Day 23/24: New Orleans

Day 23/24: June 22/23, New Orleans. This was to be a full day at the office at 6000 feet. I departed Kendall/Tamiami at about 11:30am. I had filed an IFR flight plan, so I was flying the prescribed route north towards the Lakeland area then up into the Tallahassee area, landing at Quincy Municipal (2J9) where the fuel was priced at a reasonable $3.46/gallon. For the most part, I was comfortable during this flight at 6000 feet. Still, it was 80 degrees at altitude. As I descended into Quincy, I watched the thermometer steadily rise, until it reached an even 100 degrees when I got on the ground. Fueling up at 100 degrees on a hot airport tarmac is something I hadn't really thought about when I originally planned this trip, but with sweat dripping down my face, I got the plane tanked up. I also noticed something on this leg of the trip that was a bit disturbing. It had taken me just shy of four and a half hours to reach Quincy, which should have left me a comfortable 1+ hour fuel reserve, had my fuel burn estimates been accurate. I was expecting a fuel burn of 8.5 gallons per hour, but for some reason, I am burning 9.8 gallons per hour, even with the engine leaned out properly. This is 15% more than expected, and for this leg of the trip, I was only left with 5 gallons, or 1/2 hr of fuel. Clearly, I will be using the much more conservative estimate of 10 gallons per hour when making fuel calculations. At least I didn't have to figure it out the hard way! I will speak with my mechanic about why this may be happening. I know that flying on my old engine, I did a 5 hour leg once with fuel to spare.

From Quincy, I departed in the 100 degree heat, keeping in mind the density altitude, and continued on to New Orleans. I passed cities with familiar names: Pensacola, FL; Mobile, AL; Biloxi, MS; Gulfport, MS; and then finally pulled into New Orleans along Lake Ponchatrain. It is an enormous lake, and I can only imagine the swells from Katrina that put the city of New Orleans under water. I lined up on runway 18R from over the lake so that I could test my newly repaired VOR/Localizer receiver. Interestingly enough, the tower at the Lakefront airport closes early, so I was on my own. As I lined up with the Instrument Landing System (ILS), I noticed that the localizer needle for the repaired radio 1 was off by several degrees, while the needle was lined up perfectly for radio 2. I contacted the avionics shop back in Lakeland and they assured me that they had tested this on the ground and that it lined up properly. I will have to look into this further.

There are several FBOs on the field, but I had contacted Flightline First while still in the air. Their self-serve fuel pump had the cheapest fuel on the field: $3.99/gallon. After taxiing in, a lineman who was anticipating my arrival marshaled me over to the fuel pump. After fueling, I had considered whether I wanted to ride my bike into town, but abandoned that idea since it was hot, I was exhausted from 8 hours of flying, and I might have to bike through some bad sections of town. The FBO called me a cab.

The cabdriver brought me to my lodging, the India House. This was a youth hostel, and I always look for places like this when I'm alone and don't want to drop $100 / night on a hotel room. It's communal living: you get a bunk bed in a dormitory style room, there's a communal kitchen, shared bathroom facilities, etc. I was there to experience the nightlife of New Orleans, not the grandeur of an expensive hotel room. Besides costing only $20/night, which is quite amazing, I love meeting folks who come to stay at a place like this. For this particular hostel, they generally tended towards the hippie side of life. Usually, you run into international travelers from all over the world. I usually meet a lot of interesting people from the UK, Russia, Australia, and elsewhere. They are typically in their 20's or early 30's, but you also meet people who are my age and older.

To get into town and experience the nightlife, you simply hop on the Canal St. Trolley. For $1.25, the trolley brings you right to Bourbon St. where all the action is. For the first night, I walked Bourbon Street and tried to remember some of the places that Ed Haddad and I had been to several years before. There's the Bourbon Cowboy, complete with a mechanical bull, the Tropical Isle, the Cat's Meow karaoke bar, and a handful of strip joints. My all time favorite place to visit is the Funky Pirate. Ed & I were turned on the Funky Pirate over 7 years ago when we visited New Orleans. Our cab driver told us that we needed to go see Big Al Carson who puts on the best show on Bourbon Street. I've been up and down Bourbon Street and it is the truth, so on my first night there, I checked in at the Funky Pirate. Unfortunately, it was a Monday night and Big Al plays from Tuesday through Saturday. An employee there gave me a great recommendation for food, he said, walk a block off Bourbon Street and have some gumbo at the Grapevine Wine Bar and Bistro. I took him up on this recommendation, and it made for a fantastic and inexpensive meal. I told him that I would be back the next day to see Big Al perform at 8:30pm.

I spent Tuesday in the air conditioned comfort of the India House watching TV and working on my computer. I didn't dare venture out in the 100+ degree weather. The proprietor told me of a great Louisiana swamp tour where you would see alligators and the like, but I couldn't imagine sweltering on a boat out in the bayou in this heat. I waited for things to cool down, took the trolley to Bourbon Street, and headed straight to the Funky Pirate to see Big Al. Not only is Big Al an amazing singer, he is truly a performer. He loves to interact with the audience and especially loves to embarrass the ladies by turning on his charm, much to the chagrin of their boyfriends. You really have to see it to believe it, but it is both hilarious and charming to watch this 500 pound behemoth of man come on to the ladies. He's got it down to a science. Pictured here is little me and Big Al. I am dwarfed by comparison. I enjoyed his show thoroughly, but had to head back since I would be taking off for Austin and Dallas the next morning. A quick trolley ride back to the India House and I was off to bed by midnight, which is considered very early by New Orleans standards. There was only 1 other person in the dorm room at that time, but it would fill up later in the morning as people came back from a night of partying. Everyone here was very respectful and did their best not to wake anybody up!

The next day would be another scorcher, so I would need to get up early and begin my trip into Texas. I have never been to Texas before, so this would be a first for me!

Day 22: Miami, FL

Day 22: June 21st, Miami, FL. On this morning, George, Abigail, and I drove to the Bartow airport outside of Lakeland. George and Abigail had some work to do on their airplane, which is hangared here. My airplane was sitting in front of the Custom Avionics shop. Despite having my transponder and VOR receivers checked out thoroughly before I left, I noticed that VOR #1 was about 30-40 degrees off and was therefore unusable for navigation. Custom Avionics in Lakeland was able to tighten a loose resolver and recalibrate everything so that it is now usable. I preflighted, picked up my IFR clearance to Miami and departed Lakeland, waving goodbye to George and Abigail as I started my takeoff roll at about 10 am. I arrived at Miami's Kendall/Tamiami airport just before noontime.

