Made it!

Linda and I set off early this morning from Murfreesboro Tennessee, with Barbara and Ethel departing just in front of us. There was a large storm to the east of the airport, moving east, but it was far enough away that we had no problems taking off and doing the flyby in great conditions. The countryside was beautiful with low lying fog and mist filling up the hollows in the hills. It got hotter as we got close to our next-to-final stop, Americus Georgia. We did a quick refuel and turnaround, but not before enjoying the georgia peaches that were available there - delicious! Last leg crossed over into Florida, over the lakes around Leesburg, and our final flyby was over a very tiny airport called North Orlando air park. Fortunately due to some good planning and even better spotting, we found it and did the flyby perfectly. We had no issues today, other than the electronics overheating - the iPads have been spontaneously shutting down for the last couple days when they get too hot, and today the backup VFR GPS went into meltdown mode. This race is a real workout for the planes as well as the pilots, but as long as we keep the oil topped off at a higher than normal level and don't mind blowout along the cowling, and keep an eye on the oil and cylinder heat temperatures and don't let them overheat, the engine really seems to enjoy working that hard.

The actual terminus was 50 miles away at Daytona Beach airport, which is a very large and busy airport right by the speedway, so we flew over there and landed. When we arrived, Mary, Juliet, Barbara and Ethel were already there, and gave us a rousing welcome. It was also lovely to see Arnie Wunder, Carolyn Van Newkirk and other familiar faces there. There were a lot of smiling faces as the different finishing teams came into the terminal building. We finished!!! This is Linda's sixth race and my seventh, and we are proud to say that we have finished them all. Tonight we have the racer's meltdown party. We won't find out the results of the race until the banquet Sunday evening, after the timers have processed all the data, and the winning airplanes have been reviewed and re inspected. We'll keep you posted!