Breakfast with Jim and Kathy (Lennon Sister). Kathy gave Art and I autographed copies of her autobiography and a CD of Lennon Sisters music, and an audio tape. What a class act she is.
Next stop, deliver the loaner-car back to Mark Trimble. We hang around for another hour getting in our share of "hangar talk" about Wacos (and other planes) he has owned, the four times he has had his planes engine quit on him, the time his prop came apart, and other great stories. Wish we could have stayed another day and learned more, and flown some of his planes. Next time.
Immediately after taking off out of Branson Missouri, we hit the deck and fly over the lakes around the city. The Ozarks are some of the best-kept secrets in the US. This place is absolutely beautiful. Real estate prices are still very reasonable. But the way it is growing, that won't last for long.
As soon as we run out of lakes to fly, we lift the nose and climb straight up to 6500 feet and play among the scattered puff-ball cumulus clouds. The air is calm, cool, and visibility is excellent. Couldn't have nicer flying weather. Art and I take turns flying through different clouds. It's surprisingly warm inside them, and the air is thick with humidity. Sometimes there is some unexpected turbulence inside these clouds. Lots of fun to poke through these clouds, lose all visibility inside the gray mass, and then wait until you pop out the other side into the bright sunlight.
Soon we're coming back down to land at Independence Kansas. It's after 2pm and we need to get some lunch so we can handle the next leg of the trip. We are warmly greeted by the locals and given a courtesy car to drive into town. They recommend Kinsey's Restaurant for the home cooking and it was terrific. Real mashed potatoes with dark gravy, fried chicken, and lots of other goodies. The people are real human beings. Middle America is a good place to meet real people.
When we get back to the airport, there are several new faces among the crowd. We hang out for at least an hour talking to the locals about our trip, and the planes. They are fascinated, and we really enjoy sharing it with them, while we relax and digest some of that good home cooking.
We can't wait too much longer. We have a long leg ahead of us. The city of Liberal Kansas is the next stop, about 250 miles, against a headwind, in the late afternoon turbulent air, with temperatures rising as we go westward. This is not a leg we are looking forward to, but there is just no choice about it. There is NOTHING else in Kansas where we could stop before Liberal. This is a very empty state.
This leg is pure "transportation". There was no fun involved. Due to the headwinds, the trip took 3 hours, nonstop. Lots of turbulence. The declining sun shone directly in our eyes. There was no escaping it. Headache. Heat. Dehydration. Bumpy ride. Not fun at all. Onward we pushed, hammering out the miles. It seemed that the headwind was increasing, along with the turbulence. I remembered watching The Weather Channel earlier this morning and seeing a travel advisory for "windy" conditions in western Kansas. Right where we were. I'm getting more apprehensive about the conditions for landing at Liberal, but try to put it out of my mind, thinking that there are two runways at Liberal, and besides, there is just nothing I can do about it at the moment. Whatever will be, will be.
The miles pass so very slowly. This is an endurance test. I'll face worse when I do the round-the-world trip, so I chalk this up to "training". This is the kind of day that I would normally choose to stay on the ground, just because the flying is no fun. Today we have a different mission. Get home. This trip is over tomorrow. We will fly for a little while together, then Art will head north to Boulder, and I will continue west to San Diego. He'll be home tomorrow night. I'll be in San Diego a couple of days later.
Eventually, excruciatingly slowly, Liberal comes into radio range. The Automated Weather Observation System (AWOS) radios that the winds are 190 degrees at 18 knots. A real honkin' wind there in Liberal, as expected, but luckily for us there is a runway 17, so there is very little crosswind component to the wind. The landing was a piece of cake.
We were two very exhausted pilots when we pushed our planes into the big hangar at Liberal. We wanted to get them under cover to protect them against the thunderstorms that are expected tonight. With the planes tucked safely away, I'm going to sleep like a rock.