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Goin' Down the Bayou

crabandy

Well Known Member
Last November I pitched an idea to my wife, "How about a destination half marathon trip to see your sister in Louisiana?" After a 5 second pause she said "I don't Hate the idea......"
The ladies decided to do the 5K while the brother-in-law and I were going to try the half. We started training plans and went to work sharing accountability posts/texts several times weekly. I had done a half about 10 years ago with a time of 2:00:34, I had my sights set on under 2:00:00 and wasn't going to shave till I shaved those extra seconds below 2 hours. We just needed to find a city in Louisiana that had a half marathon on the weekend I was off.

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The training was complete and our weekend had arrived, we had sunny skies and a killer tailwind on the way down. It was relatively smooth above 3000 despite the gusty winds. We made a quick stop at Table Rock Lake on the way down.

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The runway kinda slopes down to the water.

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Our next destination was "The Broken Wheel Brewery and Fresh Catch Bistreaux" in Marksville, La. A little internet research showed one of the owners was a pilot and would provide a ride to and from the airport.

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The table we sat at had all kind of southern cookbooks under the glass top.

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Food was Awesome!

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"Pop" from the brewery had given us a lift to and from the airport, He wanted to check out the airplane. His only small airplane ride was in the hopper of a crop duster.....

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Pretty sure these are rice fields, I'm used to farm fields being somewhat suitable for a forced landing....

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While tying down at KLFT another VAF'er Dave dropped by, seems we have similar interest and tail numbers! Instead of ubering to our house, Dave gave us a ride and a personalized tour of the area! Thanks again Dave, VAF'ers are the Best!!

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The tree outside our AirBnB house was covered with Mardi Gras beads.

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We enjoyed happy hour on the patio of a nearby restaurant while we waited on My wife's sister. We had less than a 3 hour flight from Kansas, they had a 3 1/2 drive from Shreveport.

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When the rest of the family arrived we ate dinner at Don's Seafood as recommended by Dave, it did not disappoint!

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We also stopped in Keller's Downtown Bakery for several things including these...

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The next day the girls rocked their 5K, we had just as much fun cheering them on! It's a chip tracked race, the girls actually did it in a smidgen over 42 minutes.

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We went to Buck & Johnny's to celebrate for breakfast, what an experience....
It was 9:30 am, $5 cover charge at the door and the Zydeco band had it turned up to 10. Most of the first level was a dance floor, pretty sure everyone else was dancing in their chairs and cheering on the people on the floor fueled by the endless Mimosa's and bloody mary special.

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I had Eggs-crabcake-biscuit covered in Crab Portabella Brie and one of those Bloody's.

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My wife had the scrambled eggs and rice topped with crawfish etouffe'.

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We all had a Really good time!

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Later we went shopping at the local nursery, my wife has an affinity for plants that can't survive the cold in Kansas. Trust me, it was worse than my kiddos begging for candy in the grocery store isle. Please Please Please Please Pretty Please.......So we made a special request to have them weighed, the nursery staff was a little perplexed until we filled them in on our baggage situation.

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Definitely not the best idea, but we fueled up the night before our big run on homemade enchiladas and tamales my sister in law brought from home. I really couldn't help myself.

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They'd made signs to cheer us on, why didn't I think of that for their 5K.

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I've run around the block a few times before with my brother in law, he's always faster than me. He was pretty hesitant about the under 2 hour goal and was leaning towards the 2:10:00 time frame. We decided to start at the back of the corral and work our way up through the pack after the start and try to catch the pace runner with the 2:20:00 and see if we could pass him. We did not set a timer or use GPS to track our pace, we didn't want to be demoralized by a timer and wanted to end the race giving it our all. I was feeling pretty good around mile 5 and my brother in law was holding the pace.

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We eventually caught the 2:20 pace runner and slowly passed one runner at a time trying to catch the 2:00 pace runner. We would pick one person ahead to try and pass, this worked pretty well. We chased a guy carrying the stars and stripes for about 15 minutes, some girl in a glittery tutu, a running team dressed up as the Scooby Doo cast pushing a stroller disguised as the Mystery Machine. My brother in law took charge the last 6 miles and wouldn't let me slow down, he pushed me to not let up. Coming down the home stretch.

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He stopped last second at the finish line and let me cross .1 second before him.

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We finally caught this guy we've been chasing for the last 13.1 at the beer garden post race celebration.

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Also had some fresh Gumbo from the "Creole Cruiser" and red beans and rice from a local caterer.

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The speed stache' worked, it kept me mostly true to the training schedule (alot like building an airplane) and hitting it week after week. Couldn't have done it without my brother in law making me match his pace the last 6 miles, Official finish half marathon time of 1:58:18.9!

We caught the 11 am mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, These old cathedrals are spectacular.