I was in Miami to visit with my friend Eduardo Saravia and his family. Eduardo has just returned from Santiago that morning and he was pretty exhausted, so after landing, I sat in the FBO for a while finishing some computer work. He arrived and brought me back to his house in Miami. There, his daughter Andrea and her husband Diego were grilling up a Father's Day lunch for Eduardo. It was nice to see Andrea again. The last time I saw her was in 2002 when I flew down with Ed Haddad. Her brother Nicholas was also there. Her brother Francisco was still in Troy, NY finishing up summer classes at Hudson Valley Community College. Interestingly enough, Francisco was my student last semester for Calculus I.

That evening, Eduardo, Andrea, Diego, and I went to Miami Beach. We drove along South Beach, past all of the swanky nightclubs and Versace's house. We then went to a more toned-down section of town called Lincoln Rd. It is an outdoor mall, featuring a variety of shops and restaurants. We ate at Pizza Rustica, and, not surprisingly, ordered their signature dish, a pizza rustica. It was excellent. It was getting late, and we were all a bit tired, so we headed back to the house and went to bed. I made my ritual visit to http://fltplan.com/ to prepare flight plans for the next day. There was a lot of flying in my future, a bit more than I actually anticipated.

Day 21: Lakeland, FL

Day 21: June 20th, Lakeland, FL. This will be a short blog entry, since I did very little on this day. My intention was to fly to Key West, spend a night, and then connect with my friend in Miami on the 21st, since he would be arriving back from Santiago, Chile on that day. Unfortunately, my health made other plans for me.

On the way home from Disney, my dry cough flared up again, and it seemed like I was having this problem each night, starting around 9pm. I would cough so much, I had trouble getting a sentence out. Walking around Disney all day in the heat was starting to take its toll. When I woke up on the 20th, I felt awful. To top things off, the conjunctivitis that had improved earlier returned in my left eye. This had gone on too long; it was time for a doctor. I connected with my local doctor in Albany and he was able to prescribe antibiotics, eyedrops, and an inhaler for the dry cough. For most of the day, I tried to recuperate while George and Abigail went to the Bartow airport to work on their airplane and show it to a perspective buyer. Finally, I headed to the pharmacy to pick up the prescriptions and to get a haircut.

I started in on the meds, and began feeling better. Any residual of the sore throat I had was eliminated immediately, which was a good sign. It seemed like the antibiotics were working, so hopefully, this would lead me down the path towards recovery. I first got this dry cough on Nantucket, and that was 18 days prior! A trip like this can take its toll, but I had to make my health the number one priority.

During the day, I received a twitter message from the local Lakeland newspaper, The Ledger. Somehow, they had tapped into my twitter feed and thought my flight would make a good story. I spoke with the reporter at length, describing the trip, explaining why I was undertaking such a journey and what kind of planning goes into a trip like this. The article was published in The Ledger on the next day. See http://is.gd/19bos .. Lakeland is a very religious town which a church at every corner, so I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised when the comments about the article on the newspaper's website took on religious overtones.

We ordered pizza for dinner and I planned my flight to Miami for the next day. One thing that George convinced me to use for flight planning was the website http://fltplan.com/ I had an account at the site already, but had not really used it because I thought it was overly complicated. It is very comprehensive, but it covers just about everything in terms of planning an IFR flight. In the past, I would have to reference several sites to plan my flight. First, I would use http://flightaware.com/ to see what preferred routings ATC was giving pilots between my origin and destination. Next, I used http://duats.com/ to estimate time enroute using the winds aloft forecast. After that, I would map the route using http://skyvector.com/. And, finally, I would come back to http://duats.com/ and file an IFR flight plan. Fltplan.com does all of that for me. It is also very easily accessible from my cell phone, so filing and changing flight plans is a snap when I'm away from a computer. This really comes in handy later when I'm in Austin.

Day 20: I'm goin' to Dinsey World!

Day 20: June 19th, Orlando, FL - Disney World. Ever since I was young, I'd always heard stories from my friends about their visits to Disney. Even as an adult, I hear from adult friends about their visits to Disney with their own kids, nieces, or nephews. Yes, I guess that I felt like I was missing something having never been to Disney, and it lived up to all the hype. Since I only had one day, we had to choose just one of the Disney parks. There is the original park (The Magic Kingdom), EPCOT Center, Typhoon Lagoon, Animal Kingdom Park, Disney Hollywood Studios, and Blizzard Beach. Clearly, EPCOT Center was the right place for me. Thankfully, Matthew is a seasoned veteran and knew just where to go and what to do. After parking, we rushed to the Soarin' attraction and obtained a Fast Pass which is a reservation to board the ride at a later time, avoiding the 70-90 minute wait. Before this however , there was the obligatory photo in front of EPCOT's icon attraction, the Spaceship Earth dome. Next, we checked out the Ellen Degeneres / Bill Nye Universe of Energy exhibit. The Disney folks are absolute experts at moving people and cuing people up in a way that you don't realize how long the wait will be. For this attraction, they pile you into a huge ante-room with five huge screens and Ellen (not in person) introduces the ride. It's all about energy and where it comes from - fossil fuel, solar, wind, etc. Next, the doors open and we enter the main theater and sit down in theater style seating. We are facing a curtain, but I noticed that there were large screens behind us. The lights dim, and it turns out that the theater seating is separated into three huge sections. Ellen starts yelling "Yoo-hoo" from behind you and as you peek over your shoulder to look, these three huge sections start rotating so that ultimately you are facing the rear screens. After a brief presentation on these screens, the three large seating areas rotate back to the front, and the curtain opens, revealing a lifesize diorama with animatronic dinosaurs. Next, the three huge sections of seating start moving single file as if each were its own car to move through the diorama! We were in the middle section. It's really an engineering spectacle to see whole portions of the audience being moved along like this. We were shown life-sized animatronic exhibits that included dinosaurs ending with a return to the theater to see Ellen and Bill Nye finish up on the screen. It's pretty impressive to see each third of the theater turn into a moving car for this "ride", totally unexpected.

