Colorado, Trip Two

Saturday morning early Steve and I were out there, had the Cheyenne out, and when the FBO opened at 8 am, we got it topped off.  Chuck, Brad and Maggie were there, and we got in the plane and headed for Denver (Centennial), Colorado.  There was one wad of weather in Nebraska that actually was big, wide, long, and in our way no matter which way we went.  I was trying to decide whether to go left or right of course. Both ways there were buildups and severe stuff.  I originally thought right, but the more I stared at it, I kept coming back to left. So I called for left.  As I was going, I saw another airplane on ADS-B who was going the way I was going, only 5000' lower than we were.  He seemed to be getting through okay, so that was a good sign.  Then as I was lined up, I saw a bunch of other airplanes all lining up for the same thing I was doing.  There was nobody down to the left/south. I figured that was good validation.  ;)  We got bumped around a bit with turbulence, but avoided the worst of the actual weather, either above it and/or around it.  Once on the other side, it was a quick rest of the flight to Denver. They were busy, as always.

We were met by Gina, and a rental car, and Steve and I went to breakfast while the others went elsewhere for breakfast, then we hung out, drove around, checked into the hotel room, freshened up, and went to the Wings over the Rockies Museum to meet up with the rest of them for the celebration of life of Chuck's brother Ray.  We talked for a long time with Ray's fighter pilot friends and squadron 'brothers', and that was pretty neat. They're still really sharp guys, and you can see it in their eyes when they talk. They're impressive men, understated, in their 70s and 80s, but you can still see it.

They had sugar cookies in the shape of his last fighter, frosted in metallic grey, with his name on it.  I took a picture. He sounded like a great guy. It's not fair, like it's never fair, that he had to live with and die from Alzheimer's.  Just so uncool to take good people out in such an undignified, helpless way.

After the party, at which we had food that had names I didn't recognize, we went back to the hotel. Got a text from Chuck asking what our plans were. None. So we went down to the bar, where he was meeting with his nephew too. Then the rest of them came too, and about 20 of us sat in the bar down in the hotel and had a drink and a talk.  

We met again downstairs at 7:30 am, had an expensive Hilton breakfast, then loaded up, topped off the car, went out to the airport, and got ready to depart.

Once again there was an area of weather in between here and there, but it was a much smaller one this time, and a little deviation and it was no problem. I probably could've flown over the top of this one, we were about above it at 31,000' as it was. 

We landed around 3 pm, loaded up the car, everyone else left, and then came home to Ann not feeling good at all. Cathy headed out, and we went over for awhile. 

Tomorrow I'm supposed to have students from 9 am to 11:30 pm, but we'll have to see what the weather does.  It's a crap shoot right now.

And our internet has been down for a long time, while Steve's been in the bathroom, so I can't post this until he comes out and reboots everything and hopefully gets it working again.  ;)

(It took until 8 am the next morning for the internet to come up. The horror!)