Homeward Bound!

Hello all,
We are currenty in London Heathrow and have been travelling since yesterday morning so both of us are a bit tired at this stage. We have a 9 hour wait here and cant change our flight home due to the luggage being in transit. So we have to sit or sleep it out!
Thanks to everyone for following the blog throughout the 5 weeks and also for commenting we were just as interested reading the comments as you were reading the updates.
See you all soon and thanks again

Day 25: Atlanta Georgia- St. Augustine Florida

Another early start this morning we were leaving Atlanta, Georgia to fly back to St. Augustine in Florida to hand back N8071X. Padraig kindly gave us a lift back to Fulton County Airport where the plane was waiting. Once again a huge thank you to Padraig and Tammy for all your hospitality. We were totally spoilt staying with them for the last three nights and had such a fun time.

N8071X sitting on the ramp was already fuelled, so after doing the usual pre-flight checks, adding more oil and talking to Tower we were in the air again, however this time was our final journey our final leg. As we took to the skies and navigated our way out of Atlanta airspace, I was a little sad looking down at the fabulous scenery and endless blue skies that we had become so accustomed to every day, knowing that it would be a while before flying in exotic places like this again. Ireland just doesn’t offer the same weather-wise!

Views leaving Atlanta, Georgia.

Direction of flight was south-east once out of Atlanta airspace and it wouldn’t be long before the Atlantic Ocean would be in sight. The majority of our journey had been inland since Galveston (day five approx) so seeing the coastline and ocean come into view was beautiful since it was still early enough in the morning a misty, foggy ocean came into view. Just fabulous!

Our fuel stop was St. Simon’s Island, an airport just on the border between Florida and Georgia where I had landed numerous times during my training in Florida (Daire too). The airport (2 runways) are located right on the coast and on a small island, hence the name. On identifying the airport we cancelled Flight Following as we had the airport in sight from about 10nm’s out and contacted St. Simon’s Traffic frequency. There was one other aircraft in the pattern there, the wind was calm, visibility > 10sm’s and on final to land we were over the Atlantic Ocean it couldn’t have been more spectacular.

Bridge beside St. Simon's Airport.

On final for runway 34 in St.Simon's Island.

The fuel truck met us on the ramp once we had taxied over. The guy recognised our Irish accents and mentioned he had relations in Kerry that he had never been to Ireland but was planning a trip of a lifetime and had one question for us, “are there plenty of pubs??”. Our answer “to be sure, to be sure”!!!

Food was the only thing on my mind at this point so we headed straight into the FBO office to pay for the fuel, buy some more oil and grab something to eat. Their courtesy car was already on loan to someone so we had to eat breakfast/lunch from the crisp/bar machine, very tasty. We didn’t have time to get a taxi into town as we had to hand the plane back by 4pm to get all the paper-work sorted.

Back into the air and we decided to fly north up the coast towards Savannah before doing a 360 and heading back to St. Augustine. At this point I was flying, Daire was taking pictures of the amazing scenery and I just didn’t want to turn the plane around. Northward bound meant we were still on holidays, southward meant the holiday was over, reality! Eventually I turned the plane while taking mental pictures of the scenery, the sky, the plane so during the winter at home in Ireland I can still be on my flying holiday any time I want!

We flew adjacent to the coast most of the journey to St. Augustine as there is some military airspace there to stay away from. This was the part of the journey we both recognised as our flight training in Vero Beach consisted of flying the coast during the majority of our solo hours.

Some inside pictures, altimeter reading 7,500ft.

Radios, GPS and transponder set to VFR frequency 1200.

Coastline around Savannah!

Next two pictures are of St. Simon's Island where we refuelled.

Jacksonville, Florida.

Daire was now flying and I am on the radio’s about 15nm’s out I contacted St. Augustine Tower to let them know we were “inbound for a full-stop”. As the airport came into view I couldn’t still believe this was it over, an entire month had passed since we first collected the plane. Excuse the pun but time really does fly!

Once we had taxied back to the ramp it was time to unload for the very last time all the luggage, maps, headsets, checklists and the copious amounts of rubbish we had accumulated! On handing back the keys for the plane we also had to hand Florida Aviation our fuel, maintenance and oil receipts for our journey so this could be credited back to us. Once we had that sorted it was time to rent a car drive to Orlando and prepare for a very early start to fly the journey home to Ireland with Air Canada.

I think we were both thinking the same thing but when Daire said should be look into seeing how much a change of flight would be I was delighted of course! With the change of flight not costing much we decided to stay another 5 days to chill out by the pool and reminisce about our fabulous flying holiday, the dream holiday! We collected the rental car and drove with smiles on our faces all the way to Orlando knowing we had another 5 days in the sun!

Dusk skyline driving from St. Augustine in Florida to Orlando. One of the only pictures of the sky taken from the ground!

Day 24: Atlanta

Today we got a taxi to downtown Atlanta to do some sight seeing. Our first stop was the CNN building (second I suppose, we had more fast food first, the weight is really piling on!). Most of the CNN live news is broadcast from this building so we signed up for a backstage tour of the offices and newsrooms. It was a pretty cool tour first we got to listen to the director during a live news show as he decided what news would be up next, who would sit where etc. After that we toured the various newsrooms watching from behind a glass screen as the news was live on air. Overall an informative and interesting tour which couldn’t be said for next stop.

