Cold Front Relaxation

Posted Friday July 19, 2019

Bob and I had vaguely planned this morning that we would try to go flying in his Starduster Too, if the weather cooperated. I was primarily concerned with the wind because that had been his main concern last night -- too much wind makes the plane too tricky to handle on the ground, particularly while landing. The Champ is simple and docile, but the Starduster takes careful management, so Bob doesn't like to go up if there's too much wind.

I had looked at the wind as I woke up, and it didn't look very promising, so I texted him to say as much, and that I was going to Harriman's to get breakfast. He replied to say that there was a cold front sweeping through, and sure enough, I looked outside and the sky was heavy with ponderous clouds, and the ground was wet with recent rain. Fair enough. It took me about an hour, but I decided to make today more or less a day of rest.

Interior of Harriman's

I had an omelette at Harriman's (the waitress seemed surprised and a bit concerned when I didn't order any meat in my omelette), and Bob joined me after a bit to get coffee. We went out to the airport (conveniently about a 5 minute drive outside of town -- I wish my airport were so close, at home), he loaned me a rag and some cleaner, and I spent an enjoyable hour or so cleaning bugs and exhaust residue off the plane while we talked more airplane nerd talk.

With Norbert cleaned off, we moved over to his biplane and discussed details of the construction. He pointed out the flaws that I never would have noticed without having them pointed out (I'm quite sure I'll do the same thing when my own biplane is built). We discussed the level of finickiness the Oshkosh judges display when looking over an airplane -- his plane lost points because the Phillips screw heads' drive Xs were not all aligned exactly the same, which is so far beyond too far that I can't really explain it in rational terms. Apparently there are builders who go to such an extreme, but that's just nuts.

We probably spent three hours talking airplanes, and before we knew it, it was lunch time. This time I asked for tomatoes on my grilled cheese, just to be daring.

The Grand Prairie, my lodgings in Maddock

After lunch, I returned to my cloister room and with almost a sense of reverence laid down and had a solid hour-long nap. I never get daytime naps. I had been feeling a bit droopy all morning, since I didn't sleep terribly well due to the room being so warm. It was nice to just slowly drift off, although that sense of floating away was interrupted after a few minutes by someone firing up a gas lawnmower nearby and running it right past my open window. Ah well, we can't have everything to perfection.

After my nap, I caught up on my trip log paperwork, and then it was time for dinner. This whole "three meals a day thing" still feels oddly foreign after my 24 hour fast flying through the Rockies. Instead of going to Harriman's again, Bob and Sherry and I drove out to Esmond, a small town to the northwest of Maddock, and even smaller. Bob had been hoping the bar we ate at would have some more colorful characters to test my mettle, but it was a calm, pleasant evening at the bar.

Sunset over Buffalo Lake

On the way back, we drove past Buffalo Lake, where the sun was just setting, and I leapt out to take photos of the sunset over the lake. I've felt like I'm not taking enough photos on this trip. We'll see what I think after I've spent a week at Oshkosh being overwhelmed by All the Airplanes. Buffalo Lake was looking particularly photogenic, and that sunset deserved all the photos I took.

In all, not a terribly adventurous day, but it's nice to have a calm day in the midst of the relative chaos of travel. I'm glad I got this chance to get to know Bob and Sherry (Sherry, I hope I've remembered and spelled your name correctly) and get a little taste of small-town North Dakota. An excellent expansion of my personal horizon.

Tomorrow, if all goes well, we'll hop into the Starduster in the early morning (early for me -- Bob apparently wakes up at 4 am for his job normally, whereas I'm lucky if I'm out of bed before 8), and I'll get to experience what seems, from my 90 HP perch, to be a fire-breathing 260 HP monster of an airplane. If nothing else, we have to get a photo of Norbert and the Starduster together.

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