Our last episode [https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/com...rica-adventure-part-iv-dallas-edition.123894/] brought me as far as Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It's been another month and a half since then, and another six states (GA, FL, GA again, SC, VA, WV, and PA).
First, I stopped in Atlanta, where I got to meet a bunch of PoAers -- see photo here: [https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/atlanta-folks.124270/page-2#post-2874232]
My stay at Georgia Tech would turn out to be my last "university stop" for a while... from there, I headed toward Florida. Big thanks to @JOhnH, not only for putting me up for the night in Ormond Beach, but for arranging for an impromptu tiedown space at the airport, where all the FBO's tiedowns were occupied. (Serves me right for not realizing that it was the weekend of the Daytona 500!)
I was trying to flex my IFR muscles a little more, now that I was someplace where the freezing level wasn't too low. Got some nice IMC time on the way to Ormond, and a whole lot more (uncomfortable) time going from Ormond to Stuart through big puffy things full of bumps and uplift. Then on to Key West... for no particular reason other than to try to get as far as one can go, and see what that's like!
Key West (EYW) is pretty amazing, although not for the feint-of-wallet. My Airbnb was "boat camping" on a 22-foot sailboat anchored in Cow Channel, that you can only get to by kayak. But it does come with unlimited use of a kayak, which you can also use to explore mangrove mazes hidden amongst the townhomes and boat channels.
I was melting and easily dehydrated in the >80-degree heat, but spent a day playing tourist at the Southernmost Point in the contiguous U.S. and the Hemingway House. It was a real blessing to have brought along the folding bike on this trip; biking is hands-down the best way to explore the 5-mile-across island, whose attraction-packed "old town" is thronged with tourists and snowbirds.
I hadn't made any particular plans after Key West, other than to get to West Virginia by the first week in March. EYW represented an important emotional milestone on this trip: the literal half-way point, an achievement, after which all other flights would be part of the return trip home. As a result of this, I needed some time to decompress and rest. Fortunately, a former IceCuber who lives in Everglades City offered me a guest room respite for a few days, and it turns out that its airport (X01) is an absolutely lovely place, right on the water by a section of Everglades Park called the "Ten Thousand Islands", and also an easy folding-bike ride around the small town.
I tried to eat nothing but seafood during my time in South Florida... blue crab, stone crab, snapper, conch chowder, shrimp, fried oysters, raw oysters... Mmmmmm!
Moving northward, I based the airport stops on the advice of people I met along the way: the recommendation of @JOhnH (as well as others) led me to Arcadia (X06) for the airport-camping... where I stayed up way too late drinking around the campfire with an RV-10 pilot who recommended Jekyll Island (09J)... where I got taken out to lunch by some of the RedBug/FBO guys who recommended Charleston SC (LRO)... where I spent a few days being a history-tourist. As a Californian (or worse: an Alaskan), I don't get to see very many hundreds-of-years-old things that you can still touch and walk amongst.
I encountered lots of wind and turbulence flying north from there towards West Virginia, and ended up trapped on the wrong side of the Appalachians for several days, finding the way blocked by clouds or snow or strong winds or a combination thereof. Ended up spending one night at a very friendly B&B just up the road from the Blue Ridge Airport, and two nights in a sleeping bag spread on the floor of the pilot snooze room at Shenandoah Valley Airport, waiting for the weather to improve. But finally made it.
Now I'm back to University life for a while, at WVU (Morgantown / MGW), hijacking the office of a friend and trying to get some work done. Yesterday, it was a beautiful day to fly and so we grabbed another astronomy faculty member, put her aviation-obsessed 12-year-old in the co-pilot's seat, and flew to Arnold Palmer Airport for Sunday brunch at their very good Rat-Pack-themed airport restaurant. I'll be here in WV probably for another week.
Next stops: UNV, U of Delaware, and somewhere in the D.C. area probably near Annapolis....
P.S. tried to upload some pictures here, but they are all "too large for the server to process"... Will have to go through and do some size-reductions... in the meantime, there are lots of pictures on the blog (http://beetlejuiceadventure.wordpress.com).
P.P.S. My physics experiment, IceCube, wrote up a nice little piece about my trip for their news feed, which can be found here: [https://icecube.wisc.edu/news/], if you then scroll down a bit to Feb. 11th. (The same news feed has some nice pictures of a Basler BT-67 landing at the South Pole Station... if you like pretty airplanes...)
