We woke up super early again today. And you guessed it...we went to McDonald's. What else is one to do when the prices at McDonald's here in the US are so good? The dollar menu has been our staple... but... umm... after our breakfast we realized we don't want to go to McDonald's anymore!!
Our goal for the day was to get to Nebraska... and to set ourselves up nicely for the final push into Manitoba for Saturday! The weather in Phoenix looked amazing. Clear skies, and visibility unlimited.
We got back to the airport for a quick start and were on our way home! As we were leaving the busy area of Phoenix, we were treated to an airliner airshow. An A-320 flew within a few miles of us during its approach into Sky harbour airport. Soon thereafter, we were treated to a 767 up close and personal. Little airplanes of every size, engine number, and colour were visible in every quadrant. The weather 'round here is generally gorgeous, and there is so much to see, so we can understand why so many people want to fly around here!
We left the busy area of Phoenix, and into the desert regions of Arizona. Initially, the visibility was greater than 200 miles!!! We know this because we spotted the 12,000 mountain peak west of Albuquerque when our GPS's were telling us that we were that far away!
Later on, we had to fly toward the big E instead of north because of some deteriorating conditions... We stopped in a town called Moriarty, which is just east of Albuquerque. Turns out the Moriarty airport is one of the top glider/soaring areas in the US! there were gliders on the field EVERYWHERE! However, there wasn't much flying, as the winds were now up to 20 knots. We had a quick turnaround and continued on towards Hugoton, Kansas. We had a few more mountains to dodge and then were on the flat prairies once again!
As we flew, we noted that big cumulus clouds were starting to pop up everywhere ahead of us. Sure enough, on of the HIWAS VORs was reporting that a convective SIGMET had been issued.
Once we landed in Hugoton we were greeted by Gary Cooper and some of the other nice locals. We checked the weather towards O'Neill, and noted that there was a wall of Thunderstorms topping 35,000. Thunderstorms down here generally don't move like the ones up in Canada. We tend to see squall lines up in Manitoba, but these guys were associated with a moist warm mass of air and moving in unison with a a front that is headed to Canada... (Cheer those of you up North... should mean that you'll get some real nice temperatures soon!)
Studying the radar returns we could see that they were pretty stuck in place. Since night was approaching, we elected to stay put. No Nebraska for us tonight!!
With that, we were promptly given a courtesy car and went out to search for our supper.
Initially, while we were on the way to McDonalds (imagine that!) we spotted and stopped at the neighboring Pizza Hut instead. We had a large supper because we had not eaten since 8:30 that morning. We also bought enough for breakfast tomorrow!
From there, we headed back to the airport, where we are currently staying the night. C-ya tomorrow!
BYYEEEE!!!!
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