Woke up at 9:00 A.M. This time to the the alarm. But it was way too early. Stayed in bed until 9:30.

Jarryd and I had planned to go to Oklahoma for some lunch today, but this morning we decided to change things up a bit. Instead of Oklahoma, we settled on Arkansas. We were ready to scoot out around 11:00, but the airplane was in the middle of an oil change. A long oil change! We were finally told she was ready to go around 1:00 P.M.

In the midst of that waiting, we hopped online to look for some airport restaurants. We decided on Drake Field Airport down in Fayetteville, Arkansas...118 nautical miles away.

Jarryd flew on the way down there, and once again, Kansas was havin' her way! We took off with winds around 20-25 knots coming right out of the south. We took the Piper Cherokee for this flight, and our ground speed was around 82 knots. Not cool. The traffic on the interstate actually looked like it was moving at a nice clip! That wasn't very encouraging!

The ride was slow and windy the entire way down. Jarryd had to keep making adjustments to keep the airplane level! We did have some nice sights, though. As we flew over Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (KXNA), we flew right over a C-130 (the HUGE military transport aircraft). He was movin' faster than we were, so he flew underneath us in the opposite direction, turned and went in for the approach parallel with us, then took off ahead of us and entered the pattern again. I was able to snap some shots of him about 2000 feet below us. That is one big airplane!

Jarryd did the localizer approach into Runway 16 at Drake, and we both quickly learned what minimum safe altitudes are for. As you come into the runway, you fly right over some nice Arkansas hills (and some ridiculous mansions, if I do say so myself). The airport is nestled right in between these hills! ATC was rather busy as we were number one of three on final, so he never gave us a clearance off the runway, but we took it anyway and told him what we were doing. It all worked out.

And in beautiful fashion, we pull our Cherokee up to the FBO and taxi by several corporate jets (a couple King Air's were in the mix) as well as several twin and single-engine aircraft. We park on the end in this mix.

And there we are...two young bucks walking into...are you ready for it?! Million Air FBO. True story! (Now I have to admit, I wasn't exactly on the ball here...it took me at least another half hour before I actually caught on to the catchy phrase). Jarryd made fun of me for that. As he should! And for somethin' else, but more on that in a sec.

Well, if I do say so myself, the FBO lives up to its name. It is easily the fanciest one I've ever been in. There are lush couches, a flat-screen TV, and just beautiful wood accents throughout. The floor plan is rather open, and it's definitely made to cater to the higher-end on the pay scale. But we were more than happy to settle ourselves right in!

Well, as any pilot would understand, we head for the bathroom for our first stop. And even the bathroom is nice! Personal urinal stalls (kinda weird) and marble sinks rounded it all out. Well, I go to wash my hands, and on my side, there is no soap dispenser. So I look around, and I see a nice big bottle of green soap in the middle next to some towels, I think, and I later realized some cups. Well, I put my hand under it and squeeze. "Oh, man, this is really watery!"

Jarryd starts laughing. "Because it's Listerine!" No way! Get outta here! haha! I had just lathered up my hands with mouthwash! Talk about being out of my league, huh?! Who puts dispensable mouthwash on sinks?! I finally found the soap dispenser on the other side of the sink and tried to rationalize that I was never supposed to know, but Jarryd wouldn't let me live it down.

But I was OK with his jesting. Because my hands smelled minty-fresh, and his didn't! ha!

Well, we walked over to the restaurant, and I don't really know how to describe this place accurately. Right behind you is this incredibly fancy Million Air FBO, and right ahead of you is this place called Wilma's. Yeah, I said Wilma's.

To the left are some really old Victorian-style couches...the type that you can never sit on (namely because they are too ugly to warrant such an action), and then up ahead along the left wall are huge oak tables with old oak chairs. With ugly flowers in the middle. Somethin' that you would see in a grandma's house...or at a nursing home. It seriously looked like the old hens would be comin' in at any time...their chairs untouched from last time they came in. Needless to say, the restaurant was rather, well, not fancy! The chairs came out of a 70's or 80's restaurant...you know, from that one diner that you would find along Route 66. This is the situation we found ourselves in.

Well, we sat down. Jarryd accurately described the place as comparable to Hollywood with their several sets. Over there is the mansion, here is the middle-income home, and probably beyond those walls is an alley...or desert...or school. Who knows.

Well, I ordered the burger combo with some sweet tea. The waiter brought us out our sweet tea, and he only poured about 1/4 into our cups. We were to taste-test it first to see if it tickled our palate! Since when did sweet tea reach the ranks of wine?! I mean, I'm thrilled that it's now up there, as sweet tea is the nectar of the heavens, but I must have missed that memo!

I tasted. SWEET MOTHER!!! Did I pucker?! Did I raise my eyebrows?! Did anyone notice?! It was easily the sweetest tea I have ever tasted in my life! Way sweeter than Lambert's, way sweeter than possibly even sugar itself. About 10 minutes later, I think Jarryd put it perfectly...

"I think I am going to get a cavity if I drink any more of this." But we couldn't put it down! Though we eventually quenched our thirst, we kept goin' back for more. It was like candy!

The burger itself was good but not worth the $10 I had to pay for it. They definitely abuse their privilege of bein' right on the airport. I'll take We-B-Smokin' any day...

Well, Jarryd had to be back for work by 5:00, so we had to get movin'. The flight was more than an hour and a half down there, and we rolled in around 2:50. It was now 3:30, and it was time to scoot.

I hopped in the pilot's seat for the leg back. We hoped there wasn't a ramp fee, and we made sure to get back in our plane as soon as possible to avoid such an extra cost (I mean, we had just paid $10 for a hamburger!). I taxied out to Runway 16, and the tower cleared me for take-off.

The flight back was much quicker. I was cruising between 104 and 115 knots, depending upon the gusts of wind. I was under the Foggles the entire time, so I didn't get to enjoy the scenery as much on the way down, but that was fine. We cruised at 4,000 feet on the way back. The cockpit did reach a rather quiet time for about 10 minutes, though...I think my safety pilot was in another one of his food comas...did you fall asleep on me, Jarryd?! Did you?! ha!

I had Jarryd back at 4:54 P.M., just in time for him to hop in the car and head to work, and that's exactly what he did! Winds were 220 at 18 knots, gusting to 25, when I landed. Now that's the Kansas I know! All in all, I logged another 1.5 hours of "instrument" time.

Well, even though it was windy, the weather was ridiculously beautiful. There were times where I thought I might even spontaneously combust in the airplane from the sun shining through! It was fantastic! Sure beats being cold! The high today was 70 degrees. So, of course, I had to soak up the last hour of sunshine. I threw on some shorts, then went out for a run. Probably went about two miles. The lungs were a bit better, but the legs were a bit used from yesterday. It still felt great, though. I mean, it's the first day of March and 70 degrees outside! That's just hard to beat.

Came back, took a shower, then walked into town to watch a Neosha County Community College basketball game. Campus is probably two miles away, but when it's 55 at night in March, you have to take advantage of that. I watched our hometeam get stomped on, but it was a nice way to spend a Saturday evening. Those boys sure can jump (and by boys, I mean that the guy that had five dunks on us was definitely not white). He had to wait to come down to throw the ball through! No lie.

Walked back, then chilled on the internet before bed. Went to bed at midnight. Supposed to be 70 for just a bit longer tomorrow, then the storms come through. Lots of rain and then snow on Monday.

That was a nice Saturday...