Next, it was off to GM's Test track. Holy cow, this was outstanding! You enter what appears to be a GM test facility, complete with crash test dummies, car doors opening and closing repeatedly for cycle testing, and a plethora of automotive testing exhibits. You line up and board these test vehicles which look like cars which drive a slotted track, although they do have real wheels and tires as well. You are told that you are going to experience a variety of tests: anti-lock braking, rumble strips, extreme heat, cold, and yes a crash test! At one point, your car is coming through a dark tunnel and they turn you right into an oncoming tractor trailer whose lights and air horn turn on suddenly. Of course the car veers away at the last second. Finally, they rapidly accelerate you towards what looks to be a crash barrier at high speed. It lifts away at the last second to reveal an outdoor track. At that very instant, they snap a digital photo of you to register the sheer terror of the imminent crash. Notice the expression on the woman on the right side of the photo! Somehow, I kept my composure. They next accelerate this vehicle up to over 70 miles an hour through twists and turns and banked turns outdoors. This was the best part and I just kept yelling "Faster .. faster .. faster !!!!!" I wish I had that on video for the blog. You'd think I was 12 years old. We had to experience this ride twice for the full effect!

We also went on a ride called "The Land" in which they showed us a variety of aspects of the natural world. The highlight was a tour through what is probably the world's most extensive hydroponic garden. It is truly a working laboratory in which they have engineered such things as tomato trees, yes trees. Also, they grow these enormous 9 lb lemons, huge pumpkins, and the most succulent-looking fruits and vegetables you've ever seen. My friend Jack Bulmer in Albany has a superb hydroponic garden in a greenhouse in his backyard and I know that he would have been amazed by the variety of unique techniques employed here to optimize growth of fruits and vegetables. Here's Jack's own blog about his own hydroponic garden: http://www.hydroponicworkshop.blogspot.com/


We then explored the monorail system. Matt made a special request and we got to sit in the very front of the monorail train, along with the conductor, whose official title is "pilot". This made for some excellent views of the various parks which the monorail serves. The monorail system was commissioned in 1971. The EPCOT line was added in 1982 during the construction of EPCOT. Interestingly enough, you don't need a Disney ticket to ride the monorail and the EPCOT line enters the park on the left side of the dome, goes around the periphery of the entire park and finally stops on the right side of the dome where you get off. You can get a sense of what's inside the park before actually buying a ticket, a little preview. We rode all three of Disney's monorail lines.

Finally, we made our way over the Polynesian village and the Magic Kingdom. The Magic Kingdom opened in 1971 as the original Walt Disney theme park. It is the most visited theme park in the world. Its centerpiece attraction is Cinderella Castle, which everyone would recognize from Disney movies and TV shows. Since I only had a pass for EPCOT center and really didn't have time to explore the Magic Kingdom, we just took a look at the entrance from the monorail and moved on.

Next, we made our way to the other side of EPCOT Center where you get to experience 11 different world cultures on a short stroll through the park: Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, USA, Japan, Morocco, France, the UK, and Oh Canada. The architecture, cuisine, shopping, and most importantly the people are authentic. Disney only hires natives of each country to work at the different locations in their World Showcase. It's like traveling to all of these different countries in just under an hour. We stopped in this eerily authentic Bavarian village and enjoyed Bratwurst, cooked and served by Germans. You could see some Germans walking around wearing Lederhosen. There was an authentic German clock tower, complete with dancing figures that chase each other as the clock chimed on the hour. It seemed to be Octoberfest all the time here in the German village, complete with Oompa bands.

Next, it was a visit to the Norwegian village. Here, among some of the traditional Norwegian toys were included trolls. Matt & I posed in front of this huge troll striking our best pose while brandishing some Viking weaponry and wearing our new favorite headgear.

Needless to say, we were not at all concerned with the ridicule we might have to face back home, otherwise this photo would have found its way into the digital bit bucket.

At long last, we found our way to Spaceship Earth, which is housed in the EPCOT's icon dome. After boarding a roller coaster-like car, you are taken on a spiral tour of the inside of this dome. It features a history of mankind, replete with humanoid robots engineered with Disney animatronics. They are so good at this, that some of these robots look and move like real people.

The trip culminates with an ascent to the top of the dome which is a huge projection screen which displays an almost-planetarium style view of the planet earth, among other things. During the ride to the bottom, there is really not much to look at, so your computer console keeps you occupied by asking you questions about what you'd like your future be like. Based on the answers to these questions and using photos of your face, they compile a cartoon on the fly, which they display to you right in the car before you arrive at the bottom. Next, you get to send this cartoon to your friends and family. You can enjoy it too. Click on this link, and you'll see Matt and Joel's version of the future.

We also got to ride on Soarin' towards the end of the day, a name which leads to many expectations to a sailplane pilot like myself. On this ride, they strap you into a rig which lifts off the ground, leaving your legs dangling. A hydraulic system literally pushes everyone's seat right into an IMAX-like screen, and you are completely enveloped by the projection from head to toe, left and right. The screen projects some amazing low-level flying shots. As the airplane banks, so too does your seat. It was a very realistic flying experience, even to a pilot who flies all the time. It felt like you were hang-gliding.

Another fantastic experience was Mission: SPACE. Here, Gary Sinise prepares you as an astronaut trainee and you enter a realistic "space" capsule with three of your closest friends. It can be quite claustrophobic for some people. This capsule is spun up and you experience G forces as you blast off and land your craft on Mars. Each person in the capsule has a responsibility, such as firing off thrusters, performing navigation, etc. We opted for the "more intense" version of the ride that included all of the gyroscopic spinning. There is another version that does not involve any spinning. I'm told that they used to spin this thing up to an even more intense level, but a child actually died on the ride once, so they toned it down a bit. I would have preferred more intensity! We capped this experience by creating the following video. In it, you can see why the Space Shuttle mission was scrubbed while we were at EPCOT.

It really was quite an experience for me at EPCOT. Disney is definitely not just for kids. Or perhaps it turns you back into a kid. It has definitely been a highlight of the trip. One aspect of this day that I did not count on was that the extreme heat (103 degrees) and all the walking thoroughly exhausted me to the point where I got sick again. The nasty dry cough kicked in and even the conjunctivitis returned! I would need an entire day to recover.

