Here is the route picture again, so you can see how far we have come. To recap, yesterday we covered three legs and got from Denver to Lufkin Texas. As you will see, today we covered another three legs and are now in Sparta Tennessee, having flown over or through Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and at least one other state that I've forgotten! In total we have raced about 1500 nm so far, 800 yesterday and 700 today, out of a total of 2360 nm.This morning we declined our 5am alarm call and slept another two hours, as we were exhausted after the medical emergencies of the day before. The other good thing about this was by the time we got up the hotel was serving breakfast, and we hadn't eaten the evening before so were starving. Sweet Sid came to pick us up and bring us to the airport - thanks again Sid!
We packed up and left Lufkin Texas by about 9am, and had a good 301 nm ride to Russellville Arkansas. It was another beautiful day, starting out hazy but ending up quite clear. Of course its very hot, about 101 degrees on the ground in Texas and not much better flying along at low level. The Arrow has floor vents but no ceiling vents, so we are getting pretty hot and drinking bottles and bottles of water. I think Arkansas is my new favorite state - it was absolutely beautiful flying over the rolling tree-covered hills, lakes and swamps. A very pretty state. We have settled in to our new mode of flying, riding the thermals and the hills up, and then accelerating back down them to pick up speed. This must be how birds fly.
I have been doing the flying today, with Mary doing navigation and communication. Mary's ankle felt much better this morning, and she was OK walking around on crutches with her foot up. But she is wearing the brace and after many hours in the plane it was swollen and hurt more. We propped her leg up under the dash on a bag of approach plates which helped a bit, but I think as the day wore on it got more uncomfortable. We did a quick turnaround in Russellville, after having donuts and water with the great volunteers there. They just opened a very nice new terminal building this month, and were having their dedication ceremony the same afternoon.
The next leg was a relatively short one, 184 nm to Grenada Mississippi. I think it was on this leg that we flew over the Mississippi river, which looked very brown and tropical and was winding its way through thickly wooded hills. I bet there were alligators down there. We also flew over a cropduster, which was neat. Grenada had a lovely FBO with all kinds of treats for us, including hot dogs, banana nut bread, and potato chip cookies which I never had before but which were delicious. They also had comfortable squishy reclining chairs, so we put our feet up and relaxed for a while. I had a quick nap.At 4pm we decided to continue to Sparta Tennessee (249 nm), and had a beautiful flight in the late afternoon light. We are now pretty tired, and set up in a hotel in town. Linda Evans, our good friend, and my race partner in 2008, flew down to Sparta today from Philly in a Cirrus just to meet up with us! It was great to see her, and we all went out for dinner together. She is planning to meet us at the terminus.
So in two days we have completed 6 out of 9 legs, with two days left to complete the remaining three legs. Even though we didn't have good winds again today, I think its good that we got this much of the race behind us, because tomorrow a large stationary front with lots of precipitation and thunderstorms is lying right across the center of the country. We're not sure if we'll be able to get out in time, but even if Thursday is a washout Friday is predicted to be good weather, so we should be able to make it to the finish by the 5pm deadline.
