Sunday - Heading Home:   Check the weather is a favorite pass time of pilots and studying the winds is even more fun. The problem is you usually know when the head winds are coming at you - which, in my case, is almost always. We were to have a mixed bag of winds forecast today but we could be guaranteed some rain. If we did not get the usual Florida afternoon thunderstorms, we might get some of the little low swirling in the Gulf next to the "Big Bend" area of Florida. Wow, that low looks big and Cheryl Lynn and I comment to one another how it has a really nice cyclonic spin to it as we ready ourself to depart Theresa's house at 0430.

Our planned IFR departure with 0630 wheels up went without a hitch and we made a timely departure, getting routed directly over OKC and Tinker AFB, cutting a little time out of our track. We settled in at 7,000' at 155 kts. Sweet! This tail wind was forecast to diminish before we got to Mississippi so we will enjoy it while we can. The sunrise was spectacular, with just the right mix between the haze and the clouds to make the colors brilliant and the streaking rays visible as the pierced the hill tops in western Arkansas. The radio was dead silent - virtually no one around. We wondered if Fort Worth Center had forgotten about us or if the radio was even working. We did a quick squelch check. Yup, radio is OK. We were handed off - OK - just quiet this morning. I guess that I should have mentioned the feel of the morning in Oklahoma City. It was warm and muggy with a 20 kt "breeze" blowing. While this is normal for Oklahoma, us Florida girls called that an ominous feel to the wind. When we feel something like that in Florida, there is most certainly a tropical storm or hurricane brewing. In the mid-west, however, we were not concerned.

We continued on with our tailwind waining ever so slightly as we pressed south-eastward until we were near Waynesboro again. Somehow, we could not pass up that $2.85/gallon Avgas. We canceled IFR and made a visual approach exchanging radio transmissions with a rather pesky Ch-47 who seemed very concerned of our whereabouts in his planned rendezvous with his sister ship at the Waynesboro Airport. "Any traffic, please advise ...." As much as that annoys me, we continuously advised. Even after we landed, he kept questioning until we radioed that we were off the runway at the fuel farm. Mr. CH-47 radioed that he would be making a left downwind for runway 2. Strange - why would a helicopter fly such a pattern? We shut down the plane to re-fuel. Neither Cheryl Lynn nor I were impressed with Mr. CH-47 and his concern for our well-being (part of this stemmed from the fact that neither of us knew what a CH-47 was). "Whop-whop-whop-whop..." We looked to the downwind for runway 2. Whoa, now we are impressed. Quick, grab the camera. Mr. CH-47 comes in and lands behind the building. We run to the side where we can see the massive amounts of debris swirling around from the enormous rotor wash produced by this Chinook. We understand his concern for us as his rotor wash would have flipped us over like a leaf. We continue fueling and depart VFR for the next leg of the trip to Perry-Foley.

The day was growing hot and muggy and it was only 1000 hrs local time. Headwinds were now going to be a real issue so lower was better to make the best time. We climb to 1800' for a while before the ceiling starts to lower. Soon we are getting a cloud headache as this thin layer of clouds is starting to fill in more than we like to see, so we find a hole and head up to 2800'. The clouds start expanding pushing us up to 5500' over the next hour. Now our butts are getting tickled as we appear in a trough with cloud mountains forming all around us - time to head back down as we are nearing our destination. We zig and zag through the maze of clouds until we drop back to 2400' with an ever more solid ceiling out ahead. We look off to the right to compare our picture on the Nexrad with the massive storm to the south. That low really blew up fast! We head in to Perry-Foley (40J) to visit with Cheryl Lynn's husband, Stan. I elect to check the weather to see how long of a visit we can have only to discover that the low is now Tropical Storm Claudette. We are not hanging out here long as there is another line of storms forming from Naples to Tampa. We depart low to stay out of the winds and head straight for LaBelle (X14), getting in safe, sound and dry while we watch the rains over Punta Gorda.

Cheryl Lynn completes the last leg as our passenger in the car. This actually worked out well since her car battery was dead and she needed a jump to get going. That would have been most difficult with the airplane! Ahhhh, safe and sound, indeed.