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Heading home?

Ted has been watching the skies and has decided to take advantage of a clear window in the weather by leaving a bit early. Weather in Asheville will be stormy starting tomorrow so we’re hoping to avoid it. We’ll be passing through a small front, but after that it looks like clear skies through the west coast.

We spent the earlier part of the morning waiting for the freezing fog to lift. After breakfast and some scrambling, the weather cleared and we were good to go.

The flight started out swimmingly, and we made our way to our first stop in Huntsville, AL. We expected it to be a quick stop for fuel and facilities, then on our way.

Outside Huntsville, AL

As we took off from Hunstville, Ted noticed he was leaking fuel from the gas cap, so we turned around and landed to have a look.

Leaking fuel

It didn’t seem like much fuel was lost, and maybe it was leakage due to the tanks being overfull, so we decided to head on and keep an eye on it. We left for Little Rock.

Eventually the leaking subsided and all looked well, but then we started encountering considerable turbulence and headwinds that slowed us down to a crawl. Ted decided to take us down in Olive Branch, MS to refuel, take a break, and re-group.

Olive Branch Tower

Fast moving clouds

Our original intent was to fly back to McKinney today and spend the night with my family (primarily because we were worried about hotel availability on New Year’s Eve, but also because it would be nice to share the holiday with family instead of holed up in a Holiday Inn). But things weren’t looking good. It would be another couple hours to Little Rock, then 3+ more to McKinney. We already had a late start to the day, we’d be arriving in Little Rock after dark, and if the weather was as bad as we’d just been having, it would be a very long haul. Ted decided it would be OK to fly another leg, but McKinney was probably out.

Once again, we have nothing but good things to say about the folks in Mississippi. We come bursting in, unsure of where we’re going or whether we’ll be staying, and they helped set us up in the lounge, called a local hotel, and were generally friendly and helpful to us during a somewhat stressful juncture in our trip. Bless their hearts (and I mean that in the nicest, truest sense).

We called ahead and got a reservation at a hotel in Little Rock and made the decision to press on. Again, we had leaking fuel, but no worse than before. Happily, the sky cleared, the winds calmed down, and we had a blissfully uneventful trip to Arkansas.

Dined at Boston’s, a place adjoining the Holiday Inn where we were staying. It was just what we needed - hot food, cool drinks, friendly service staff who were efficient but not overbearing. The place had just opened, so it had that New Restaurant Smell, too. I celebrated New Year’s Eve with a couple Guinness and spicy pasta; Ted had pizza.

They also brought out their dessert tray, filled with lifelike plastic samples of very large sweets. We didn’t partake, but I did enjoy the fact that someone signed the plastic cheesecake:

Posted by bpod at Monday ~ December 12, 2007 |

Category: christmas 2007, family, flying, travel

 

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