We were supposed to come to Alabama this morning, landing here no later than 8 a.m. (It's a 3 hour flight. Do the math as to what time that meant I would have had to get up, get ready, drive to the airport, get the plane ready/out, and be in the air to land by 8 a.m.) The forecasts were fine for both home and AL for Tuesday morning. By late Tuesday, we were supposed to start getting another 9-12" of snow, wind, drifting snow, etc., so we were going to have to bug out of Alabama by noon or so to beat it home, and he was going to try to do just that. The problem was, this was a Must Do flight, and we HAD to be on the ground by 8 a.m., so I was watching the forecast really closely all day. And I had a feeling about Alabama. The forecast kept calling for marginal VFR, but the more I looked into it, some places had the temp and dewpoint the same with 100% humidity, and I kept thinking...it's going to fog over, and I'm not going to be able to get him in there. Then the forecast went down to IFR, but it was high IFR. That's when I told D that I had a bad feeling about Alabama and that we might need to be prepared to go tonight instead. Then the forecast went down to 500', which is 100' above minimums here, and it was supposed to clear back up after 10 a.m. Still no forecast for fog, but I knew it, and the mental image of waking up and seeing fog down there was making me twitchy. He was flexible, so since we HAD to be there, we planned on heading down Monday when he got out of a meeting instead of waiting for morning. Ironically enough, when we left Kokomo, IT was fogged out. The sky was clear above, and I could see part of the runway, but the rest of it was fog. On the way down, I mentioned that now that I said I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get in in the morning, it would be just fine, stay at its forecast of 500', and laugh at us. Well, we made it down in weather that was just fine, at a reasonable hour of the night in which I am still perfectly awake and functioning, got a car and rooms, and I woke up this morning to weather below minimums, that has stayed below minimums all day, against the forecasts they had. Thank you very much.
D checked out of the hotel at 8, and went to do his thing, hoping to be done by noon to 1 at the latest so we could bug out and have a 3 hour flight home to try to beat the snow. He didn't make it, so I rearranged the rooms, and car, got the airplane topped off and ready to go in case we need to leave when the FBO is closed, and now we'll stay here in Alabama until it's done being nasty in Kokomo and they get our runway, taxiway, and hangar plowed back out. I'm hoping all that can be done by tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath, either.
When I left my room this morning for breakfast, I went to get back in my room and my card wouldn't work. When I took it to the front desk, the lady asked what room, I said "206", and she said "I don't have anyone in 206." I said, "Well, I'M in 206 and so is most of my stuff still, at least I hope it is." They didn't even have me in there in the first place somehow. So we got that taken care of. The hotel is the nicest one in town and it's...okay. Relatively clean, decent wifi, nice TV with decent stations, but certainly nothing fancy. Old, no place to eat or get anything and the kind of carpeting that is having me leave my socks on. There isn't a blanket either. I guess they figure you don't get cold in Alabama? The wifi helps though-I'm going to see if it's good enough for me to watch an Amazon movie on my iPad later. It was good enough for me to update an operating system, 27 apps, and 116 Garmin Pilot charts on a mini iPad, so hey, that feels promising. ;)
There aren't a lot of options in Eufala, Alabama. I drove around to see what was what, ran into a Rite Aid to get some stuff I could have used at home or here, and some snacks. What's kind of odd is that a lot of what IS in Eufala isn't showing up on Google Maps or Siri or...anything. The hotel we're staying in? Doesn't show up at all, and it's not new here. We had to google the address, and had a hard time finding that, as it wasn't showing up on Google either! Eventually we stopped for directions at a gas station and they pointed it out to us. Weird. I asked about restaurants around here and it came up with a few, but when I was driving around I saw a couple more, and they too didn't show up. I don't know. Maybe it's all an illusion, and I've been lost in...the Twilight Zone. :o
I do like the south though. I feel more at home here than a lot of places. It's quiet, it's serene, it's old-fashioned. The only tea option is sweet (with extra diabetes kapow on the side), people call each other "Miss Mary" or "Miss Patty" in that southern drawl, the pace is slow, the weather is warm in the winter, and the stores that I saw just threw me back in time a little. I even watched "Dukes of Hazard" on tv, (the original characters are 50 times better than that stupid, vapid movie.) Then I went out for some Sweet tea and breakfast, and passed by a Piggly Wiggly and a Rite Aid, and people are friendly towards strangers, and I do think the South has the right idea on a lot of things. There is a LOT of poverty down here, big-time, but the cost of living's not so bad either...
Well, Steve just texted me that it just started snowing back home. It's 64 here, which isn't bad at all...but it IS awful quiet! My big adventure for the night will be to go to this little Cajun restaurant I found on an out of the way corner, for dinner. It looks unique, a hole-in-the-wall place, and sometimes you get food poisoning at those, and sometimes you get the best local food you've ever had. I'm betting on the second. ;)
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