jesse
Touchdown! Greaser!
It was a year ago that I first went to the Gaston’s fly in. I wasn't sure what to expect other than an opportunity to meet some of the great people that share the same love that I do. As soon as I touched down at Gaston’s in 2006 I knew I would be back in 2007.
For some Gaston’s is just a short hop for a day and for others it’s an adventure they look forward to all year. The trip is by far the most expensive vacation or flying trip I do. We spent several months planning all the details. I’m not sure why I bothered to plan any of it because any pilot knows the plan will change as soon as the wings lift the airplane into the sky.
My Gaston’s adventure started several days before. The plan was for Tristan to fly via commercial airline to Minneapolis. This way she could come with me for the entire flight and gain some cross country experience. I was hoping for some weather to interfere with us for this very reason. I probably hoped a little too much.
It was Thursday morning at 4am and my alarm started to buzz. I hadn’t slept at all the night before as I couldn’t wait to be in the air. I reviewed the weather and contacted flight service. It was obvious that the trip could be made VFR but it was not going to be easy. A massive low pressure system was pushing through the area throwing 35 knot surface winds and 55 to 60 knot winds aloft. The worst part was all of this wind was a direct headwind. There was also an AIRMET for moderate turbulence below 8,500 feet along with several PIREPs reporting severe turbulence and wind shear.
The first decision had to be made. Do we launch into conditions that are VFR and have a miserable flight or do we wait a day? The forecasts for Gaston’s were predicting IFR from Thursday night into Friday evening. I really wanted to make it into Gaston’s by Friday at the latest so I made the choice to launch.
Tristan and I did a preflight and figured out a way to put our baggage into the tiny airplane. Everything fit perfectly. I closed the canopy and hit the start button—it started! It’s always a relief to have a rental plane be in operating condition for a trip. All too often you plan a cross country to have it cancelled due to a failure.
We held short of the runway and let a Bonanza takeoff first. I watched him as he climbed. He was getting rocked all over by wind and turbulence. I knew right then that this was going to be one hell of a flight. We took the runway and applied takeoff power. As soon as we hit about 50 feet the airplane started to get beat on by the rough air. I was climbing at 75 knots after takeoff and had a groundspeed of 19 knots. Keep in mind this was only at a few hundred feet.
We leveled off initially at 2,000 AGL and had a groundspeed of 50 knots. I contacted flight service asking for winds aloft information and it was clear that they only increased with altitude. I did notice that there was a shift in winds aloft as you climbed though. I decided this shift in winds combined with the smooth air at 9,000 ft might be worth it. The Diamond started to climb and we leveled off at 9,500 ft. It was now a smooth ride and we had a whopping 70 knot groundspeed. I was happy.
The slow ground speeds meant that our original fuel stop was way out of reach. It was also clear that we were going to have to stop twice. Our first stop was Knoxville, IA which is just north of the Missouri border. The time came where we had to come down from 9,500 to land in Knoxville. It became very rough below 8,000 feet. The ASOS stated the winds were going to be about 30 degrees gusting to 34 knots. The PIREPS of wind shear also came to mind. I kept it fast until about 100 feet and slowed up to my landing speed, slipped into the wind, and made a pretty good landing.
After topping the Diamond off with fuel we looked to the sky. The sky was closing up fast. It was clear that we would not be flying on top anymore and the rest of this trip was going to have to be low flying in the turbulence.
We took off and turned on course. This was to be a 3 hour leg with 70 knot groundspeeds and very rough turbulence. Tristan was flying at this point and about 30 minutes into this flight I started to get a sick feeling. I was frustrated with the turbulence and she handed the plane over to me. I glanced around and saw several holes in the clouds. We flew underneath a hole and did a tight climbing spiral through it. Once on top of the clouds it was so smooth and I couldn’t quit smiling. I was starting to feel better already. We were only up there for about a minute though and I noticed the holes were disappearing and if we remained on top we would get stuck. I checked METARS on course and it didn’t get much better.
I have very few hard flying rules. There is at least one rule I will not break. I refuse to fly on top of any overcast layer with an assumption that it will clear up and I can get back down. Some VFR pilots are comfortable with this but I am not. As much as I really wanted to stay on top and as sick as I was below I wasn’t going to break my rule. I started a steep spiral and we went right back down through a hole. Tristan finally saw a use for the spiral requirement in the commercial PTS.
