The trip was looking like it was going to be sketchy. I had rain over a lot of the route, and a line of thunderstorms too. There was turbulence and wind shear reported, high winds at pattern altitudes, just all around ucky. Night IFR in moderate rain and turbulence. Except it was a non-event. The rain didn't pound so hard that it made me cringe, and I went around the thunderstorms just fine. The wind shear was there, but it was smooth and calm wind shear. I was getting 53 knots wind at 2000', and you could see it shoving me across the ground. I was the guinea pig for a lot of people today, the first one through an area. ATC requested pilot reports from me, and the tower when I landed want wind vector reports and ride reports and wind shear reports when I landed. Apparently not a lot of other people had flown through that area of weather or landed there yet by 7 a.m. their time. :p
While I was in St. Louis, I took a car and went to a place called "Peacemaker Lobster and Crab". It was a fresh fish market, with a block of ice and oysters right there by a bar, but it was also hipster style, in a swanky area with brick buildings and wrought iron fences. Everything inside was distressed to look old and beaten up, but was actually all brand new. I had a lobster roll, and that sandwich and chips was $30. So I had a water. lol It WAS really good though. Worth it. Especially since I don't pay for it. They know I'm cheap in lots of ways, but I like to eat good food now and then. So far today, that's all I've eaten, too. I'm still full. Which is weird. It wasn't that big!
The guy I took to St. Louis, I warned him that we had to be out of there by 3-3:30 pm St. Louis time, because 1) a line of really nasty weather was moving in then, and 2) I am going to be home for Parent's Night for Kaylee's musical. He wasn't able to get done today, so he spent the night there, and I was sent home a little early. That was a good thing, because I beat out the worst of the weather. Again I was a guinea pig though. I provided a PIREP ride report on my own when I went through a round of "moderate rain" they were warning me about, but it was smooth, windy, and the rain was below me, so they used my PIREP to help other people trying to get through that area several times.
So I was home in time for Parent's Night. I took my camera and my zoom lens and I took 340 pictures. Heh. I've not yet begun to get through them and I'm SO tired I won't get through them tonight either. All I can say is, you guys will love this. Kaylee's not in the first two acts, and then she's in pretty much the rest of the show. She's always in pink, and her character is a bubble head, which she does way too well. :) Friday is opening night, and she's looking forward to it, and bothered at the thought of it being over with at the same time.
Tomorrow I have to be a hall monitor, so I will try to get some photos up tomorrow of this, if I can get through them. In the meantime I have the photos from today's trip.
My weather. You can see where I started going "nope" and going through the gap to the south. :)
St. Louis before the sun is really up.
Yes, I'm on base for Runway 12L, taking a photo out the right side, while hand flying with the left, with nice fierce winds. It doesn't take long to snap, you know.
These are what the forecast was. It ended up less exciting than it looked.
Downtown Arch
The rest of these are from the Peacemaker restaurant on the inside. Their glasses were green glass bell jars.
The menu, nothing else. Blow this up and look at the salads. Heh.
Behind me is the oyster bar, in front of me is the row of tables with buckets and crab hammers.
The other side of the restaurant, with photos of fishermen blown up and framed on each wall.
The outside of the restaurant.
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