The Journey - Saturday, December 18

MMVR (Veracruz, Mexico) => KBRO (Brownsville, TX) - Leg Completed - 2.9 hours

Ah, back in the good 'ole US of A. Which means wonderful, sweet, reliable internet. I'm working on many updates while in the hotel in South Padre Island, TX from information over the last few days, so sit back and do some reading!

Written on the second leg of Sunday's flight about 55 miles east of El Paso, TX. . .

Saturday, December 18 Trip Report

Well, after what you all could tell was a very long and frustrating Friday, I am happy to report that Saturday turned out to be a pretty good and easy day, with the exception of one very sad moment that I will tell you about in a bit. We finally had the international airport experience we had been dying for since leaving Puerto Vallarta, and it was wonderful.

We arrived at the Veracruz Airport at around 8:30 am and got to work filing our flight plan for the return trip to the US. After completing that, we were sent to the commandant's office (right across the hall) where he gladly stamped all of our paperwork and called customs and immigration over to clear us out of the country. After a short wait for them to arrive, we paid our departure fees and filled out customs paperwork. The stamps came out quickly and it was back to the operations office to pay our parking and landing fees. We accomplished that quickly, also and took the stamped flight plan copies and receipts to the flight plan desk. A quick overview, a smile and the ever coveted "listo," and we were on our way. We were in and out of Veracruz, with international paperwork required, in less than a half hour, a new record. We walked out to the plane with smiles on our faces instead of the typical looks of frustration.

We were indeed riding high at that moment, but it wasn't to last for long, as a very sad moment, maybe the saddest of the trip, was about to befall upon us. While Jerry was doing the preflight inspection, I was packing the airplane. In doing that, I took the airplane's book (a binder that housed all of the paperwork we carry with the airplane) out of the flight bag. I must digress for a moment to describe the state of the book at this point in time. You see, the book wasn't doing so well. It had suffered a major wound back in Costa Rica when I dropped it on the ramp in a moment of confusion and clumsiness. I didn't really want to mention anything about it then partly because I thought that it still had a chance to survive the trip and partly because it's been too difficult to talk about. Now, several days later and after a second dropping on the asphalt surface ramp, that original wound proved to be fatal. Yes, the book is dead. And I killed it. Sorry, Shirley.

That book had been many places with us, obviously as far south as Costa Rica, but also, as far north as South Dakota. It had also been as far east as Minnesota and as far west as Santa Monica. It will indeed be sorely missed. Trying to gather ourselves, we loaded the book's remains in the airplane, pledging that it would be put to rest at home, where it belongs.

We started up the airplane and taxied out for takeoff. Lifting into the lower clouds out of Veracruz that morning we knew we would be back in the US in only a few short hours. Those hours passed fairly quickly with the help of the XM radio, which had now returned to glorious operation.

Our approach into Brownsville was smooth. We landed and taxied to US Customs to clear back into the country. After the initial inspection, we were informed that we were "randomly" selected to be sniffed out by a K-9 unit. After that was complete, we were given the ok to head out. We taxied the airplane to the FBO, shut her down and headed inside. From there it was a cab ride to the very windy and chilly South Padre Island for the night.

Happy to be back in the US with fantastic working internet, I went to work on the website for a few hours. After that it was our normal routine of some dinner and an early night. Again, it was to bed to be ready for an early morning and a long, but stress-free planned flying Sunday.

-Marc