Of course we were able to watch the sun rise, as we were bucking the usual headwinds down there. The forecast was for 900' broken, 1500' overcast and 5.5 miles visibility. That's pretty much VFR, so...no big deal. The headwinds slowed us down, as usual, and an airspace deviation slowed us down too, also no big deal, as we were going to get there in VFR conditions with between 45 minutes to an hour's worth of fuel. And then the weather started going downhill. The TAF still called for good stuff, but the reality wasn't cooperating, and the area went from 900' to 600' to 400' to 300' to 200' on our 3.5 hour flight. But where we were going was 300' and 10 miles visibility, which is...odd. Other places around were 1.5 miles or 2 miles visibility, but our place was 10 miles. Heck, at 10 miles visibility I'm not too worried about missing the airport on an approach. But in case it socked in after all, I stopped short at a place that was at 600' to get some more gas, getting in a nice ILS. You kind of hate doing that, because it adds an hour to your time, which makes you late, it's a pain to divert and fuel up and take back off and get back in it, etc.,. But it's not as much of a pain as leaving yourself no extra gas for a missed approach and no option to go anywhere else if it socks in on you. And this time it worked out pretty well, because where we ended up had an amazing FBO. When you go inside there, they have bowls of fresh fruit on every table back in the dining room area. They also have a chocolate ice cream machine with cones, nachos and cheese, hot dogs with "fixings", a waffle maker with a batter dispenser like in a hotel, free sweet and unsweet iced tea, and a vending machine with the usual stuff. Now THAT'S where you need to end up if you need to spend the day somewhere! No dead mice, no tumbleweeds on a broken-up ramp, no stale crackers left in the fridge, just a lot of Awesome. Getting into our original destination, it sure enough stayed at 10 miles visibility and 300' overcast, and we shot an LPV GPS approach down. (If you don't know what that is, you also don't care, I know.)While I was down there, I was at the home base of an online friend of mine, who stopped by, and we went up flying for awhile when the ceilings lifted. It was his first time flying a twin, so that was fun. We weren't up very long at all, just a quick swing around the area. We were sitting around outside in the breeze, and two acquaintances of his were hanging around too, and one of them was bringing up a food, and he said to me "Well, you're probably a little younger than I am..." I said "I'm 41." He raised his eyebrows and said "Well, you're probably a little older than I am. No way you're 41. Really?" I said yes, and thanks for that by the way. The guy across the table said "Wait a minute, seriously, you're not actually 41." I said "Yes, really, I am, and thank you too." He gave me a "cheers" sign with his drink and said "You've done well." That was pretty nice, actually, because I've been feeling wrinkly, saggy, and kind of...aging...this last couple of years. Not because of a number, just because I've gotten better contacts and glasses and I can see a little too well. Sometimes fuzzy vision has its benefits. ;)
The trip home went a little faster, as usual, and we got home in time for D to make it to the ultrasound of his first child, to determine the sex of the baby. He was under strict instructions that to miss this was Not Acceptable. So we made it, of course...and it's a Girl, by the way. :)
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