loose the girls" for a big beer blast planned for later in the day - guys only - yeah, right. Bill chose to stick with us. Smart man.

From ONX Judy and Sheryl took the pilot and copilot seats with Bill in the back. This was our first opportunity to fly together in over a year and the first time in the Bonanza. We did fine with a flew opportunities for Bill to make suggestions from the back seat. Once a flight instructor...

A line of thunderstorms developed over the Carolina's so we diverted west to fly around them. A weather advisory was published announcing the line of thunderstorms as being 25 miles wide, severe with winds up to 60 mph and one inch hail. At this point Bill was thinking that testosterone laced party back at ONX was starting to sound pretty darn good. We successfully navigated the thunderstorms and made it to Statesboro, GA. Where is that you ask? I'm not sure but somewhere in the northeast corner.

After a light dinner we are settled into the hotel room for a bonding experience since we all three snore!

The weather briefing for tomorrow looks thunderstorm free until around 2 in the afternoon so with an early start we should be able to get Bill to Fort Pierce in a couple of hours and then one more hour to cross over to Fort Meyers and arrive at the race start.