Day 19: Lakeland, FL

Day 19: June 18th, Lakeland, FL. The weather in Camden, SC was fine by IFR standards. There was a low 300 foot overcast ceiling, but this is not a problem as long as there is no moderate precipitation or thunderstorms. In order to depart IFR, you need a clearance from air traffic control (ATC). At a small airport like Camden where there is no tower, you obtain this clearance by calling a special telephone number on your cell phone. For some reason, it took about 10 minutes to get through and another 5 to receive the clearance to depart. They need to know when you will be ready to depart and which runway you are departing so that ATC can work you into the traffic flow above. I quickly chose runway 14, but I should have chosen the longer runway 24. Since we were at maximum gross weight, it made for a more difficult takeoff on the shorter 3000 foot runway, but we soon climbed the 300 feet and into the clouds we went. At this point, all attention is focused on the instruments to keep the airplane level and on course. The initial clearance was to 2000 feet. I leveled off here and was still in the clouds. Finally, we received the clearance to 6000 feet and I soon broke through the clouds at 2500 feet with sunny clear skies above! Not long after this, the overcast layer below us began to break up and it was clear above and below.

Since we got off about an hour later than planned, we knew that we ran the risk of encountering early afternoon thunderstorms in FL, as they had been forecast to begin between 1pm and 2pm. The plan was to fly to Herlong field, just to the west of Jacksonville, FL, fuel up, and continue on to Bartow, FL where we would meet up with our good friend and instructor at Flight Safety International, George O'Connor. Again, with no weather radar on board, we really had to rely on the flight service stations enroute to obtain updates by radio. They began to see a large thunderstorm cell develop over the Jacksonville area. As we got closer, we conferred with them again and they indicated that continuing to Herlong was not advisable. We asked them if the airport to the east of Jacksonville, Fernandino Beach, was in the clear. This was our best option. We landed, pulled into the self-service fuel pump, and logged into the computer while we pumped gas. I literally had the laptop on the wing of the plane and was reviewing weather radar. Indeed, there was a huge storm right over Jacksonville, and the animation was clear, it was headed due South. Again, with thunderstorms nearby, your best bet is to remain VFR so that you can see the cumulonimbus buildups and have the freedom to rely on your own navigation, rather than having to go where ATC tells you to go. The plan was to follow the eastern shoreline of Florida down to the Daytona Beach area to outrun this cell, and then cut over towards the Orlando area and ultimately land in Bartow near Lakeland.

Matt piloted the plane VFR and proceeded to take off from Fernandino Beach. To our right, we could see a large dark and gloomy area that matched perfectly with the radar images we had looked at early. Under no circumstances did we want to find ourselves in this area of severe thunderstorms. The plan worked flawlessly. The further south we got, the better it looked off our right wing, until finally, we were able to turn right and head towards the Orlando and Lakeland area. We flew through a VFR practice area, which is where private pilots are practicing a variety of maneuvers. There were aircraft all around us that we had to look out for. As ATC put it: numerous targets, all sectors, all altitudes. My traffic alerter device was going off constantly. Finally, we made our way to Lake Apopca, just outside of Disney. Surprisingly, despite our efforts to identify Disney World from the air, we just couldn't find it. Disney has its own special airspace. Air traffic below 3000 feet is not allowed over the Disney theme parks. This was a new restriction put into place after 9/11.

Next, we flew directly over a small untowered field, Winter Haven, where we heard a student pilot soloing in the pattern. We also heard her instructor on the ground giving her pointers. I guess she bounced the landing, because we heard her say "Oh " on the radio. Finally, we entered the pattern at Bartow, landed, and taxied over the self-service fuel pumps where fuel is priced an economical $3.35/gallon! Needless to say, I filled the tanks to the top, since the average price so far has been just over $4/gallon.

George O'Connor walked across the ramp from his hangar to great us. We parked the airplane at the FBO on the field and made our way over to his hangar to check out his Bonanza. I had mentioned to George that I was having a minor avionics problem, my VOR #1 was off by 40-60 degrees. There was a good avionics shop on the field, so they had the airplane towed from the FBO to the avionics shop. They ended up fixing the problem the next morning, a loose resolver connection. Before I left on the trip, I had the local avionics shop back in the Albany area check my VOR receivers and transponder. I'm thinking that when they buttoned everything back up, somehow this item was not tightened. I think this bill might find its way on their doorstep.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon with George working on his Bonanza. When he arrived at the airport and was awaiting our arrival, he thought he would do a little work on the airplane and change out some older corroded screws for some shiny new ones. A fifteen minute job turned into a 3 hour job as a few screws were stripped and could not be removed. He tried dremelling slots into them and using a screwdriver, but then had to resort to the use of an "easy-out" tool. Of course, the last one is always the one that presents the most difficulty, and in this case, the easy-out broke off in the screw and our options were limited. Matt decided to shave off the head of the screw, leaving just the inner 1/3 which formed a bolt head that the vice grips could be used on.

Finally, that storm that we outran near Jacksonville found its way down to the Lakeland area. When it hit the airport, we could see a dust cloud a mile down the road approaching us as the gust front kicked up dirt from the road. We immediately closed the hangar door and braced for impact. Just prior, I had run over to ensure that my airplane was properly tied down. "There's a twister Auntee Em" could be heard echoing in my mind as a severe thunderstorm and microburst descended on the airport. I peered out from the hangar and tried to imagine what it would be like to fly through such dangerous conditions. Later, George recounted such a flight where he was flying an airplane from Glens Falls, NY to Albany, NY. It is definitely one of those moments where you were in the air wishing you were on the ground rather than on the ground wishing you were in the air.

That night, we all returned to George and Abigail's home in Lakeland where George demonstrated his sushi-making prowess. We made many sushi rolls and taught Matt & I how to prepare sushi. I think I will buy the necessary supplies and start making sushi at home myself, it is really not that difficult if you know what you are doing. We enjoyed some wonderful Philadelphia and Veggie rolls. After polishing off some Red Stripe and Sharp's beer, we all headed off to bed. The next day was going to be another first for me. As they say at the end of the Superbowl: I'm going to Disney World!

Day 18: Camden, SC

Day 18: June 17th, Camden, SC. This morning, we tried to get an early start so that we'd avoid the potential for thunderstorms, a common threat in the South during this time of year. I had a flight plan filed for 8am, but we didn't make it off the ground until 8:50am. We said our goodbyes to our gracious hosts, the O'Briens. The kids once again came out to the airplane to bid farewell to their Uncle Matt and new uncle Joel. Again, the flight was IFR and we climbed up into the clouds upon our departure from Ashland, VA. This was to be another groundbreaking flight for me.

