Blog: The first two days

DENVER, CO. (WLFI - blog) - Howdy y'all!

Before we run through our actual flying details, I want to say that all of the people that have come out to help the racers and volunteer their time have been ever so friendly. Every time we open our cockpit door, we are greeted by a cold bottle of water and a fun new accent!

Takeoff morning was Tuesday and we had a Boilermaker fan waiting for us at Centennial when we pulled up to the FBO (shoutout to Aaron, thanks!). Our ground crew did the best they could with winds we were dealt. Everyone struggled through headwinds for, well, every leg thus far. Luckily our airplane, named Cowgirl this year in honor of our friend in Sweetwater, performs well in even unfavorable winds. All the legs have been pretty hot and bumpy, so we are definitlely feeling the heat of the south! We completed 3 legs yesterday for a total 815nm, ending in Lufkin, TX where we flew the timing line with a half hour before sunset to spare and went to bed early. We apologize for not updating y'all after our first day, but we were beat!

Today we got up for an early start, getting to Cowgirl at around 6:30 CDT. By 7:15 we were headed for Russelville, Arkansas where they washed our windshield immediately upon shutdown. Instead of those long fueling delays we were briefed on, the fuel trucks were waiting on us to get our numbers from our ever-so trustworthy ground crew. Only doing 2 legs today in hopes of finding some tailwinds tomorrow, we are putting up in Grenada, Mississippi (pronounced GrenAIDa, Missippi). Here we met our new friend Great Aunt Fredonia! She offered us a home stay and dinner, but we didn't want to wake her up at 5:00 in the morning to drive us back out to the airport in her classic Cadillac, so we are at the local favorite, The Jameson Inn. We went for a swim, took a nap, and are about to grab some dinner.

Tomorrow will be another early start, in hopes of making it all the way up to Racine, WI (tailwinds all the way of course!) Thanks for following us on our racing adventure, and we'll check back in tomorrow evening!

Juliana and Lauren