I kept flying and Tristan was trying to nap some. I was feeling pretty motion sick but I knew I could tolerate it. After two hours of getting beat I knew I was about to throw up. I decided it was time to divert and just get on the ground. There were almost no airports in Missouri to divert to. I finally chose Marshall, MO which was off course but I didn’t care anymore.
I dialed the airport into the Garmin 430 and woke Tristan up. She found the AF/D and reviewed the airport while I flew to it. We tuned in the ASOS and heard once again that the winds were gusting to 34 knots. This time though it was 50 degrees off the runway. I decided it was worth an attempt as getting on the ground still sounded like a really good idea.
If you have ever look at a DA-20 the first thing you’ll notice are the tiny control surfaces. The ailerons, rudder, and elevator are very small. The airplane is also very light which means that in high winds the airplane demands attention.
I lined up on final and we were still getting beat by the winds. The wind shear was obvious and the stall warning indicator was screaming along with the airspeed indicator swinging about 20 knots each direction. I kept it fast and just kept flying a crab. I kicked the rudder pedals a few times on the way down to get my feet to wake up. At about 50 feet I slowed the airplane up by slipping nose up into the wind, followed by dropping full flaps. The stick was moving all over the place for the last 50 feet and the rudder pedal was to the floor. Several times I hit the stops and ran out of aileron with the stick all the way to the side. I just kept it as stable as I could. Once we were at about 10’ AGL things were looking pretty stable and we touched down without anything scary happening.
I was happy to be on the ground and topped the plane off with fuel. At this point I was not ready to take to the skies again. I crashed on the airport couch and slept for about an hour. After waking up, Tristan and I took the courtesy car into town. The car was an old police cruiser.
I entertained myself playing with the spot light on the car while Tristan did the responsible thing looking for a place to eat. We finally elected on Subway deciding it was the most unlikely thing to make me sick. On the drive back to the airport I once again was highly entertained by the spot light.
Back to the airport and back to sleeping. I was really tempted to just give up and get a hotel room. But I knew at this point we were within range of Gaston’s. I knew I was going to get into the airplane and go direct 3M0. This made me feel good—I set out to go to Gaston’s and Gaston’s is where I wanted to sleep that night.
We climbed back in the Diamond and departed Marshall, MO. Tristan flew this leg as well and I did my best to try to sleep and not make myself sick. At one point during this leg the sky started to open up a bit and Tristan wanted to try to get on top. I wanted to get on top as well. She did a nice job doing a spiraling climb up. It was obvious that we were tricked once again and there were only a couple of holes. She spiraled back down and did a good job at remaining clear of clouds. I have a feeling she enjoyed this as it’s always a blast to fly around clouds. I think it’s because it’s the only time you actually have something that you must go around in cruise flight. It’s a good reference of your speed. Not that we had much speed.
I have a real hard time sleeping in an airplane. I get sensations that make me think the plane is in a bank. I do my best to ignore them but sometimes the sensation is so great that I MUST open my eyes. There was one time that I opened my eyes and my heart about stopped. Keep in mind that this was a hazy day with varying layers in clouds everywhere. Tristan was doing a great job at keeping the plane level. The moment I opened my eyes I saw what I thought was the horizon. If this were to be the horizon it would mean that we were almost inverted. I jumped and a second realized what the real horizon was and knew we were fine.
I think my favorite moment on the flight down was when I looked at the GPS to see the distance remaining match our groundspeed. This meant we only had one hour of flying left. About 20 miles away from Gaston’s I took over the controls to make the approach and landing. The surface winds were only about 25 knots at Mountain Home and not near as much into Gaston’s. We did get rocked around pretty good when we dipped below the ridge. Final approach was pretty rough along with short final. Once we got to about 10 feet things smoothed out and we had made it!
I still had no idea where we were sleeping and I could only hope that Gaston’s had a room available for the night. They met us at the tie downs with their van and informed me they did have a room. I was feeling pretty happy at this point and basically just collapsed on the bed. After about 30 minutes Kathleen called us and invited Tristan and I to come over for pizza. Perfect, now we don’t even have to worry about food!
Spike called me and asked for a PIREP. After talking about how it was smooth on top he decided to launch as the forecast for Friday was not looking very good. Later that day we watched Spike land. It’s always a pleasure to have the opportunity to meet up with Spike.
The next day the weather cleared up over Gaston’s earlier than expected and it was obvious that our fly-in was going to be a big success. I love watching people arrive at Gaston’s. When you hear their voice over the radio and watch them come between the goal posts they transform from an online identity into a real person. I cannot express enough how great it is to meet everyone.
