The phone rings WAY too early and it's Mike Davis, another Waco pilot who I had met 3 years ago when I picked up my first Waco in Lansing. He had his plane in the shop here for repairs after bending an aileron in a ground loop, and departed yesterday for his home in Minneapolis, just across Lake Michigan. A clever pilot does not fly these planes across a lot of water unless absolutely necessary, so Mike took the long way around, to the north. This was the same route Art and I wanted to go and we were hoping that we could get some break in the weather, but it didn't come. Art and I stayed in Lansing, but Mike decided to go for it, filing IFR in the hopes of breaking out of the clouds at around 5000 feet. That didn't happen, and he felt it was necessary to call me early on Sunday morning and wake me up from the effects of too many Irish coffees just to tell me what a terrible flight he had. But that's OK because biplane pilots just love to tell stories (some 'taller' than others!).
Mike broke through the clouds at 4000 feet, sooner than expected, but the tops kept moving him up, and at 7000 feet he faced a wall of clouds all the way to heaven, so he stayed level and flew in the soup for the next hour and a half, getting drenched in rain the whole way. Just a bit before Mackinac he popped out of the other side into a spectacular sunny day and some of the best landscape he says he's ever seen.
I was glad to hear the story of his great trip home, and my appetite was whetted for getting north to that beautiful place, but when I dragged myself to the window to check the weather, I knew it wasn't going to be today. It was a downpour in progress. Lansing weather was getting boring, but biplane pilots are resourceful so we drove to Dearborn Michigan and visited the Henry Ford Museum and saw some of the most extraordinary machines built in the last 150 years. Historic airplanes, monster locomotives, all kinds of automobiles of course, huge steam engines, and more "stuff" than you could see in a week. If you are ever stuck for something to do in Michigan, go check it out.
On our way back to Lansing, Art spotted a White Castle (restaurant), and there was no stopping him. White Castles are an East coast cult phenomenon and are famous for their hamburgers. Not just any kind of hamburger mind you, these are some of the smallest hamburgers in the world, and they sell them by the sack. They have the nickname "sliders" because they seem to be processed internally a lot quicker than most other foods. There used to be one about a block from my high school, and the hamburgers sold for a nickel, so you usually ordered about 5 just to use up a whole quarter. Nowadays they are 39 cents, and seem to be even smaller than I remember them. The square hamburger patty itself is about as thin as a credit card, and not as wide as one.
Art ordered 4 right off, but my stomach was still a bit queasy from last night so I only got one, just for old time's sake (because it has been about 40 years since I've had one). Typically I'm a vegetarian, almost never do red meat, but this was an occasion to revert to carnivore, a celebration of youth gone by. Les was suspicious, and only ordered one. The taste is rather bland, the bun soggy, but the pickles and onions and ketchup help it out a lot. And being so small, it's gone so fast that it's surprising how you can lose track of how many you've eaten. So Les and I helped finish off some of Art's, and then Art went back for another sack o' burgers.
Art got a little bit curious and opened up one of his hamburgers for a closer inspection, but I reminded him that this is one food that it's better not to look at while you eat. He agreed, and we all laughed heartily as we stuffed a few more down without looking.
All three of us have spent some considerable time as East coast residents, so we were very familiar with White Castle hamburgers, and the effect they have on the human body, so we finished quickly and got on our way hoping to get back to the rooms in Lansing before the full effects hit. But just before jumping in the car, we had our picture taken with the famous White Castle building in the background. It will be a classic momento of this trip. I also bought two coffee mugs, so I can remember this moment for years to come, long after the physical effects wear off.
Maybe by tomorrow I will have recovered from the indiscretions of the last two days. Maybe the sun will shine again in Lansing. Maybe we can fly again. Somewhere. Anywhere.
Maybe.