The rest of the story

I got tired of flying half the day and writing and uploading half the night so I stopped uploading and enjoyed the flying a lot more. so this is a belated entry covering the last half of the trip.

In a nutshell, I made it safely to San Diego, stayed two days (changed oil and oil filter); then took off back across the mountain range to Salton Sea, turned north to Palm Desert, visited relatives for two days. Played golf, took them for a Champ flight and relaxed.

I then launched southeast toward Imperial Valley, back to Yuma, then east following I-8 to Casa Grande where I stayed the night, located another Champ owner (who kindly bought my dinner).

Then (avoiding Tucson) I launched toward Cochise over some great scenery, picked up I-10 and followed the highway to Lordsburg, turned north at Deming and headed to Albuquerque. I tied down at Mid Valley (E98) where a nice fella let me park the Champ on his front lawn for two days.

Two days later, I departed Mid Valley in the early morning, no wind, no weather and headed northeast and UP to 9,500 MSL to cross the mountain range; picked up I-40 eastbound to Hereford TX where I stopped for lunch and fuel.  Out of Hereford took a heading of about 098 and was quite pleasantly surprised to find "Prairie Dog Town Fork," apparently the origin of the Red River. (It is NE of Tulia TX on the Dallas Ft Worth Sectional).  Beautiful wild country with "no place to land."  I landed at Frederick, OK, an almost deserted airstrip that serves as a satellite airport for military pilot training.  I was late, the FBO was closed, but when I called the number posted on the door, a gentleman and his wife drove back to the airport to help, drove me to town, waited while I ordered a Subway sandwich (the only place to eat) and dropped me off at a motel. The next morning, the manager of the airport picked me up and drove me back to the airport. Even nicer, he gave me a bucket, soap and rags so I could wash the Champ! (It was like that on the whole trip - reslly nice people.) I left after noon on my way to Denison, TX overnight to visit a friend.

After Dennison, I flew east for a long day of flying to avoid predicted heavy winds forecast for my original destination.  A nice fuel stop at Vicksburg MS on the Mississippi River and I kept going to beat the winds.  I landed just at sunset at Meridian MS between some military jets.  The story I like to tell is that the young jet jockeys were so enthralled with my Checkerboard Champ that they invited me to join them for maneuvers the next morning.  I later found out they wanted to use me for target practice so I declined.  

 The next morning, after departing Meridian, MS, I stopped at Prattville, AL, Enterprise, AL and Perry Foley FL (40J).  Stayed overnight in Perry, up at the crack of dawn, taxied out, climbed to about 200 feet when I noticed soft white "stuff" beginning to form just above the tree tops; spiraled down for a landing and sat for 3 hours waiting for the fog to burn off.  The trip that day had the only weather I had to contend with.  First, fog; then bands of showers sweeping in from the Gulf.  (I had a battery operated Garmin 396 with XM radar, so I could see the showers).  It was just like the old days:  fly until I was forced to land by a band of showers; wait for the weather to clear, then dash south until another band approached.  I bided my time in Crystal River, Lakeland and Wachula before making a final push to Punta Gorda where I had a hangar rented for the Champ.  20 minutes after I arrived, the airport disappeared in heavy rain, but the Champ was safe in a hangar and I was picked up by a friend and bought a few rounds.

It was the trip of a Lifetime! 60 hours of flying coast to coast with no mechanical problems, no weather problems - in fact, no problems, just the joy of flying low and slow from sea to shining sea. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Champs really can be cross country magic carpets.