Over the entire weekend everything was absolutely perfect. I couldn’t believe the number of people that were able to make the trip. There were several people that were gracious enough to take me flying in their airplanes. I also took the opportunity to take up around 8 people in the DA-20. I don’t think I scared anyone believe it or not!
Most of Saturday consisted of everyone talking aviation and flying each other’s airplanes. I had the opportunity to fly in Chip’s A36 including takeoff and landing at Gaston’s (he is a great instructor), along with Steve’s IAR, Spike’s Bonanza, and Matt’s 140. All of these airplanes were a lot of fun.
I really wish I could write about everything that happened at Gaston’s but most of it I just cannot express in words. In order to understand the event you must attend. Everyone becomes everyone’s friend and nothing else matters other than our aviation bond. The friend’s I have gained through Pilots of America have influenced my life in many ways.
Thunderstorms were building up throughout the region on Sunday morning and some people elected to leave before brunch. We decided to stay for brunch and enjoyed a pretty good breakfast and a last opportunity to socialize with everyone. Some of these people I see every few months but most of these people I will not see for another year.
After lunch I took a look at radar and planned on shooting west around the storm in Missouri. There were storm cells west of us that I couldn’t go around. Several of us northbound people decided to wait until that stuff blew over Gaston’s. It became apparent that we misjudged the situation because the storm just kept on building and kept on drenching the resort with rain. After several cells and many hours we ventured outside to see a good portion of the runway as a pond. I walked the runway and came up with a plan for takeoff. While preparing for takeoff I saw a Bonanza start up and taxi towards the runway. Perfect, someone else will try it first!
The Bonanza applied full power. Water shot up about 6 feet high and back 20 feet. He made the right call and aborted takeoff, parked the plane, and booked a room for the night. It was funny to see this take place as all of us northbound people had untied our planes. All of us walked back towards our planes, tied them down again, and talked about staying another night.
An hour went by and we walked the runway probably five more times. Matt and Tony finally decided they were going to make the takeoff attempt. I knew if they were able to get off the runway I could get off the runway. They taxied out into what we determined was the best point to start the takeoff and made it without any problems.
I decided to make the takeoff and have someone drive Tristan over to a paved airport as I didn’t want to do it with a passenger. I made the takeoff with no problem and landed at Mountain Home. Sherri followed in the 182 and Kent followed in an Archer. I looked at radar and was just not comfortable with taking off and trying to cut through a gap in the storm at night. Tony and Matt decided to launch and thankfully made it without a problem.
The rest of us all went to Wal-Mart to buy some dry socks and shoes followed by supper. We drove back to Gaston’s and got a cabin for the night. The plan was to launch early in the morning and try to make it as far as we could.
The next morning we reviewed the radar and I decided that I could shoot a gap through the storm in Missouri. I also had a 396 with XM to monitor the situation along with Tristan to reduce the workload. We departed mountain home northeast and shot the gap through the storm. We did encounter rain but were able to maintain VFR. It took about 45 minutes to clear the storm.
As we proceeded north through Missouri there were a few more cells that had built up. Some of them we went around while anything green on the radar we just flew through without a problem. Our fuel stop was Macon, MO. I got a kick out of this town because it’s so different compared to Minneapolis. They were friendly and did have a courtesy car (rusted up old minivan) and they recommended a BBQ place which was supposed to be really good. The first thing I saw in this restaurant was a cigarette in everyone’s hand. The “No-Smoking” section and “Smoking” section were about 3 feet apart, actually the next table over, so I’m not sure of the purpose. The food was ‘OK’ and the price was right.
It was wheels up again direct Minneapolis. We only needed one fuel stop for the trip back and managed to do the whole thing in about 4.5 hours. That’s not bad considering we didn’t fly direct and had to avoid some storm cells.
It felt good to touchdown in Minneapolis knowing we had accomplished the trip. But in a way neither of us wanted to be back. This meant that Tristan was going to be getting on an airliner to go back to Oklahoma and meant that I would be going back to work. We had five days of adventure and five days of seeing our friends in person. Now we were going to cross back into our other life—the internet. Now both of us will be talking to each other over the internet. Now I’ll be on Flash chat talking to my friends that I had just seen in person a few days before. I will be at Gaston’s 2008.
