If we thought the whole town of Santa Fe was micro-dosing LSD, by morning we were convinced that it was in fact full doses. At breakfast the kind Honduran waitress saved me from a nuclear stomach meltdown by insisting I taste what I was about to order before making the commitment. Thankfully I took her advice and that gave me a chance to change my order as this dish was clearly concocted with some kind of pepper grown in a Guatemalan insane asylum.
Our Uber back to the FBO was as harrowing as the night prior. Our driver, a wild eyed and clearly mentally damaged Afghanistan vet, highly recommended taking magic mushrooms and going to MeowWolf (https://meowwolf.com). We also learned how his non-profit to build houses out of old car tires had repeatedly been foiled by the vengeful mountain of Taos. The mountain, we were told, was kind to newcomers but eventually would put you in your place by conspiring to kill your dog and ruin your real estate deals. By way of basic inquiry we came to understand he had no clue how to construct such houses or how much they cost. He's the idea guy, you see. By the way, would we like to invest? I took his card. Lemme know if you want the contact info.
While making small talk with the friendly FBO lady I cracked a corny joke and she laughed. I went to the bathroom, got a coffee and returned and she was still laughing. She laughed for another 5 minutes... out loud. My joke wasn't very funny. We wanted to get a move on in order to meet up with Brad Gardner in Kansas City around lunch time. Our giggling FBO lady took about 35 minutes to generate the invoice and process the payment. We were the only ones there. Adios Santa Fe, will be back... I think, maybe with a rental car reservation and MeowWolf tix.
We briefed high altitude normally aspirated twin ops. Field elevation at SAF is 6400, and the Tbone single engine ceiling is in the book as 7000. But of course she launched like a champ and we headed out over the Great Plains in continuous light turbulence, occasional moderate. Somehow I still managed to use the pee tube, no spills. Air smoothed after Oklahoma and we had yet to see a single cloud in the sky.
Flying into Kansas City downtown airport was way cool.
We were surprised on shut down to see a sizable greeting party. Brad was there, and Chris Roan had flown down from Ohio in his 56TC and his buddy in another 56TC as well and Matt Cole in his beautiful Tbone and girlfriend as well as Eric Meyer and another dude or two I'm sorry I'm terrible with names. They had already eaten but saved some KC BBQ for us which was awesomely good. By this time we'd noticed a bit of an oil leak on the left engine and got some advice. The engine gods also gave Matt a leak so the fellas snapped fingers and tools appeared from thin air. Those guys are hilarious with their good natured ribbing each other and midwest hospitality, and I'm pretty sure none were on LSD. I should have got a group pic.
We contemplated going the rest of the way at that point, but it was IMC at destination and pushing on would mean a night IMC arrival after a very long day. Discretion is the better part of valor and the forecast was good for the next morning, and Eric recommended overnighting at KALN in St Luis, so one last leg for the day and Eric saw us arrive and kindly gave us a ride to the hotel and joined us at the bar for grub and a few well deserved beers.
Day 3 continued...
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