 |
| KPWA-HBR-CDS-KLBB-HOB-CNM-CONNE-WHOLE-5T6 |
Today was a different flying day than the ones we've been having lately. Woke up at 6:30, made it to the airport by 8 and took off around 8:30. No waiting for clouds to go away or for visibility to improve. Everything was hunky dory.
The first part of the trip was to Lubbock, TX where we intended to stop for refueling. Flight there was a non-event: 6500 ft, visibility more than 10 miles and smooth sky all the way. This leg was the "energy" leg. We saw windmills:
And hundreds of oil wells (each square is one well):
We also passed the Carlsbad Caverns (or so our charts said):
Landing at Lubbock was special. First because it's the home town of one of our friends, but also because airliners had to wait for us to land before they could take off. Ah, the power! This is what a waiting airliner looks like:
After refueling at Lubbock we were back in the air, this time heading for Santa Teresa, NM, on the outskirts of El Paso. This time we climbed to 8500 ft and stayed there. Clouds began to appear in our path, which made us unhappy, as we know that with these clouds come turbulence. And so it was for the next two hours, 15 minutes of turbulence, 15 minutes of smooth air, until we landed at Santa Teresa.
We got a courtesy van in much better state than our previous one, got a hotel room and went to explore the east side of El Paso. We saw Mexico from the ground this time, and it looked like this:
And that was it for this stop. Tomorrow we keep going westward, with hopes of making it to Palm Springs, where we will spend a few days kicking back and relaxing before taking the final leg back home.
By the way, did you know that Starbucks in El Paso have drive-through windows?
No comments:
Post a Comment