Norwood, MA to Warren, OH -- 2:55, 30 gallons
The first stop on the way home was Warren, Ohio, which was one of the cheapest fuel stops along the route. Speaking of the route, my intention was to try to get to Lamar, Colorado the first day. That would end up being a relatively direct route home, stopping in Ohio, maybe northern Missouri, and then eastern Colorado. The trip home the next day would be cake. But of course weather played into the equation yet again, and there were buildups and thunderstorms forecast all across the central portion of the country. Man, I'm glad I don't live in Kansas, that's for sure!
If you look at the route map above, you can see we ended up sticking to a relatively northern route. I had wanted to stop off at Finleyville, PA to visit my buddy Tom Emery. He moved out there from southern California earlier this year. Anyway, we were beelining west to try to beat the weather. I thought we might be able to thread the needle through some of the stuff in the central portion of the country and maybe still make it to Lamar. So I ruled out stopping in Pennsylvania...we'll catch you on the next trip, Tom. The route took us to Warren, which I had seen on AirNav as a cheap fuel stop. We stopped there, fueled up -- bring cash if you plan on fueling there, because they don't take credit cards. Fortunately I had just enough cash on me to cover the top-off. The airport manager was a really nice fellow, though, and we got to talking about southern California, where his daughter lives. He mentioned she's trying to publish children's books, so I offered to connect her with a friend of mine who is in that business. Anyway, long story short...nice guy, nice airport. A few people drove up as we were fueling and gave us the typical attention that a homebuild like this one attracts. While I was building, people who were already flying their RVs always said stuff like, "If you stop to fuel your RV, you had better like talking, and you better not be in a hurry." True, true.
Warren, OH to Kankakee, IL -- 2:05, 21 gallons
Anyway, we got out of there and headed west across Ohio and Indiana. I didn't have a specific landing spot in mind...I just pretty much headed direct toward Lamar at that point, and figured we'd find a good mid-way point to stop, fuel up, and eat. Eat. That's what Jen wanted to do as soon as we took off out of Warren. We had snacks and stuff onboard, but she wanted lunch. The snacks did the trick for a little while, but about an hour and a half into the flight she basically said, "I want to eat lunch. NOW." Yes, maam. I told her she had to wait half an hour...which was how far out we were from Kankakee (another place I used to land on the old MS Flight Simulator).
We landed at Kankakee, requested fuel, and stole a free crew car for a bit. We drove a couple of miles to a restaurant the guy at the airport had recommended. After lunch, we hit the convenience store nextdoor, and Jen stocked up like crazy on some serious junk food. Candy, candy, junk, candy. I don't know how she can eat that crap. Hey, it's what she was craving...and who am I to stand in the way of a woman's cravings?
Kankakee, IL to Platte, SD -- 3:00, 28 gallons
Armed with lots of bottled water and enough sugar to keep a 9-year-old hyper for weeks, we departed Kankakee. At this point, it was clear looking out the right side of the plane (north), but to the south there were buildups starting to develop.
As far as the eye could see to the south, it looked like it was gonna be an interesting afternoon. They weren't thunderstorms yet, but the forecast (talking to flight watch) was sure calling for 'em.
It was tempting at some points to try to cut across the weather and head toward Lamar, but it wasn't worth it. We had left two extra days at the tail end of our schedule for this purpose. In case we had to divert way out of the way, we had time to do that.
So as I intersected the northern edge of the buildups, I just followed that edge the whole way. Even though it doesn't show it in the route map above, we originally started out heading west, maybe a little southwest, toward Lamar, but after intersecting the edge of the buildups we turned northwest. The forecast called for crappety crap all the way up into and covering Nebraska, so South Dakota it was... I set us up direct Rapid City. I knew we'd have to stop before reaching RAP, and I figured we'd get fuel in western Iowa or eastern South Dakota.
Not much to see out there in Iowa. It was a little hazy, anyway.
We just followed that weather's edge the whole way.
Jen and I ended up having a virtual farting contest in the plane that afternoon. This is her, "Ooops, soorrrry..." look. Fortunately for both of us, I hadn't sealed the sides of the canopy yet, so the vapors escaped rapidly. Otherwise they would have found us in a pile of crumpled aluminum in the Iowa countryside, having fallen unconscious from excess inhalation of methane... What the heck did we eat for lunch?! It smelled better going in.
