'Twas an hour before the scheduled C2C kick off, when all through the Airpark all the C2C crew was scurrying about looking for Bob's office keys. The CFC credit card was in the office. Finally, when Bob found the keys in one of his numerous bags and had the card in hand, Dick and Ruth took off in the Cardinal at 10:38 with Dan, Geoff and Bill Hughes behind them in the Cherokee. Bob and the 9BA Crew (Janice and Donna) straggled behind in the 9BA - AGAIN, Bob could not find the keys. Our rummaging in the bags halted abruptly [View Full Entry]

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Flight planning at 6:45 AM local. Arrived at M04 by 9:10 AM local. Flight plan filed at 9:30 AM local. Dick and Ruth taxied out first. Bob and the 9BA Crew had the engine started second! Maybe hussling can get 9BA in close third? Well, no one's going anywhere. Bill Hughes walked over. "Starter's gone." Bob signaled to cut the engine off. Donna thought she had screwed something up royally. Fumbled her way through shutting down the engine. Dick and Ruth got the word and taxied back. There's no maintenance here. Just a private one for the ag planes. So Bill [View Full Entry]

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So who bet on the Cherokee being down? Who came up with the idea, anyways? Does superstition mean anything? So the Bendix starter assembly is snapped. Valerie, the mechanic and an IA at the airport, lent us her tools. Bill Hughes and Dan headed to a warehouse south of Memphis in the loaner car to pick another one up. 7 hours down, 17 to go. The bill's going to Joe Stubbelfield. ********************************************* Get another account, too -- see Janice's blog at http://dragonpilot.blogspot.com/ ********************************************* OK, here is the NON-pil [View Full Entry]

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An actual real day off an everything. One where I could go out and not make phone calls! We slept in, which was pretty much amazing. All the kids, plus the other flew to Florida at like 3. Rachel, Beth, Garry, Bev and Florence are still here with me. The joke all day has been that Garry had 5 dates for Valentine’s Day! Woot! We went into Memphis and dropped off Rachel, Beth and Florence to shop. I joined Garry and Bev in their journey to Graceland. It was pretty fun! Learned a lot, that’s for sure. It was last redecorated [View Full Entry]

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Karen and I went to Memphis, November 12 & 13, 1982. The Elvis legend is the one thing which had assumed a new dimension since I was there in June, 1977. Little did I know then that he had only two more months to live. Graceland is open to tourists now, and for 5 bucks apiece we were escorted through several rooms. Karen liked the gold piano. We saw the TV room with the 3 sets, one for each channel, and the trophy room full of mementos. Dozens of gold and platinum records lined the walls. Outside were several cars Elvis [View Full Entry]

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The journey South from St Louis gave plenty of indications that I was heading down into the Bible belt; roadside billboards with Bible quotations, people wearing non ironic Jesus related t shirts and fields of gravestones symbolising the number of babies 'murdered' through abortions in the state of Tennessee on a daily basis. All of which freaked me out a bit I have to say. When I arrived in Memphis, I hailed a cab and asked to be taken to my hotel in West Memphis. Which I didn't realise up until this point was not only a whole different town, but [View Full Entry]

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After leaving the Grand Canyon Jason and I had a lovely days rest with Rio in Albuquerque. You can't go wrong with home cooked Mexican food and movie nights. We visited Santa Fe during the day and I fell in love with several pairs of handmade cowboy boots in a shop called Back at the Ranch (check out the gorgeous kicks at www.backattheranch.com). I want a pair so bad! They are all hand made and take about 4 months to create. How can you say no to pig skin and elephant heels? However, the $1,400 - $3,500 average price tag makes [View Full Entry]

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This one’s for Anne who likes to have a daily update! Yesterday I asked for my first doggy bag; “how common” I hear you all cry, but the fruit platter I ordered for breakfast wasn’t so much 5 a day but more like 15 a day and enough to feed a small family. However, it’s now sitting on the desk and I’m sure will become a very tasty fruit punch before I get to eat it! Last night we took the trolley bus downtown and checked out the infamous Rendezvous for dinner and their world famous ribs…well suffice to say we [View Full Entry]

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Arrived in Memphis after a 2 hour drive through Tennessee from Nashville, weather‘s turned a bit colder now so once again the sandals have been relegated to the suitcase and the Uggs have been dusted off. After decamping our suitcases at 3.00 we decided to go for our usual new town pre-amble, aiming for Beale Street the centre of downtown with its live music bars and soul cuisine galore in order to do a recce for this evening. Great wide streets with old French colonial style buildings and traditional trams. Everything seemed extremely quiet at first as we wended our way [View Full Entry]

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Yes you guessed it today we headed off to America’s biggest tourist attraction Graceland. We both thought it would be a lot tackier to be honest, I guess we’ll leave the real glitz for Las Vegas. The actual house is a lot smaller than you would imagine, but he did add a lot of outbuildings to the back, and it was the largest house in Memphis when he bought it. The décor remains the same as it was in the 70s when he died which does explain a lot for the taste. Today it had Christmas decorations up, fit for the [View Full Entry]

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