If there is one thing this trip has done for me, it has made me a more competent and confident pilot. While I earned my IFR rating in 2000, I rarely flew in actual IFR conditions, in the clouds. What many people don't realize is that flying in clouds is a completely different type of flying altogether. Not only do you need to train your brain to ignore your own sense of balance and rely solely on the instruments, you also navigate and approach airports using completely different rules than when you are flying visually in good weather. It has only been within the last 2 years that I began to hone my instrument flying skills and fly in instrument conditions. In fact, it was in August, 2007 that I received an Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC) which requalified me to fly IFR. Since that time, I began filing IFR and flying instrument approaches to airports whenever I could. Even so, before I began this trip, I had only accumulated a total of 7.7 hrs in "actual" instrument conditions, where I was actually inside of a cloud. The groundbreaking nature of this flight was that of the 2.9hrs of flight time for this particular flight, 2.4 hrs was in actual instrument conditions. It was the longest time I've spent hand-flying an airplane in actual instrument conditions. It was truly nice to have a copilot who could help flip through the charts and help navigate.

We do not have the ability to see Nexrad radar on-board during the flight, so we need to rely on our weather briefing before the flight and obtain verbal updates enroute from a flight service station (FSS) on the radio. On this flight, we were flying through some rain and clouds, which I'm now quite comfortable with, but the threat of possible convective activity (thunderstorms) ahead, we put down in Cheraw, SC to reevaluate the weather before pressing on to Camden, SC. We both felt that this was a good in-flight decision since FSS indicated that there were thunderstorm cells near Camden. We took on 10 gallons of fuel at Cheraw and checked the weather on the computer. Matt had brought along his Verizon air card, so we had Internet access to our laptops wherever we went, whether there was Wi-Fi available or not. This came in handy here at Cheraw, as there was no weather computer or Wi-Fi available at the FBO.

Since it was now later in the day and the possibility of thunderstorms was increasing, we decided to finish the final leg of the day, from Cheraw to Camden, by flying VFR. We flew low at 1500 feet, but this kept us VFR, outside of the clouds, which gave us the capability of seeing any thunderstorms or torrential rain that might erupt along our route. If we were to continue IFR in the clouds, then we would have to rely on air traffic control to navigate us around any severe weather and their primary responsibility is keeping aircraft separated, not providing weather. This was the safest way to complete the short 40 mile flight. At 1500 feet, we were close the cloud bases, but we could easily see that we were not going to encounter any severe weather on this leg. We landed at Camden and toured the hangars there while we waited for a ride.

We were there visiting Matt's brother Steve and his family. Steve's wife Cathy picked us up at the airport and brought us to Enterprise, where we rented a car for the day. Steve and Cathy were in the process of moving to Germany and they had movers coming at the exact time we'd be leaving the next day, so it made sense to have our own car so that we could depart in the morning. An early departure is vital so that we wouldn't run into thunderstorms in FL, which would comprise the next leg of our journey. We all went out for Mexican and then I spent the balance of the evening staying up way too late upgrading my iPhone to the new 3.0 operating system. It does have some new nifty features and was worth the upgrade, but staying up until 2am playing with computers makes 7am a rude awakening. It would be a short stay in SC, we were on to FL the next morning.

Day 16 & 17: Ashland / Richmond, VA

Day 16 & 17: June 15th / 16th. My copilot, Matthew Cusack, and I spent two more wonderful days with the O'Brien family in Ashland, VA. We wanted to depart for South Carolina on the 17th and even had Dennis drive us to the airport that morning. There were heavy rain showers pushing through Virginia from west to east early in the morning that prevented an early departure. Later, there was the threat of convective activity, thunderstorms. We had tentatively decided to make the flight and pick up weather enroute to see if pop-up thunderstorms were developing. Once we got to the airport, I brought up weather radar on my iPhone and saw pop-ups already developing near our destination, Camden, SC. We wisely decided not to fly on the 17th, and thunderstorms continued to flare up around Camden as the day progressed. This meant a lot of relaxing time spent poolside with the kids Connor, Keira, and Liam. Here, you can see Matt with his god-daughter Keira.

Dennis, the consumate chef, prepared a variety of feasts. Never wanting anyone to go hungry, he prepared a wonderful steak dinner on the grill. The steak was outstanding, but there was so much left over, we could have served 3 more
adults! Then, of course, there was mexican night: tacos and fajitas.

On the 15th, Matt & I worked the pattern at Hanover County, a short 5 minutes away from the O'Brien estate. Since the house is right in the pattern for runway 16, we were able to get a few photos of the house and the community pool. Later, as we sat poolside, we saw a variety of light singles running the pattern and flying directly overhead. Again, this place is a pilot's dream. Here, you can see Matt flying the airplane, working the pattern at Hanover County: 4 landings total, bringing him current.

Day 15: Richmond, VA (Guest Blogger - Matthew Cusack)

Day 15: June 14th. So today was the first day I had the privilege of joining Joel on this most excellent adventure. I know there are others who would be here in a minute if they could, Ed comes to mind. We ended up with perfect timing, both arriving at BWI on the parallel runways at the same time! He was lucky to get some good help and get right over to the passenger terminal and they pulled up just as I was walking out. Some times the timing just works. So we met up at BWI and flew the leg from Baltimore, MD to Richmond, VA. What a trip. It was the afternoon and anyone who lives in this part of the country knows, the weather is pot luck mid-afternoon. Well, we must have gone to the right Church on this Sunday morning because we were able to avoid most of the clouds and turbulence. On the commercial flight down, we weren't so lucky, but I wasn't flying, so I sat back and enjoyed it.

We took off on runway 33R from BWI and were vectored towards Baltimore until we could gain altitude. This was the interesting part as there had been multiple advisories about the pockets of turbulence, and earlier that morning it seemed to be over the water. Here we were headed in the wrong direction and over the water. Our luck changed when we spotted the USAirways or Delta white jet coming in that we were being vectored around and we were turned on course after that. It got better too. As we cleared the Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA) around metro-DC, we were given increasingly direct vectors to Hanover County Airport outside of Richmond, VA. It was a perfect day to fly over the MD coast from the Inner Harbor all the way down past Pax River and over the Chesapeake Bay. There were scattered clouds at about 6,000 ft, and otherwise visibility up to about 50 mi. It was hard because the weather was so good, but we were eventually able to "find" some brief actual IMC, just after crossing the Chesapeake Bay.

Anyone who has flown with Joel says the same thing, a great pilot, a natural pilot. He managed it effortlessly. As the right-seater, I took advantage of the time once we reached altitude to spend the first part of the flight re-learning how to read the IFR charts. It was great. I was splitting my time on the VOR's and IFR charts, and looking outside. Then I got to fly the last part of the journey and set us up for a smooth handoff to the pro for a perfect "butter" landing at Hanover. The best part was - Dennis, Connor, Keira, and Liam were there to greet us! They came out, big smiles, crawled around the plane, and asked lots of questions. We even took some pictures.