We had just crossed into South Dakota, and it was time to get fuel. The GPS database said that Platte had fuel, so we landed there. DO NOT LAND IN PLATTE if you need fuel. Jeez, why would you land in Platte for anything?! There's absolutely nothing there. Not a single airworthy airplane on the field, at least not when we were there. Not a soul around. There was a big rusty fuel truck sitting there, but the only person I could see was a guy driving a tractor in a field about 3 miles away. Greaaat. Good thing we've still got some fuel left.
Platte, SD to Chamberlain, SD -- 0:15, 3 gallons
We took off and headed northwest, sort of up river, toward Pierre. I radioed Pierre and they confirmed they had fuel. It was 86 miles away, and we'd probably burn about 6 or 7 gallons getting there. I powered way back and ran lean of peak to conserve go juice. We were doing about 150 knots true at that reduced power setting, and I was hoping we wouldn't have to fly all the way to Pierre. There were two or three airports on the map that supposedly had fuel, but having just landed at one of them and seeing NOTHING was pretty discouraging. I was all over the UNICOM frequencies trying to get in touch with FBOs, but there was no answer. It was about 6:30pm, so I figured people had headed for home. Jeez. Serves me right for thinking airports out in the middle of BFE would be attended like they are in SoCal. Anyway, finally a guy on frequency told me that they had self serve fuel at Chamberlain, that it takes credit cards, and that he believed they still had fuel left since he just fueled there this morning. Well, that was my next intended stop anyway, so let's give it a shot.
On the ground at Chamberlain, I couldn't get the self serve credit card reader to take my credit cards. I tried three of 'em, and it refused to function. There was a little house right there next to the pumps, presumably where an airport "manager" lives. I saw a woman out in back go back into the house, so I went over and knocked on the door. No answer. I yelled, "Hello? Anybody there?" No answer. Thanks a friggin' lot. Nothing but hospitality out here in beautiful South Dakota.
Before I go off the deep end blaming everybody else...I gotta say that it's my own fault for getting low on fuel and not knowing *exactly* where I was gonna fuel up. But weather really screwed up my flight planning again, and hey -- here I was sitting at the pumps. I'm here. There's fuel. Read my friggin' credit card!
Jen waited patiently in the plane while I futzed with the credit card reader. Finally the planets aligned and it worked. Quick! Get the hose over and pump that stuff before the machine changes its mind! We took on 31.5 gallons. I had 10.5 gallons remaining, so it's not like I couldn't have squeezed another hour or even an hour and a half of slow, leaned out flying out of this thing if I had to, but I don't like running the tanks much lower than that if I can help it.
At this point, the sun was setting and it was definitely time to find a place to stay. Here in Chamberlain it wasn't gonna happen (and I plan on NEVER returning). Pierre was the place to be.
Chamberlain, SD to Pierre, SD -- 0:20, 4 gallons
The flight to Pierre was pretty quick. Once we landed, a debilitating migraine headache kicked in, and I got a bad case of cold sweats. I tied the plane down and covered it, and Jen and I went inside the FBO. I asked if they had hangar space available, and they did. It was gonna be like 100 bucks or something like that...I don't remember the exact price. If the thunderstorms were coming this way, I definitely wanted to hangar it. I called flight service and they said that Pierre wasn't gonna get hit. Maybe light rain showers, but no T-storms forecast. The guy at the FBO said they would be there all night, so if I changed my mind I could just call 'em and they'd put it in the hangar. That worked for me. I figured I'd check the weather later in the evening and see if the forecast changed.
I collapsed on the couch in the pilot's lounge while Jen took care of getting a room and calling the shuttle. I was drenched in sweat, my skin was green, and Jen insisted that I had gotten food poisoning at lunch. I don't know what it was, but I was miserable. I had been drinking plenty of water all afternoon, so I doubt it was dehydration. Regardless, I was in sorry shape at that point. I almost threw up in the shuttle van over to the hotel. When we got to our room I passed out.
I woke up around 2:30am, feeling absolutely rip-rarin' to go. I went down to the lobby to use their computer and internet connection. I downloaded AOPA's real time flight planner and used that a bit, checked the weather, caught up with email, etc. The weather looked good for a relatively straight shot home tomorrow.
I would definitely stop in Pierre again. It's kind of an odd place, but it is the state capitol. Be sure to pronounce it "peer," though...not to be mistaken for "pee-air." Nice airport, 24-hour FBO, hotels/motels nearby...works for me.