Day 2

As one would expect, the motel in Bogalusa didn't offer breakfast of any variety. Jerry, the taxi driver, delivered us back to the airport which was still deserted. I checked the weather and options for our flight plan while Julia attempted to fuel the airplane. Totally in keeping with the rest of our experience in Bogalusa, the self-serve pumps wouldn't work. We were just about to give up and hop over to another airport when the airport manager arrived. Thankfully, he was able to coax the pump back to life, and we were off.

The weather forecast had indicated that we would be in pretty good shape until, of course, Florida. The XM weather showed thunderstorms that stayed out in the Gulf as we passed over Mobile and Pensacola. Getting around the Pensacola military operations areas was interesting. You could either go considerably north or enter an east/west corridor that hugged the coastline. You can tell from our course on the Spot which we chose. Again, the address for the Spot is http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=4191, password shadow.

Some had expressed interest in the oil spill and the beaches around Pensacola, so we took pictures of the coastline. According to the NOAA website, Pensacola and points west have light oiling and to the east no observed oil. Though we were only 5500', it was very hazy, and we could not detect any oil. NOAA says it's just offshore.

As soon as we rounded the bend at Panama City, we could see building thunderstorms lined up along the western coast of Florida. There was one huge cell over Tampa that just kept growing in size and in severity. We were weaving through smaller, more isolated storms trying to push as far as we could before things got too bad. As that big cell kept growing, we had to fly farther and farther east to get around it. Finally, east and south of the cell, we felt comfortable landing long enough to fuel at Winter Haven. Short time on the ground, though long enough to ogle all the amphibious aircraft but not enough for lunch, and off again for the last 89 miles.

It was hard to tell from the chart whether this was a lake or a bay, but it is a bay – just north of the airport.

One of our greeters was Rhonda who flew with Terry Carbonell in 2007 – the first year to race for both teams. It was fun to be greeted by someone we knew. Terry is the energy and organization behind this year's race which is in her home country.

Julia had talked our friend, Vern, who was in charge into putting us on today's list for an inspection. No inspection without the numbers on the airplane, so we got right on it…..again, no time for lunch. It was soooo hot out on the ramp!!! One of the locals said it was 105 deg. You see that we survived and are now officially Classic 15.

It took only a few minutes to go through credentialing and Julia was ready for inspection. While she was in the inspection hangar, it started pouring rain. Our timing had been good, and we were glad to have all that behind us. A volunteer gave us a ride to the hotel – a wonderful and welcome change from Bogalusa. Nice hotel, nice shower, and finally our first meal of the day about 5:30.

Up early to go to the airport for the handicap flight.