Heaven and Heartland

Today feels like a week since yesterday, partly because we landed in four states. We started in Liberal, KS where I got an aerial photo of Dorothy Gale's place complete with a new yellow brick road.


Almost on cue for the Oz story, a sudden and ferocious storm sprang up and we passed smoothly but cautiously under what looked very much like the eye of a brewing tornado that probably would have picked up the Gale place again but for high level winds that interrupted the process.

We breezed along flying slow yet going half again our maximum speed, due to a smooth and powerful tailwind. Had we climbed higher where it was faster, we might have doubled our max speed, but we wanted to stay low enough to enjoy the incredible scenery.

We stopped for a quick break and some fuel in Kingman, KS only to realize the storm was racing along right behind us.

We passed near Wichita and Topeka to enjoy the sights there and all along the way, but didn't land.

We pressed on to Falls City, NB where we stopped for a brief taste of an intriguing place. Again the storm was looming, but now it looked more diffuse and less threatening. Still, we decided to keep going while we could hitchhike on the wind.

We stopped for fuel in Maryville, MO where there's a beautiful university campus with a glorious white bell tower.

Just as the sun set we arrived in Iowa City, IA amid a ferocious crosswind that had us flying at a 45 degree angle to our track just to stay on course. Fortunately the wind dropped to a manageable level over the runway so I was able to land (rather than going to a nearby airport with a runway directly into the wind) after making a low pass be sure. We found a great hotel downtown where we wandered the city center and settled in a jazz cafe for dinner. What an amazing journey this is, and we still have so many Big Adventures yet to come!