Sunday – March 27th- Crisp County GA

Frenchie’s Report for SUNDAY, 27th:

Well last night we made it to Waynesboro, Miss.  The airport is about 3 miles from town .

Upon arrival we had a 5 minute conversation on the unicom frequency with Joe, the only other pilot on the airport.  Not that we were tying up the frequency for anyone else…since we were the only guys up for 3 countys.  Joe ended up giving us a ride into town and took us to the “best fried chicken” in Mississippi called none other than “Mississippi Fried Chicken”  Keep it simple.   Southern hospitality was great as the girl who ran the counter told us her mom was the airport manager.  Both mike and I ordered the 3 piece meal.  When we got to the hotel to eat it, we each had about 5 extra pieces along with fried pickles and fried okra. 
 
More importantly, when we arrived, David and Ernest Twiner were waiting for us to land after we flew over their house.  Ernest AKA “E.T. from Missisippi” (his nickname, not mine) is a pastor in town.  His son David is just like Mike and I and stares at the sky when planes go over, hurrys to the airport when he sees them come in, but said he’s never been flying before.  So Mike did what any good pilot would do and asked him if he wanted to hop in as Mike taxied the plane back to the tie downs.  David lit up and jumped in before Mike finished talking.  We knew he was hooked.   If someone gets that excited to taxi in a plane, then there is no way we can leave without taking him flying at least once….
 
Mike agreed to take David flying first thing Sunday morning.  David had spread the word and David’s mom and friend Cole came out to check out the flight.  We couldnt take Cole up since his parents weren’t around to approve it.  Next time Cole! Remember Cole check out “Young Eagles”, “Civil Air Patrol” and “Be a Pilot” on the internet. David loved it and showed Mike all the landmarks of Waynesboro.  David and family were very appreciative.

We pushed on to Greenville Alabama where the gas was locked and nobody was around.  The sign on the door said to call Frank or Travis.  Well we spoke with Travis’ wife who said Travis had already left for Sun and Fun (where we are headed).   She thought Frank wasnt answering because he probably already left for church.  She was nice enough to come down on Sunday and give us fuel and oil. 

 
We quickly left after waiting on gas for an hour when we saw a big line of thunder storms building just north of us.  For the next hour and a half Mike did a great job of checking weather on the GPS keeping me out of the worst of it.  We finally made it to Cordele, Georgia to sit out the storms coming in.  When we fueled up, Mike was putting away the gas hose and got cut.  Bill, the man that maintains the airport told Mike that it was probably the copper wire that the hose is wrapped in that got him.  He then told Mike “thats why we have this leather glove here”.  (You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink).

Bill gave us the airport car to take to town for lunch.  We quickly found that, maintanence was not a priority for this car.  It wanted to die at stoplights and full throttle meant 35 MPH.  I told myself to make sure I advise them when we get back about the problems. When we got done with lunch, we walked out to find one hell of a thunderstorm about 10 minutes away from the airport. After hurrying back at 35 MPH, we just got the plane put into a shade hangar when then hail, thunder, lightning and 40 MPH sideways winds hit. After putting the plane away, I told Bill about the car running so poorly and he said “yep, and that’s the good one of the three” (I guess he already knows) So…here we stay, in Cordele Georgia. ”

Monday, March 28th-Waitin’ out the Storm

Today is Monday the 28th, day two of Cordele, Georgia.  For those of you who did not run over to the map and look it up, Cordele is about 2, 282 miles east of Cable Airport and 274 miles from our destination.  So close but yet so far.  As some of you may have seen on the news, there is a “little” storm system that is covering the southeast United States.  Well, we are looking at it right now.  Those that are familiar or even if you are not, when you look at a radar image of the U.S., when there is no color on the map, that is a good thing.  Well currently, the southeast looks like a 2 year old spent 5 hours coloring the map with  red Crayolas.  Red is never good on the radar.  I don’t know whose kid it was but when I find him……… 

It was interesting yesterday…today….not so much.  The ceiling never got above 500 feet here in Cordele so at 4pm our time, we decided it was time to go back to the hotel after checking the weather every 10 minutes for the last 6 hours (as if our checking was going to change a 1,000 mile long storm line. Duh).   The gentlemen at the airport office who probably has been laughing at us all day, met me in the pilots lounge and without me even asking, he handed me the keys to the same car from yesterday and said “you’all probably want these again?!”  I took them like a whipped pup.  So we headed back to town.  Mike needed a haircut so we went to Bud’s Barber Shop.  Bud was a nice guy and let Mike in about 5 minutes before closing.  When we tried to leave, the car finally died.  The old girl had had enough.  I called the airport to let them know and see if there was another car we could use.  Nope.  Yesterday when the gentleman said we had the good one of the three, he really meant they had 3 cars but 2 ran.  The other poor suckers who are stuck here in the storm got the other one.  So we walked to the  hotel. 
 