We went to the store to gather supplies an then had a great dinner. Amy had us set-up in no time. She is a saint, that's all I can say. She kept us and her four kids in sync in spite of the fact there were a million things going on.

Then back to the store for the S'mores supplies we missed. We made s'mores till we could not eat anymore. We all had a blast!!! We had a few cocktails by the fire and laughed until the wee hours of the night. It was a fantastic kick-off to our travels together.

- Matthew Cusack

Day 15: BWI and Richmond, VA

Day 15: June 14th. I woke up in Olney, MD and would end up in Ashland, VA, a suburb of Richmond, VA before the day was out. Jim and Jeanette drove me to the Gaithersburg airport by 12:30pm. I had a 1pm IFR flight plan from Gaithersburg into BWI. As I was still inside the DC SFRA (Special Flight Rules Area), I filed an IFR flight plan even for this short flight, because it minimized the complexities in this highly protected airspace. Jim & Jeanette bid me farewell and Jim shot the following video of my takeoff from Gaithersburg. Jim apologizes for the shakiness, but you can clearly see me "waving" my wings to say goodbye. Thanks for a fantastic time in MD!

Next, it was time to pick up a co-pilot who would join me on the remainder of the east coast portion of my journey, Matthew Cusack. Matthew took off from Albany, NY on a Southwest flight into BWI earlier in the day. As I made the turn to the south (see map) to approach BWI, I saw a Southwest jet flying several miles off my left wing also heading southbound. It was flight 358 from Albany with Matt on board! The faster jet made its way around me, then turned to land on Runway 33L as I made a shorter radius turn to land on 33R. 33L is 9500 ft long and 33R is 5000 feet long, designed for lighter air traffic like me. I landed in parallel with the Southwest jet, so Matt & I arrived at BWI at exactly the same time. Upon landing, I hopped into the lineman's van and he drove me across the field to the terminal side of the airport where I picked up Matt. He had just walked out of the terminal when we pulled up, but initially, we didn't see each other. In fact, we were talking on the cell phone with our backs to each other, when Matt heard my voice and turned around. Very funny! In this photo, you can see me holding the article that was published in this day's Albany Times Union about my flight. Matt had just picked up a copy at the airport before boarding the Southwest flight. The column was entitled "My Other Life" and is a weekly column about people's lives outside of work. I like to fly an airplane coast to coast when I'm not teaching Math!

We took off from BWI and made our way to Hanover County airport located in Ahsland, VA, just outside of Richmond. A good friend of Matt's, Dennis O'Brien and family live here. Dennis literally lives in the traffic pattern for this airport, a short 5 minute drive away! This is a pilot's dream. We flew under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), as I have for the majority of this trip; however, we probably only experienced less than 5 minutes of actual IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions), which is a fancy way of saying, we were in the clouds for 5 minutes. We arrived at about 4:15pm where we greeted by Dennis and his kids: Connor, Kiera, and Liam. This is always the best part, to have loved ones waiting for you at the airport when you arrive.

Day 14: Gaithersburg, MD and Dulles

Day 14, June 13th, Gaithersburgh, MD. I spent today with Jim and Jeanette Pierson. Jim had a wonderful idea: head for the National Air & Space Museum center located on site at Dulles International Airport. This is the Udvar-Hazy center, not the museum located in DC. Here, just about every model of aircraft could be found, either at ground level or hung from the ceiling. The best part was that most things seen here were the real article. Some of the highlights included the Space Shuttle Enterprise, an SR-71 Blackbird, the Enola Gay, and a Boeing 707! Jeanette related her disappointment concerning some of the mock-ups on the Space Shuttle. It is indeed the real Enterprise, a shuttle that was used only to test gliding characteristics; it never made it into space. It looks like they stripped many items and the museum had to mock-up some features, but it's hard to tell from a distance. All of these airplanes, space capsules, and missiles are housed in a huge hangar at Dulles, complete with air traffic control tower. The tower was apparently the old Dulles tower, and the views of the approach from here are amazing. We watched a British Airways (Speedbird) on final. We skipped the Air Traffic Control exhibit, which is also located in the tower.

I kept commenting that this was the type of museum that you could not get enough of, one that didn't make you fall asleep. It also featured a wide variety of satellites, including an amateur radio satellite, OSCAR-1. I was amazed by the range of satellite sizes, some enormous, and some that could fit in the palm of your hand (microsats). Also on display where missiles and rockets of every size and from every era. You could see the evolution of the spacesuit through the years, and they even had a child-sized spacesuit on display. It was fully functional, except it did not have the internal pressure bladder. This suit was on a life-sized doll that was given to dignitaries in the 60's and 70's.

We retired back Jim's house in Olney, MD where I promptly took a nap. I guess there's no shaking that worn-out museum feeling. Afterwards, a feast was prepared on the grill, followed by a driving rain and thunderstorm which rolled through, completely soaking the lawn furniture cushions. Also, somebody forget to turn the grill off, so we evaporated a few rain drops overnight. Jim and Jeanette didn't enjoy the nap I did earlier, so they were off to bed by 11pm. I stayed up until about 1am working on blog entries and photographs. The next day would be an exciting one, a flight into one of the busiest DC area airports, Baltimore-Washington International (BWI). I would also be joined by a friend who was flying in from Albany, Matt Cusack.

Day 13: Philadelphia, Trenton, Gaitherburg, MD

Day 13: June 12, Gaithersburg, MD. During the previous night, I began planning my departure from the Philadelphia area. I was staying with my sister-in-law and nephews, the Bug family, and they would be departing for Massachusetts the next morning to attend a reunion at Williams college in Williamstown, MA. I carefully reviewed the weather and the train schedules and it appeared that there was an excellent window of opportunity. The R3 train left Swarthmore at 9:08am, went through downtown Philadelphia, and continued on north to the West Trenton station in NJ at 10:40am, which just happens to be 1.5 miles from the airport. I filed an IFR flight plan to depart Trenton at 11:30am, which put me in a perfect weather window.

