June 6, 2021 - Day Sixteen
Transit Home
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The main building at Dexter Airport with Pilot's Lounge on the right and the Airways Cafe on the left.
I had made the right decision overnighting here instead of to the south in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. There was bad weather not to far south from here -- I would have been stuck in Pine Bluff for who knows how long?
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The RV on the Dexter Ramp. Courtesy car is right off the nose.
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Flashback! The Citabria on the ramp back in 2006. The 2006 Oregon Trail flight in the Citabria was the one that started my love of the long cross-countries.
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Maverick the Cat getting some rest on the front porch.
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| I took off and headed east-northeast towards home. |
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Approaching Cairo, where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers merge.
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| Looking down at the tip of Cairo. Lynnette and I were down there back in November during a driving rainstorm. |
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| Looking north. The town of Cairo is visible at upper left on the banks of the Ohio River. We drove through it in November. I have to say, it is second only to Camden, New Jersey (across the Delaware river from Philadelphia) as the most blighted, boarded-up, burnt out city I have ever seen in the United States. That said, there is an airport north of town and it gets good remarks on friendliness and fuel prices. They do not have a courtesy car to go into town, but that's OK; believe me, you don't want to go into town. |
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| After I crossed the Mississippi River, I climbed. The sightseeing portion of the trip was over. It was time to make some speed and get home. |
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Approaching Paducah, Kentucky on the south side of the Ohio River.
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| Looking down at Blue Grass Airport (KLEX), Lexington, Kentucky. It has Class C airspace but I was well above it. The famous Keeneland Racetrack is at upper left. Our horse tour guide back in November told us they lengthened the main runway [to 7,000 feet) so the big jets carrying horses could land here. True/False? Discuss. |
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| This is horse farm country. |
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| Looking at downtown Lexington. We enjoyed our visit here back in November. A nice town. |
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After a little over two hours, I stopped for gas at Morehead-Rowan County Clyde A Thomas Regional Airport. I think I called it Morehead-Rowan the radio. It really didn't matter, the airport was deserted.
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| But they had a self-service pump with a good price and I was able to get into the terminal building to use the bathroom. That was all I needed. |
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I continued on my east-northeast track. There's the Ohio River again.
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| Playing around with some clouds. |
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Looking north at the main [dirt] road through Dolly Sods.
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| Looking south. |
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| Grant County Airport (W99) in the distance. They used to have glider mountain wave camps there; don't know if they still do that. |
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| Looking down at Eastern West Virginia Regional (KMRB). We just call it Martinsburg. You can see at least five big C-17 Cargo planes down there. They have an on-field restaurant -- Katara's Crosswinds Cafe -- that comes highly recommended. I need to try it out. |
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Soon, thanks to a nice tailwind and a long descent where I was making 200+ mph, I was overhead my home airport. At home, I totalled up my flying time. 66 hours. Over 2,000 pictures. What a trip.
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