Gaston’s is not just an event. It’s not just another fly-in. Gaston’s is the place where our online identities and real life merge. This is what makes the event so great.
Total Hobbs time: 14.7 hours
For some Gaston’s is just a short hop for a day and for others it’s an adventure they look forward to all year. The trip is by far the most expensive vacation or flying trip I do. We spent several months planning all the details. I’m not sure why I bothered to plan any of it because any pilot knows the plan will change as soon as the wings lift the airplane into the sky.
My Gaston’s adventure started several days before. The plan was for Tristan to fly via commercial airline to Minneapolis. This way she could come with me for the entire flight and gain some cross country experience. I was hoping for some weather to interfere with us for this very reason. I probably hoped a little too much.
It was Thursday morning at 4am and my alarm started to buzz. I hadn’t slept at all the night before as I couldn’t wait to be in the air. I reviewed the weather and contacted flight service. It was obvious that the trip could be made VFR but it was not going to be easy. A massive low pressure system was pushing through the area throwing 35 knot surface winds and 55 to 60 knot winds aloft. The worst part was all of this wind was a direct headwind. There was also an AIRMET for moderate turbulence below 8,500 feet along with several PIREPs reporting severe turbulence and wind shear.
The first decision had to be made. Do we launch into conditions that are VFR and have a miserable flight or do we wait a day? The forecasts for Gaston’s were predicting IFR from Thursday night into Friday evening. I really wanted to make it into Gaston’s by Friday at the latest so I made the choice to launch.
Tristan and I did a preflight and figured out a way to put our baggage into the tiny airplane. Everything fit perfectly. I closed the canopy and hit the start button—it started! It’s always a relief to have a rental plane be in operating condition for a trip. All too often you plan a cross country to have it cancelled due to a failure.
We held short of the runway and let a Bonanza takeoff first. I watched him as he climbed. He was getting rocked all over by wind and turbulence. I knew right then that this was going to be one hell of a flight. We took the runway and applied takeoff power. As soon as we hit about 50 feet the airplane started to get beat on by the rough air. I was climbing at 75 knots after takeoff and had a groundspeed of 19 knots. Keep in mind this was only at a few hundred feet.
We leveled off initially at 2,000 AGL and had a groundspeed of 50 knots. I contacted flight service asking for winds aloft information and it was clear that they only increased with altitude. I did notice that there was a shift in winds aloft as you climbed though. I decided this shift in winds combined with the smooth air at 9,000 ft might be worth it. The Diamond started to climb and we leveled off at 9,500 ft. It was now a smooth ride and we had a whopping 70 knot groundspeed. I was happy.
The slow ground speeds meant that our original fuel stop was way out of reach. It was also clear that we were going to have to stop twice. Our first stop was Knoxville, IA which is just north of the Missouri border. The time came where we had to come down from 9,500 to land in Knoxville. It became very rough below 8,000 feet. The ASOS stated the winds were going to be about 30 degrees gusting to 34 knots. The PIREPS of wind shear also came to mind. I kept it fast until about 100 feet and slowed up to my landing speed, slipped into the wind, and made a pretty good landing.
After topping the Diamond off with fuel we looked to the sky. The sky was closing up fast. It was clear that we would not be flying on top anymore and the rest of this trip was going to have to be low flying in the turbulence.
We took off and turned on course. This was to be a 3 hour leg with 70 knot groundspeeds and very rough turbulence. Tristan was flying at this point and about 30 minutes into this flight I started to get a sick feeling. I was frustrated with the turbulence and she handed the plane over to me. I glanced around and saw several holes in the clouds. We flew underneath a hole and did a tight climbing spiral through it. Once on top of the clouds it was so smooth and I couldn’t quit smiling. I was starting to feel better already. We were only up there for about a minute though and I noticed the holes were disappearing and if we remained on top we would get stuck. I checked METARS on course and it didn’t get much better.
I have very few hard flying rules. There is at least one rule I will not break. I refuse to fly on top of any overcast layer with an assumption that it will clear up and I can get back down. Some VFR pilots are comfortable with this but I am not. As much as I really wanted to stay on top and as sick as I was below I wasn’t going to break my rule. I started a steep spiral and we went right back down through a hole. Tristan finally saw a use for the spiral requirement in the commercial PTS.
I kept flying and Tristan was trying to nap some. I was feeling pretty motion sick but I knew I could tolerate it. After two hours of getting beat I knew I was about to throw up. I decided it was time to divert and just get on the ground. There were almost no airports in Missouri to divert to. I finally chose Marshall, MO which was off course but I didn’t care anymore.