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My wife was starting to miss the kiddos pretty hard in true mamma fashion, weather for the flight home on Monday was doable but in and out of layers and deviating around some T-storms.
I forgot to mention for Valentines day I purchased my wife some motion sickness bands that she tried out on the way down (yes I also bought her a real necklace), they really seemed to take the edge off the motion sickness she gets in the airplane. It was nice to have her aware in the cockpit and not knocked out by Dramamine.
We didn't have to be back until Wednesday lunchtime and gave her the options:
1-Get her home today, but kinda a bumpy ride and deviating around storms. Totally doable.
2-Go to her sister's house in Shreveport, stay the night and have a smoother ride tomorrow and get more sister time. Her nephew was also interested in airplanes, I could fly him and myself to Shreveport while they made the drive. We also had not had a true southern Po'Boy yet.....

Man that Po'Boy was good!

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My little nephew was sure fired up about the airplane ride, he was non-stop inquisitive and wanted to be a part of everything. Loading the baggage, untying the tiedowns, removing the chocks and preflighting, he is a hands on kiddo. Saddled up and ready to light the fires...

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I talked him through the checklist, radio communications etc as he wanted to be part of it all. We had a little weather to deal with, but just minor deviations with some bumps and in and out of layers. We had a thorough briefing on airsickness before lighting the fires.

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He was obviously having a blast and handling the flight with flying colors, he was pretty adamant I keep my promise of giving him a little stick time. Closer to our destination we popped into a semi VFR area between layers, a quick request for a block altitude and 30 left and right of course and the airplane was his.

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We were vectored for the GPS 14 at KDTN, 500' below the clouds we cancelled IFR and requested to stay in the pattern. My nephew wanted more stick time. Short final for our full stop.

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This little guy sweet talked the receptionist into turning on Looney Tunes instead of the weather channel while we waited for the rest of the family to make the drive.

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At the Sister in Laws house we grabbed some mud bugs to go from the local eatery. As you can see I was finally able to shave my "Speed Stache'"

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Crawfish are in season and they are cooking them by the giant pot full.

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We peeled and ate and followed it all up with the crawfish potpies.

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Loading and getting the airplane ready after the rain the following morning, not exactly one of the calendar pics. It's hard to capture the true scene when you don't know what you're doing and you're using an iphone.

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Back to loading the airplane.....I was at a calculated 90 lbs of baggage with a 10% fudge factor making it 100lbs.

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It was mid to low IFR almost the entire flight back, but it was mostly smooth and well on top of the OVC.

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Some of the Mountains peeking up through the OVC.

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We watched Mount Magazine grow in the windscreen for quite some time, I had to google it when we got back. The resort on top looked pretty creepy with the clouds and all.

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I was hoping to make another pit-stop at Table Rock, we shot the GPS 30 into H34 for cheap gas and to check the OVC bases. It was really nice having my wife using the wrist bands instead of dramamine, I explained the approach and plan to her. I don't trust the wx in the hills, if there is a chance I'm going missed approach I would rather hand fly it so I'm engaged in the approach instead of the autopilot. Together we were counting down the hundreds of feet to go till minimums on the LPV, at DA we were solid IFR and went missed. As suspected we weren't going to be landing in the Ozarks today, we settled on KEOS with almost as cheap gas with 700 OVC with recent PIREPS confirming the ceiling just north at KJLN. On short final a couple hundred feet up I explained to the wife this is how high we were above the runway at H34 but still in the clouds at DA. KEOS is a good airport/fuel stop, for some reason there's lots of Kyle Franklin Memorabilia laying around.

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I did get momma and her lemon and orange trees safely home, I've heard the RV canopy is kinda like a green house....

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Hey! I recognize those 2! And that beautiful plane! Boy, you guys get around!

Tom, You're too kind as you've seen my plane in person! I do have a fear of letting my plane sit for too long and fall into dis' repair from no flying. I figure I might as well try to wear it out as it beats the alternative.
 
Thanks Andy for taking us along for the adventure.
Great pictures and write up.
Jealous here......heading to the airport..
Loved the "mud bugs"
 
Great use for aircraft

Supporting your wife's hobby
Love the plant picture. I appreciate your trip write ups with your children. This one with your wife ranks right up there. Thanks for sharing
 
Awesome write up!

Running and planes (RV-7's even)- two of may favorite things to do as well.

I pace a lot of races as well, it's actually a lot fun to pace halves/fulls to help folks achieve their goals.
 
Andy and April: Happy to hear y?all had a nice experience in Cajun country! Very nice write up and pictures. My wife Lisa is a gardener also. No doubt seeing plants in your 7 will give her ideas. Enjoyed visiting with you guys! Happy flying.:)
 
Thanks everyone, trips in the RV are the highlight of my year!
I also really enjoy sharing them with y’all as I’ve gained so much from other’s adventures on VAF!

Dave,
A sincere Thanks again for the tour and ride, kinda what VAF is about. If you’re ever up this way you’ld better call!
 
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