South Bend Indiana KSBN

On the way back, I flew from Caro Michigan to KSTL - Saint Louis MO in one hop, nearly 4 hours. Landing in St. Louis was exciting, but super expensive. I don’t recall ever landing somewhere, where I paid an Infrastructure fee, a handling fee, a landing fee and a premium on AV Gas $8.44 per gallon. The chocolate chip cookies were good, but not that good.

Amarillo TX KAMA was the next stop the early the next morning. Apparently, it’s a favorite of Harrison Ford’s as well. Easy place to land, and wonderful service as well.

This was a long flight from Texas to Arizona. It was still in terrain and weather was cloudy, raining and lightening was being reported. It took 3.5 hours to reach Arizona. I had never landed in Flagstaff and knew that the elevation would be a different experience. It’s a very pretty field surrounded by a forest up at 6000 feet. The final leg of the more than 3500 nm of solo flying was one state away

September - I hadn’t done much flying since the arrival of our daughter. One, I didn't want to leave her side and two, I had been sleep deprived for several months.