All is not lost.  Today worked out.  Because we stayed here in Cordele, the granddaughter of Lt. Karl Elton Kelley, Chrissy Kelley drove down from Atlanta to see her grandfathers’s airplane from WWII.  Chrissy’s father Karl Elton Kelley, Jr. was killed in Vietnam when she was 3 so she grew up with her grandfather as a role model and was very close to him.  She was not able to make it to Florida to see the plane, unlike her sister Lori Kelley, who is meeting us there on Wednesday.  She brought her friend Tessa Cross whose grandfather was a crewman on LST’s that used the Brodie System (small world).  Tessa is also a 4th cousin to the Wright Brothers.  Chrissy brought a picture of her grandfather from his later years and it took about 2 seconds to recognize him in the picture we have of the VMO-4 Officers.  She was very happy to see and be part of the plane.  Magically, the ceiling lifted above the airport and the surrounding 3 miles to 1,310 feet so we could take Chrissy up in the same plane her grandfather flew 66 years ago.   Tessa got a flight too.  We got to hear stories of her grandfather and what he was like.  He was a perfect southern gentlemen. I pictured nothing else. 
 
I told today’s events out of order.  Before we killed the car and after the girls left, Mike and I were bored so we drove to the next county to see what was there.  We went to Arabi and Ashburn, Ga.  Besides the overcast, the country is beautiful.  We saw the sign for the Crime and Punishment Museum in Ashburn so we went.  They are closed on Mondays.  We stopped by one of the 100′s of open cemeterys in Georgia and came across one with the graves of Civil War families.  We don’t have many cemeterys in California with whole acres of graves dating past 1830.  A lot of history.  On the way back, we stopped by “BJ’s Diner” in Arabi.  It was gamble, looking at the outside, but we risked it.  When we walked, in they were closed.  The family was already packing up to close but the lady who was obviously in charge told us we could still eat but she could only make us a hamburger and fries.  We agreed and she said it was the “best hamburger around” (it was).  After that we pretty much could not understand anything anybody there  said to us but they were very nice.  Nice enough that Mike and I were planning on going back for breakfast until Mike killed the car. (By the end of this trip Mike is really gonna wish he was the one writing this.)
 
All in all it was a good day even with the bad weather.  No matter what happens, we still flew an old WWII taildragger across the United States. Life is good!

Tuesday, March 29th– We MADE it!!

Mike and Chris got some good weather and bolted out of Georgia, arriving safely at Leesburg Airport, Florida.  Here’s Chris’  report:

“Today is Tuesday the 29th of March.  66 years ago today, OY-1 #02766 and the members of VM0-4 were still at sea being transported back to hawaii and would not arrive until the 6th of April.  Mike and I had it easy compared to them.

After 2 days in Cordele, GA, the weather finally let us out. About 2pm today, we got enough sky to go south before another severe storm is set to hit Wednesday.  It paid off.  We arrived in Leesburg, FL, about 4pm, six days after we started.  There to greet us was the squadron commander of VM0-4 from WWII, Thomas P. Rozga and his wife Gloria. Tom flew this airplane along with the other pilots of VM0-4 while they served on Iwo Jima. What an honor it is to be here with this man and his bride of 64 years.  Tom gave Gloria a quick tour of his old girl before we tucked her away in the hangar to avoid bad weather.   We will be spending more time with the girl tommorrow, and Tom hopes to show her off to his friends here in Florida.

We were ordered not to get hotel rooms by the Commander, and of course, Mike and I do as we’re told. We’re treated like kings, in the Hotel  de Rozga.  After finally putting on the first pair of fresh clothes in 6 days, we were given a tour of the ‘Villages’, the most incredible retirement community you’ve ever seen.  The Villages is amazing, but can you guess what’s missing? Yup. No Airport.  We had a great dinner in the private club and heard new stories about VM0-4 and the Rozga family.

Everything worked out perfectly.  Had we not pushed out two days early from Southern California, there is no way we could have made it here in time. We arrived on the day we planned.  Of course you all read the adventures we had to get here. We weren't sure what was going to happen after Saturday.

Tommorrow the Vincents will be coming here and Lori Kelley will be coming in to Lakeland to the airshow.  We hope to be able to get everyone together in the next few days.  Terri Polley, Mike’s better half (see Mike, no lying) will be here tommorrow as well.

A Good day!”