Dude who invented Coke

The World of Coca Cola, or the Happiness Factory as they like to call it is a strange place. I knew we were in trouble when we were all asked to repeat after the tour guide ‘LET THE HAPPINESS OUT’ and ‘WOW’ at various coke adverts.
It was not my type of place, I like to be pointed in the direction of the stuff to look at and left alone this over the top friendliness and coke cult thing was not for us. They even have letters from people who’s lives have been changed by Coca Cola, in fairness if Coke has changed your life you still have a way to go!!

American Idol seat

We then waited in the Olympic Park for Padraig to collect us when he finished work.

We had another BBQ back at Padraig and Tammy’s and I finished the night by beating Padraig on a PS3 American Football game so I’m champion for another year!

Day 23: Atlanta

There were a few sore heads this morning amongst the male crew, not mentioning any names of course. Padraig’s outhouse/bar fantastically designed and built by him hosts a dart board so last night I was taught how to play by Tammy, so it was the girls versus the boys and needless to say the girls won the first game. To ensure the darts would hit the board I had to stand on the tips of my toes and aim upwards otherwise the darts weren’t even getting near the board! However I did manage to get two bulls eyes helping us to win, what a fluke!! I did also have a very patient teacher who was the main reason we won!!

The guys couldn’t handle that we had won especially since I was still under instruction so it was double or nothing and an empty pint glass was then filled with $200 for the winners! Very nice indeed. Tammy and myself then planned shoe shopping the following day based on the winnings, obviously convinced we could win a second time. Due to more alcohol consumed and copious amounts of cheating by the lads they seemingly “won” the second game and took the $200, which the girls hadn’t even contributed to so I didn’t feel like we had lost any money however we were cheated out of the shoe shopping.

To ease the sore heads of the following morning the lads decided to take to the pool and jacuzzi. They were extremely brave as the morning was very cool let alone the temperature of the water. There was mention of a belly-flop contest and a hot-dog eating contest (obviously between the lads) neither of which came to fruition in the end.

Padraig scooping leaves out of the pool.

Tammy supplying the lads with beer as they laze in the jaccuzi

Daire and Padraig remembering the good old days in college!

Very cosy!

Tammy and Padraig's dogs Maggie and Abbey.

The pool by night...

Hunger then started to fester amongst us all so we drove to The Cheesecake Factory, not too far from downtown Atlanta, which was amazingly yummy. The menu consisted of a book of approximately 20 pages in length, food options were not a problem. The desserts were just as numerous in options as the lunch menu however we were all so full no-one could manage one.

After some shopping it was back to the pool and some relaxing for the day. Later than night we ordered dinner and that led to American Footie computer games for the lads and the girls hit the hay.

The Atlanta sky line!

Day 22: Memphis - Atlanta

Picked up our plane from West Memphis Airport this morning which is actually on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi and headed off on our second last trip of the holiday. The weather was beautiful not a cloud in the sky and the radar looked clear all the way to Atlanta for our short 2.5 journey.

Not long into the flight though we could hear other pilots flying in and out of Birmingham Alabama which was along our route talking about overcast skies ahead and sure enough the clouds started to build.

Luckily we were left with enough of a gap to squeeze through the clouds and the ridge of hills outside Atlanta.

Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta home to Delta Airlines is the busiest airport in the world.

Padraig a friend of mine from college picked us up at the airport and we headed back to his house to relax with a few beers in his private bar he built himself at the back of his house

Day 21: Memphis

This morning we were up bright and early once again to check the weather for our route towards Atlanta, Georgia. The radar displayed a line of thunderstorms and heavy precipitation all along our route moving in a north-east direction. We were going nowhere at that point, so the plan then was to monitor the radar to determine if we might possibly be able to leave later in the afternoon once it had passed. We were both disappointed about the weather being so bad as we were supposed to meet Daire’s friends Padraig and Tammy in Atlanta so Daire made the call to let them know that we might not be able to make it to Atlanta today.

The weather in Memphis however was hot, sunny and very little cloud so we headed out and got some lunch. Upon checking the radar on numerous times throughout the day the final decision was made that we would wait till tomorrow morning before leaving for Atlanta. Yesterday on arriving in Memphis we had visited Beale Street and Graceland so there wasn’t an awful lot else to see here. To pass the next few hours we had bought a deck of cards in Vegas that were still unopened so we played Black-Jack and taught each other some card tricks.

Endless games of American Football are aired on TV here on Saturdays so with that on in the background (of course) we played cards for most of the evening. We planned another 6am start tomorrow to ensure we get to Atlanta early enough and so we could spend some time with Daire’s friends.

Day 20: Dallas - Arkadelphia (Arkansas) - Memphis (Tennessee)

It's been a long day and this computer has finally broken me after crashing twice so forgive me for the short photo descriptions....

Leaving Dallas

Fuel stop in Arkdelphia Arkansas

These crop sprayers are everywhere and they dont have any radios so its important to keep an eye out for them.

Sharon refueling while I relax

The journey to Memphis

After landing we headed for Graceland

Elvis' Living Room

TV Room

Pool Room

Casual Wear

Car Collection

Elvis is buried beside his parents and grandmother. There is also a memorial to his still born twin brother.

We finished the night by heading to Beale St in Memphis for dinner and a few drinks

Now I need some sleep, another early one tomorrow as we head for Atlanta, the forecast isn't the best so need to be bright eyed for some storm dodgin.