Day 1: Finally, progress. Umm... maybe not.

Our household goods were loaded into 12 crates on Wednesday afternoon.  We moved out of the house yesterday (Friday) afternoon.  I finished the last class of the Army school I'm attending here at Fort Leavenworth.  "It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses."  "Hit it!"

Um.... maybe not.  A front of tornado producing thunderstorms is lined up between Oklahoma City and St. Louis.  Studying the radar and weather forecast, there are two options.  We could depart to the southwest towards Lawton, OK and get around the southwest corner of the system.  That would increase the flight to 10 hours from the originally planned 6.5, and still takes us through moderate turbulence, convective forecasts, and a stiff headwind.  The other option is to head out to Waffle House and enjoy some coffee, waffles, and people watching.

My indecision over weather got us off to a late start.  We didn't get to breakfast until 9 and didn't get to the airplane until after 10.  While Liz loaded the airplane I made the decision that we wouldn't depart today.  The southwest tip of the storm was staying generally in the same place while the rest of the storm continued to extend all the way to the great lakes.  We decided to use the rest of the day to repack our things and I would try to get a local instructor to give me an instrument proficiency check.

We retreated back to the lodge on post and checked back in.  Taco Bell for the kids and Charley's sandwiches for Liz and I.  I got in contact with John, the instrument instructor, to get my instrument proficiency check done.  He was free at three.  I left Liz with the laundry and headed to the airport.  A half hour at the table discussing our plan, and we took off at 3:30 for an hour and a half instrument flight.  The cloud bases were just below 4,000 feet putting us in the clouds for several periods of the flight.  We did the precision approach at St. Joe (KSTJ) and the nonprecision back at Fort Leavenworth.

Although we didn't tick off any miles towards Florida, it was a relatively successful day of organizing ourselves for the trip.  I'd venture to say that we needed this unplanned deep breath to get ourselves together. How better to celebrate that productivity than to hit Hooters for dinner and StrikeZone for Disco Bowling.  The kids really had fun while needfully expending some energy.

Now, everyone is showered and ready for bed.  We got one more load of done to completely reset our clean clothes.  The plan is to get up at about 5 tomorrow morning to pack up and get an early stop.  Daylight Donuts opens at 5, so we can get some to go breakfast on the way.  The front seems to have split in two near Tennessee opening an opportunity to get through.  We'll see if that gap is still present tomorrow morning.  Until then, Let's all get some sleep.