The previous evening, a severe thunderstorm had made its way through Philadelphia and the Trenton area. While the thunderstorms had moved out by morning, some of the low-hanging clouds remained. While I was on the train, Trenton was still reporting a 500 foot overcast layer, but the forecast was that the lower layers would clear out by the time I arrived at the airport. As I sat on the train, most people were reading their newspapers or catching up on email on their Blackberries. I was looking out the window and watching the sky, because I would be flying this very patch of sky from Trenton back to Philadelphia in just an hour. I noticed that the sky was clearing, just as predicted. The reason I call this a window of opportunity was that the forecast called for the potential for thunderstorms to develop in the Trenton / Philadelphia area by 2pm, so I really needed to get to the airport and take off before things started to develop.

I arrived at the West Trenton station and my iPhone showed that it would be a 30 minute walk to the airport. 1.5 miles is close, but it still takes a while on foot. I could have called a cab, but I didn't really mind walking a bit. My bag doubled as a backpack, so it would have been good exercise. West Trenton was the end of the line, so everyone got off the train. As people walked to their cars, I began asking if anyone was headed towards the airport. A few people said no, but one young passenger said yes. He said, hop in, I'll give you a ride. I told him about my trip and gave him one of my cards that have the web address for the blog. He thought it was an interesting adventure. I have been pretty skillful at hitching rides from airports, usually from other pilots, so I guess this skill transfers well to train passengers as well. I'm so glad I was able to get this ride, becuase little did I know, that in addition to the 1.5 miles which would lead me to the entrance of the airport, there was another mile hike down Airport Rd. to the general aviation side of the airport. This ride saved me a lot of time, and I was grateful since conditions were great at the time and I could get an early start to avoid thunderstorms.

Upon reaching the airplane, I began packing it and noted that it was rather hot and humid on the tarmac. I looked to the east and could already see a few minor cumulus buildups. The recipe for thunderstorms was in the air, so it was time to preflight and get moving. I picked up my IFR clearance to Gaithersburg, MD and took off.

The flight plan was from Trenton, NJ to the Modena VOR west of Philly, to the Baltimore VOR based at BWI, then 24nm west to Gaithersburg. As is often the case, somewhere along the way, air traffic control (ATC) is able to shortcut the route and give you a direct routing to your destination airport, which is what happened to me. This saved me from having to fly longer on the more circuitous route.

The friend I was visiting, Jim Pierson, is the director of high-frequency (HF) direction finding for the FCC in the DC area. From his office, he was able to easily track my flight both by using flightaware.com and from my own on-board GPS which pushes data to my website through the iPhone. After landing in Gaithersburg and taxiing to a parking spot, I shut down, called him up, and simply said "The Eagle has landed". He knew exactly what time I had touched down, what altitudes I was flying, and how fast I was going. I must say, it is a pretty amazing time that we live in which allows us all to be connected so closely no matter the time or place. I had carefully put together this website to accommodate just that, and it was primarily for friends and family, but of course, the whole world can see it. After I hung up with Jim, the realization of how far my efforts to stay connected became crystal clear as a complete stranger approached my aircraft, someone who had been tracking my trip from Day 1!

A Twitter follower, @FoxWhisperer, had made her way to the airport and met me at my aircraft just after I landed. She told me about her love of aviation and how she liked to keep in touch with pilots and flight attendants on Twitter. She hopes to be a flight attendant someday. We sat down at the airport restaurant for a while until Jim arrived.







Next, Jim and his wife Jeanette treated me to a mexican dinner at their favorite restaurant. I told them to make sure that the chef holds the black beans on my dish, or I wouldn't be a very good house guest for the rest of the evening. It was great to be in MD with Jim & Jeanette! We spent the rest of the evening relaxing with neighbors on their porch, enjoying some of the good weather MD had to offer. Jim made plans to treat me to the National Air & Space Museum (Udvar-Hazy Center) at Dulles for the next day. This was to be a real treat for a pilot!

Day 12: Philadelphia

Day 12: June 11^th, Philly. Today, I made contact with some old friends from RPI: Donna and Michael. I recall meeting Donna years ago at the Troy Pub while I was dining with a fellow amateur radio enthusiast. We had our handheld radios out and Donna came right up to us and inquired about the hobby. We gave her some information about the RPI Amateur Radio Club, W2SZ. Soon after, she joined the club where she met her future husband Michael. Donna & Michael also participated in the ham radio contests that the club took part in from Mt. Greylock in North Adams, MA. It had been a while since I had seen Donna and Michael, but I had been in touch through Facebook and was invited to stop in to see them while I was in Philadelphia.

I took the R3 regional rail from Swarthmore where I was staying with my sister-in-law and nephews to the University City stop in Philadelphia. Donna and I chatted on the cell phone and converged on each other near the train stop. They had their two kids in tow, Edwin and Zachary. They took me back to their office at University of Pennsylvania (U Penn), where they both teach and perform research in the Math department. We’re all mathematicians!

Their kids seemed very precocious, but being brought up by two mathematicians, they not only get to learn solution techniques to the Rubik’s cube, but they are taught that the cube is a polyhedron. I could hear Edwin saying polyhedron before I left. While Michael stayed in the office for a meeting, Donna, the boys, and I made our way to Naked Chocolate where we enjoyed European hot chocolate, which is basically like a melted chocolate bar, very rich. I was convinced to only get the small shot-glass sized portion, which was a smart move indeed. It's basically like drinking liquid chocolate.

On the way back to the office, Donna took me into the Computer Science dept. at U Penn where the original Eniac is on display. Eniac is considered to be the world’s first digital computer. It was developed to calculate ballistic trajectories for the US Army’s Ballistic Research Lab in 1946 and developed at U Penn’s school of Electrical Engineering in secret. It boasted over 17,000 vacuum tubes and could operate at clock speed of 0.1 Mhz or 0.0001 Ghz. Compare THAT to your 3 Ghz machine at home!

They also took me to the Reading Terminal Market, which I recall visiting once before with my brother and family years ago. Here, you can find almost any variety of food imaginable, made to order. You also see the Amish here, peddling their wares. Not being all that hungry, I toured the market, took some photos, and headed just next door to the Market St. station where I was able to take the R3 back to Swarthmore.

Once back in Swarth- more, I was treated to a wonderful dinner with the Bug family. Amy had some guests and we enjoyed a wonderful variety of fresh soups prepared in bread bowls. We also enjoyed corn and kielbasa. We then played outside with Mo for a while, a little whiffle ball and soccer. We curled up in front of the TV for the remainder of the evening and I prepared some blog entries before going to bed. Here, you can see Mo being licked by their Bijon Frise, Frank. I was very happy to have made this important stop on my trip before I headed south and the Bug family headed north to enjoy a reunion weekend at Williams college in Williamstown, MA.