I dialed the airport into the Garmin 430 and woke Tristan up. She found the AF/D and reviewed the airport while I flew to it. We tuned in the ASOS and heard once again that the winds were gusting to 34 knots. This time though it was 50 degrees off the runway. I decided it was worth an attempt as getting on the ground still sounded like a really good idea.
If you have ever look at a DA-20 the first thing you’ll notice are the tiny control surfaces. The ailerons, rudder, and elevator are very small. The airplane is also very light which means that in high winds the airplane demands attention.
I lined up on final and we were still getting beat by the winds. The wind shear was obvious and the stall warning indicator was screaming along with the airspeed indicator swinging about 20 knots each direction. I kept it fast and just kept flying a crab. I kicked the rudder pedals a few times on the way down to get my feet to wake up. At about 50 feet I slowed the airplane up by slipping nose up into the wind, followed by dropping full flaps. The stick was moving all over the place for the last 50 feet and the rudder pedal was to the floor. Several times I hit the stops and ran out of aileron with the stick all the way to the side. I just kept it as stable as I could. Once we were at about 10’ AGL things were looking pretty stable and we touched down without anything scary happening.
I was happy to be on the ground and topped the plane off with fuel. At this point I was not ready to take to the skies again. I crashed on the airport couch and slept for about an hour. After waking up, Tristan and I took the courtesy car into town. The car was an old police cruiser.
I entertained myself playing with the spot light on the car while Tristan did the responsible thing looking for a place to eat. We finally elected on Subway deciding it was the most unlikely thing to make me sick. On the drive back to the airport I once again was highly entertained by the spot light.
Back to the airport and back to sleeping. I was really tempted to just give up and get a hotel room. But I knew at this point we were within range of Gaston’s. I knew I was going to get into the airplane and go direct 3M0. This made me feel good—I set out to go to Gaston’s and Gaston’s is where I wanted to sleep that night.
We climbed back in the Diamond and departed Marshall, MO. Tristan flew this leg as well and I did my best to try to sleep and not make myself sick. At one point during this leg the sky started to open up a bit and Tristan wanted to try to get on top. I wanted to get on top as well. She did a nice job doing a spiraling climb up. It was obvious that we were tricked once again and there were only a couple of holes. She spiraled back down and did a good job at remaining clear of clouds. I have a feeling she enjoyed this as it’s always a blast to fly around clouds. I think it’s because it’s the only time you actually have something that you must go around in cruise flight. It’s a good reference of your speed. Not that we had much speed.
I have a real hard time sleeping in an airplane. I get sensations that make me think the plane is in a bank. I do my best to ignore them but sometimes the sensation is so great that I MUST open my eyes. There was one time that I opened my eyes and my heart about stopped. Keep in mind that this was a hazy day with varying layers in clouds everywhere. Tristan was doing a great job at keeping the plane level. The moment I opened my eyes I saw what I thought was the horizon. If this were to be the horizon it would mean that we were almost inverted. I jumped and a second realized what the real horizon was and knew we were fine.
I think my favorite moment on the flight down was when I looked at the GPS to see the distance remaining match our groundspeed. This meant we only had one hour of flying left. About 20 miles away from Gaston’s I took over the controls to make the approach and landing. The surface winds were only about 25 knots at Mountain Home and not near as much into Gaston’s. We did get rocked around pretty good when we dipped below the ridge. Final approach was pretty rough along with short final. Once we got to about 10 feet things smoothed out and we had made it!
I still had no idea where we were sleeping and I could only hope that Gaston’s had a room available for the night. They met us at the tie downs with their van and informed me they did have a room. I was feeling pretty happy at this point and basically just collapsed on the bed. After about 30 minutes Kathleen called us and invited Tristan and I to come over for pizza. Perfect, now we don’t even have to worry about food!
Spike called me and asked for a PIREP. After talking about how it was smooth on top he decided to launch as the forecast for Friday was not looking very good. Later that day we watched Spike land. It’s always a pleasure to have the opportunity to meet up with Spike.
The next day the weather cleared up over Gaston’s earlier than expected and it was obvious that our fly-in was going to be a big success. I love watching people arrive at Gaston’s. When you hear their voice over the radio and watch them come between the goal posts they transform from an online identity into a real person. I cannot express enough how great it is to meet everyone.