First, I stopped in Atlanta, where I got to meet a bunch of PoAers -- see photo here: [https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/atlanta-folks.124270/page-2#post-2874232]
My stay at Georgia Tech would turn out to be my last "university stop" for a while... from there, I headed toward Florida. Big thanks to @JOhnH, not only for putting me up for the night in Ormond Beach, but for arranging for an impromptu tiedown space at the airport, where all the FBO's tiedowns were occupied. (Serves me right for not realizing that it was the weekend of the Daytona 500!)
I was trying to flex my IFR muscles a little more, now that I was someplace where the freezing level wasn't too low. Got some nice IMC time on the way to Ormond, and a whole lot more (uncomfortable) time going from Ormond to Stuart through big puffy things full of bumps and uplift. Then on to Key West... for no particular reason other than to try to get as far as one can go, and see what that's like!
Key West (EYW) is pretty amazing, although not for the feint-of-wallet. My Airbnb was "boat camping" on a 22-foot sailboat anchored in Cow Channel, that you can only get to by kayak. But it does come with unlimited use of a kayak, which you can also use to explore mangrove mazes hidden amongst the townhomes and boat channels.
I was melting and easily dehydrated in the >80-degree heat, but spent a day playing tourist at the Southernmost Point in the contiguous U.S. and the Hemingway House. It was a real blessing to have brought along the folding bike on this trip; biking is hands-down the best way to explore the 5-mile-across island, whose attraction-packed "old town" is thronged with tourists and snowbirds.
I hadn't made any particular plans after Key West, other than to get to West Virginia by the first week in March. EYW represented an important emotional milestone on this trip: the literal half-way point, an achievement, after which all other flights would be part of the return trip home. As a result of this, I needed some time to decompress and rest. Fortunately, a former IceCuber who lives in Everglades City offered me a guest room respite for a few days, and it turns out that its airport (X01) is an absolutely lovely place, right on the water by a section of Everglades Park called the "Ten Thousand Islands", and also an easy folding-bike ride around the small town.
I tried to eat nothing but seafood during my time in South Florida... blue crab, stone crab, snapper, conch chowder, shrimp, fried oysters, raw oysters... Mmmmmm!
Moving northward, I based the airport stops on the advice of people I met along the way: the recommendation of @JOhnH (as well as others) led me to Arcadia (X06) for the airport-camping... where I stayed up way too late drinking around the campfire with an RV-10 pilot who recommended Jekyll Island (09J)... where I got taken out to lunch by some of the RedBug/FBO guys who recommended Charleston SC (LRO)... where I spent a few days being a history-tourist. As a Californian (or worse: an Alaskan), I don't get to see very many hundreds-of-years-old things that you can still touch and walk amongst.
I encountered lots of wind and turbulence flying north from there towards West Virginia, and ended up trapped on the wrong side of the Appalachians for several days, finding the way blocked by clouds or snow or strong winds or a combination thereof. Ended up spending one night at a very friendly B&B just up the road from the Blue Ridge Airport, and two nights in a sleeping bag spread on the floor of the pilot snooze room at Shenandoah Valley Airport, waiting for the weather to improve. But finally made it.
Now I'm back to University life for a while, at WVU (Morgantown / MGW), hijacking the office of a friend and trying to get some work done. Yesterday, it was a beautiful day to fly and so we grabbed another astronomy faculty member, put her aviation-obsessed 12-year-old in the co-pilot's seat, and flew to Arnold Palmer Airport for Sunday brunch at their very good Rat-Pack-themed airport restaurant. I'll be here in WV probably for another week.
Next stops: UNV, U of Delaware, and somewhere in the D.C. area probably near Annapolis....
P.S. tried to upload some pictures here, but they are all "too large for the server to process"... Will have to go through and do some size-reductions... in the meantime, there are lots of pictures on the blog (http://beetlejuiceadventure.wordpress.com).
P.P.S. My physics experiment, IceCube, wrote up a nice little piece about my trip for their news feed, which can be found here: [https://icecube.wisc.edu/news/], if you then scroll down a bit to Feb. 11th. (The same news feed has some nice pictures of a Basler BT-67 landing at the South Pole Station... if you like pretty airplanes...)
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