The next stop on the trip is Gaithersburg, MD, just outside of Washington, DC. I will be visiting with good friends Jim and Jeanette. Jim is also a fellow ham radio operator. I spent many years working with Jim on radio contests for W2SZ. I’ve also had the pleasure of skiing with Jim and Jeanette when they lived in Colorado. I did some planning for the flight to MD, realizing that the biggest threat would be thunderstorms. Looking at the weather forecasts for the next day, it appeared that a good weather window would open up for the flight between 11am and 2pm. I also researched the train schedules and found the perfect ride from Swartmore. It turned out that the R3 train not only went into downtown Philadelphia, but continued on north all the way to a small station in West Trenton, NJ. This was incredibly convenient because I could board just one train and get within 1.5 miles of the Trenton airport, where my airplane awaited. Originally, on the way down, I got a cab ride to the Trenton transportation center in downtown Trenton. It turned out that the West Trenton station was much more convenient due both to its proximity to the airport and the fact that the train that starts here makes its way into Swarthmore. I went to bed that night intending to wake up at 7am and board the 9:08am train so that I would arrive in West Trenton at 10:40am. Some interesting twists awaited me on Day 13. Once again, these twists and turns are what have been making this trip more than just a jaunt to visit with friends. These unexpected turns are what transform it into a true adventure.

Day 11: Pittstown, NJ; Trenton, NJ; and Philadelphia

Day 11: June 10th. I began the day at Joan's apartment in New York with almost no sleep. I awoke at 11am to find that my sore throat had improved somewhat. The strange thing was that my uvula was still inflamed, which produced a very strange sensation. Joan & I made our way to the Society Coffee shop, where we could enjoy some coffee, a sandwich, and the Internet. I planned my flight online and determined the weather would be adequate to proceed to the next stop: the Alexandria airport in Pittstown, NJ. Conditions once again dictated the filing of an IFR flight plan, as ceilings were pretty low, about 1500 feet. Also, since I was departing Linden, NJ, a mere five miles from Newark, I was right in the approach corridor for their main runways, so getting an IFR clearance was the best way to expedite a departure without having to skim around their airspace VFR under my own navigation.

Joan & I finished our lunch and we boarded the subway after a short stop back at her apartment. I gave Joan a firm hug goodbye and I disembarked at Penn Station while she continued on to her destination further downtown. It was great to see Joan after many years. She is really a wonderful person and was also a great host for my New York City stop. I look forward to reconnecting again after her move to Boston.

I made my way through Penn Station and was able to find the NJ Transit regional trains pretty easily. I had already purchased a round trip ticket, so I just needed to find Track 15 and hop aboard. A train was waiting and it departed about 5 minutes after I boarded, so my timing was perfect. After a quick cab ride from the Linden train station to the airport, I was paying my $30 landing and parking fee and began preflighting the airplane.

I picked up the weather and called Newark on the radio to receive my IFR clearance. He provided a very strange routing in which I would fly right over the Pittstown airport (35 miles) and continue west all the way to Allentown (another 30 miles), before turning back around and landing. One never knows why air traffic control maintains these circuitous routes, but you encounter them, especially near large airports. I was pretty certain that I would not have to fly to Allentown and back. The controller said that he was finding an opening in the traffic flowing into Newark to allow me to take off. Once I received the clearance, I took off and contacted NY Center for further instructions. I climbed up through the clouds and leveled off at 4000 feet where I was above the overcast cloud layer. I flew directly to the Solberg VOR, a radio navigation aid, and continued on to N85, Alexandria airport, located in Pittstown, NJ. I asked ATC for a direct routing to the airport and they obliged. They were then able to give me radar vectors to the final approach course, which is an easterly course. That is why you can see me flying to the west of the airport. What you don't see are the subsequent right hand turns where I was lined up to approach the airport from the west heading east. I descended through the overcast cloud layer and sighted the airport before I reached the minimum descent altitude on the type of instrument approach I was flying. After landing, I sent a quick text message to the friend I was to meet there, Chris Wuestefeld. He sent back a quick text message indicating that he had just arrived at the airport. We quickly found each other and began catching up on the over 20 years since we had last seen each other.

Chris and I lived in the same dorm at RPI during freshman year. We were big into our Atari computers back then. It was 1984, and the first IBM PC had only been around for 3 years at the time. Most of us had either Atari or Commodore computers which offered the opportunity for some programming, but more importantly, provided for video games, something the IBM PC had few of at the time. So, Chris and I had much in common at the time as we liked to "hack" on our Atari's. He was a computer science major, I was physics. Chris now works for a big E-commerce provider. I recently reconnected with Chris on Facebook, as I have with many other old friends. It's amazing enough to find old friends and catch up online, it is yet another thing to meet up in person, and that is what Chris and I were able to do on this day.

We drove off from the airport for a quick lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. I had to apologize for my distraction, since my plan involved continuing on from here to Philadelphia to spend the night with my sister-in-law Amy and family. I looked carefully at the forecasts and radar maps using my iPhone while we ate Chinese. What I noticed is that pop-up thunderstorms were erupting to the west of Philadelphia. It appeared to me that they would probably be over Philadelphia by the time I was to arrive there. It looked like a quick flight to Trenton, NJ, 20 miles to the south, should work well. I filed an IFR flight plan, but decided to take off VFR and pick up my clearance in the air. This was the fastest way to get off the ground, and speed was important due to the approaching thunderstorms. On a trip like this, you have to be capable of making impromptu changes like this, and it turned out that this was absolutely the right decision.

Once in the air, I got to 1500 feet in marginal VFR conditions and decided to just proceed to Trenton without activating the flight plan. A short time later, I contacted Trenton tower and landed. Trenton actually works as a gateway to my destination, because a train runs directly from the West Trenton station (1.5 miles from the airport) all the way to Swarthmore, PA. I didn't know that at the time and took a cab to the main Trenton transportation center, where I took a train to downtown Philadelphia and had to switch to another train for Swarthmore. Now, I know that the West Trenton station is within walking distance from the airport.

I arrived in Swarthmore and was greeted by my sister-in-law, Amy Bug, and my nephews Murphy & Moses. Despite having tragically lost my brother last year to suicide, I remain close to the Bug family and cherish time spent with them. This was an important stop. A slight miscommunication had Amy thinking I was coming on the next day and I thought that they would be leaving for Massachusetts the next morning. Luckily, we were all off by a day and I got to spend some quality time with the Bug family, the only real family I have left.