Over the entire weekend everything was absolutely perfect. I couldn’t believe the number of people that were able to make the trip. There were several people that were gracious enough to take me flying in their airplanes. I also took the opportunity to take up around 8 people in the DA-20. I don’t think I scared anyone believe it or not!
Most of Saturday consisted of everyone talking aviation and flying each other’s airplanes. I had the opportunity to fly in Chip’s A36 including takeoff and landing at Gaston’s (he is a great instructor), along with Steve’s IAR, Spike’s Bonanza, and Matt’s 140. All of these airplanes were a lot of fun.
I really wish I could write about everything that happened at Gaston’s but most of it I just cannot express in words. In order to understand the event you must attend. Everyone becomes everyone’s friend and nothing else matters other than our aviation bond. The friend’s I have gained through Pilots of America have influenced my life in many ways.
Thunderstorms were building up throughout the region on Sunday morning and some people elected to leave before brunch. We decided to stay for brunch and enjoyed a pretty good breakfast and a last opportunity to socialize with everyone. Some of these people I see every few months but most of these people I will not see for another year.
After lunch I took a look at radar and planned on shooting west around the storm in Missouri. There were storm cells west of us that I couldn’t go around. Several of us northbound people decided to wait until that stuff blew over Gaston’s. It became apparent that we misjudged the situation because the storm just kept on building and kept on drenching the resort with rain. After several cells and many hours we ventured outside to see a good portion of the runway as a pond. I walked the runway and came up with a plan for takeoff. While preparing for takeoff I saw a Bonanza start up and taxi towards the runway. Perfect, someone else will try it first!
The Bonanza applied full power. Water shot up about 6 feet high and back 20 feet. He made the right call and aborted takeoff, parked the plane, and booked a room for the night. It was funny to see this take place as all of us northbound people had untied our planes. All of us walked back towards our planes, tied them down again, and talked about staying another night.
An hour went by and we walked the runway probably five more times. Matt and Tony finally decided they were going to make the takeoff attempt. I knew if they were able to get off the runway I could get off the runway. They taxied out into what we determined was the best point to start the takeoff and made it without any problems.
I decided to make the takeoff and have someone drive Tristan over to a paved airport as I didn’t want to do it with a passenger. I made the takeoff with no problem and landed at Mountain Home. Sherri followed in the 182 and Kent followed in an Archer. I looked at radar and was just not comfortable with taking off and trying to cut through a gap in the storm at night. Tony and Matt decided to launch and thankfully made it without a problem.
The rest of us all went to Wal-Mart to buy some dry socks and shoes followed by supper. We drove back to Gaston’s and got a cabin for the night. The plan was to launch early in the morning and try to make it as far as we could.
The next morning we reviewed the radar and I decided that I could shoot a gap through the storm in Missouri. I also had a 396 with XM to monitor the situation along with Tristan to reduce the workload. We departed mountain home northeast and shot the gap through the storm. We did encounter rain but were able to maintain VFR. It took about 45 minutes to clear the storm.
As we proceeded north through Missouri there were a few more cells that had built up. Some of them we went around while anything green on the radar we just flew through without a problem. Our fuel stop was Macon, MO. I got a kick out of this town because it’s so different compared to Minneapolis. They were friendly and did have a courtesy car (rusted up old minivan) and they recommended a BBQ place which was supposed to be really good. The first thing I saw in this restaurant was a cigarette in everyone’s hand. The “No-Smoking” section and “Smoking” section were about 3 feet apart, actually the next table over, so I’m not sure of the purpose. The food was ‘OK’ and the price was right.
It was wheels up again direct Minneapolis. We only needed one fuel stop for the trip back and managed to do the whole thing in about 4.5 hours. That’s not bad considering we didn’t fly direct and had to avoid some storm cells.
It felt good to touchdown in Minneapolis knowing we had accomplished the trip. But in a way neither of us wanted to be back. This meant that Tristan was going to be getting on an airliner to go back to Oklahoma and meant that I would be going back to work. We had five days of adventure and five days of seeing our friends in person. Now we were going to cross back into our other life—the internet. Now both of us will be talking to each other over the internet. Now I’ll be on Flash chat talking to my friends that I had just seen in person a few days before. I will be at Gaston’s 2008.
Gaston’s is not just an event. It’s not just another fly-in. Gaston’s is the place where our online identities and real life merge. This is what makes the event so great.
Total Hobbs time: 14.7 hours
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