40 mile out and back, well, almost back!

[Lauren Tjaden]

The plane coasted along ahead of me like the air was butter, without the usual shudders and sudden wing dips that usually indicate a good day is in store -- that is, if you can survive the tow. Nevertheless, after pinning off, I quickly climbed to cloudbase at over 5000 feet (it kept getting higher). Paul and I headed off towards Dean Still and Highway 33, about 21 miles to the south, down by Wallaby.
Once I saw 2 bald eagles soar underneath me, and the many ponds reflected the blue skies and cotton-ball clouds in perfection, without a ripple. Paul and I got in a fight once or twice about what line to take but that is to be expected.
I blew it a couple of times. Once when I was thermalling I decided to fiddle with my 5030 (it was making extra noises, I had the climb locked in) and when I looked up -- uh oh.... I could barely see a glimmer of earth underneath me. The cloud had gobbled me up but I ran sideways out of her mouth before she had a chance to digest me.
Cross country has been very challenging here this week, with tough, long flights and hard-earned climbs, but today taught me other lessons. By Dean Still, I caught another ride to the sky, but when I got to base, I had edged to the wrong side of the cloud. It then towered between me and Paul and my course line. I had to lose altitude and divert around it to the side, which took a lot of time and caused Paul and I to lose each other for awhile. We also should have launched even earlier than we did. The Prez was arriving at Disney this evening and we had a TFR starting at 4 PM.
Most of the thermals were fat and soft, but I did get body slammed a couple of times so hard it tweaked my back as I went weightless and suddenly became heavy.
On the way home Paul saw that he had Quest on glide and rocketed off on a high speed glide. I didn't have Quest in as a go-to (though I fumbled with my instrument and got it in at the last second) and wasn't sure if I could make it. I lingered under some weak clouds, trying to find a little dribble of lift, but all I did was waste the last few minutes when the day was working. I was disgusted to land 2 miles from home, after almost 3 hours of flight, under a totally faded sky.
Gotta go, I am utterly exhausted, like I could cry if someone looks at me sideways, and we may have more of this tomorrow. I was too tired to even go to the party tonight. Do you feel sorry for me?
Lauren

[jimrooney]

> Do you feel sorry for me?
I'm weeping uncontrollably.