The Race is ON !

Our time across the timing line this morning (unofficial) was 14 22 05 Z (8:22am MT) at Denver Centennial. Off to a flyby at Liberal, KS then onto Sweetwater, TX where we made a full stop for fuel & a quick turn to continue onto Lufkin, TX. We passed the timing line here at 21 55 22 Z (3:55pm CT). While we were enroute, a convective sigmet was posted, and since no HIWAS stations were near (and Lufkin's VORTAC with HIWAS is unoperative) I called Flight Watch for weather while northeast of Waco. Storms had popped up in the heating of the day along the northeast portion of TX & the southern 2/3rds of AR. What to do? Let's stop at Lufkin, gas up & check weather, read: look at a RADAR ourselves. The volunteers here were great for a quick top-off & a very cold bottle of water which went down fast. Unfortunately, racing under & around thunderstorms is not conducive to a fast legtime, so here we stay. Looking forward to tomorrow, fog is forecasted for Russellville, AR & not forecasted to burn off until 9am. Unfortunately, Nikki has already passed out cold & I can't tell her to sleep in, so I'll just set the alarm later.
An extra special surprise: we called Abilene Approach for permission to transition their airspace from west to east as soon as we left Sweetwater. Low & behold, Cardinal N11950 checked in! I sneaked in a "Hi" to John & when we exited the airspace to the east, we had a nice chat on the air-to-air frequency & he wished us the best of luck for the race. N11950 was the first (quarter) airplane I owned with John, Skip, Ray & their families before 41M made it into my world.
Needing some rest, I'll close now. Stay tuned!

Sq