Sunday June 24th

It's GO TIME !!  DPN up early, roughly 4:30AM due to Eastern time on the body clock but the day looks like a good one for flying, no fog in the greater San Francisco area.  Our expected wheels up time is 9AM.  The plan is to have breakfast at the flight line cafe with "the old guys", then load up, pre-flight and off we go.  DPN gets the old guy egg white omelet and CJN the french toast.  I have to say this little place does a great job on breakfast.

Due to impeccable planning on my part gets us to the threshold right on time at 9AM.  Cleared for take off we are off on runway 30 heading for Tehachapi CA where we have agreed we will stop for fuel before proceeding to Palm Springs (arrival at 10:53AM).  Nice little historic railroad town that the Santa Fe was responsible for starting but today marks the beginning of California's latest type of farm, the windmill farm.  From Tehachapi (wheels up at !!:16AM) you proceed past Edwards Air Force Base which we received clearance to fly directly over as log as we were above 6000 ft.  We had a chance to clearly see the Shuttle and the 747 that will take it back to Florida. Past Edwards we went over a bunch of ground fires that control advised us to be on the look out for aerial tankers dropping water.  The last passage was through Banning Pass which is the valley that one drives through on the way to Palm Springs from LA.  Windmills as far as the eye can see.  I think it is fair, to point out at this time that at several points during our journey Chris would roll the plane to the left or to the right to get a better look at something.  The reader should keep this in mind as the story continues.

I had lunch with a friend of mine last Friday and while telling him of my plans for this trip he said to be careful on the approach to Palm Springs because the wind comes over the mountains and tumbles into the Palm Springs valley.  Guess what...he was absolutely correct.  As we came out of Banning Pass we entered a washing machine in the spin cycle.  Four a few minutes we bounced all over the place but then the air smoothed out and Chris shot a perfect landing on a short approach.  It was at this time, I am sad to say, that I uncovered a sinister plot to bump off the old man.  As we pulled up to the Signature FBO and Chris shut the engine down I reached to open the door and the top hinge of the door broke.  I quickly grabbed the door and held on until Chris could come around the plane to hold the door up and open while I got out.  I think it was pretty clear that all of the rolls earlier in our flight were designed to dump the old man and collect the cash.  Happily, this event took place at a big FBO.  Had this happen in Sedona or Bullhead City we might have had a bigger problem. The mechanics will begin working on it at 7:30 tomorrow morning.  Neither Chris or I can remember if it was just the failure of a pin or as I remembered it a rusted hinge that gave way.

Hertz delivered our car to the FBO so we loaded up and headed for what turned out to be fine dining at the near by Subway place.  A quick sandwich and we were off to the Palm Springs Air Museum. Had a good time, Chris had a chance to speak with the many of the guys that actually flew the aircraft during the war.  Following the museum stop it was on to the Parker Springs hotel for check in and pool time.

Dinner tonight was at El Mirasol for some beer and burrito's followed by another episode of Top Gear.  Someone should bring that show to the U.S.  The battery ran out for DPN by 10PM, no staying power.