Rosie & Tuppergal's Bahamas Trip 2011

[Rosie]

It's been 2 years in the making and our next flying adventure to the Bahamas has begun!!!!!

Tuppergal and I departed California on Saturday morning, May 21st visiting friends along the way. We start home from the Bahamas on Wednesday, June 8th.

You can track our flight progress over the ground via our SPOT tracker.

This year, we have 12 RVs, 1 Bonanza and 1 Thorp making the trip to Great Exuma in the Bahamas. Here are the pilots and crew flying with us this year;

Alpha Flight
Jim & Vicki Baker (Kansas: RV-6)
Chris & Indira Kleen (Washington: RV-6)
Gary & Carolyn Zilik (Colorado: RV-6A)

Bravo Flight
Bryan & Sherri Wood (California: Bonanza)

Charlie Flight
Paul & Victoria Rosales (California: RV-6A)
Mike Brewton & Denice Nicol (California: RV-7A)
Dave & Alina Buono (Texas: RV-7A)
Mercedes Eulitt & Jeff Brooks (California: RV-6A)

Delta Flight
Scott & Deb Mills (Colorado: RV-9A)
Scott & Tanya Card (Texas: RV-9A)
Andrew Brandt (California: RV-9A)

Echo Flight
Gene & Janet Larsen (Iowa: RV-9A)
Mark & Debbie Bantam (Kansas: T-18)

Here's our itinerary, subject to change due to weather: Deviations indicated by RED due to Joplin Tornado. Other changes in GREEN
Saturday (5/21): Departed SoCAL for Cleveland (OK) to visit friends.
Sunday (5/22): Departed Cleveland for Grove (OK) to visit friends, and the tornado hit Joplin (35nm north of Grove) about 4 hours after landing.
Monday (5/23): Spent another day in Grove, in the pouring rain and blowing wind the day following the tornado in Joplin
Tuesday (5/24): Departed Grove for Asheville (NC) to see the Biltmore Estate on Wednesday.
Thursday (5/26): Departed Asheville for Atlanta (GA) to spend a couple of nights at the home of Mike "Kahuna" Stewart.
Friday (5/27): Spent the day in Atlanta sightseeing with Michael "Moose" White.
Saturday(5/28): Spent the day with Kahuna and Team RV
Sunday (5/29): Departed Atlanta for Clearwater (FL) to spend the night and Memorial Day Monday with friends
Tuesday (5/31): Departed Clearwater to Venice (FL) for fuel and met up with other planes who joined us to Key West for lunch then to Homestead (FL)
Wednesday (6/1): Departed Homestead for the island of Great Exuma (ICAO MYEF), ~280nm, 2-hr flight to the Palm Bay Beach Club
Wednesday (6/8): Departed Great Exuma, landing Fort Pierce (FL), clear customs continue to Pensacola (FL)
Thursday (6/9): Departed Pensacola (FL) , landing Addison (TX: near Dallas) to visit friends
Saturday (6/11): Departed Addison for Stephenville (TX) for lunch at Hard Eight BBQ then landing Pecan Plantation in Granbury (TX) to visit friends
Sunday (6/12): Departed Grandbury, landing SoCAL late afternoon

You can check with us via e-mail to us if you'd like! Rosie & Tuppergal

We arrived home on Sunday, June 12th around 1530 local time with the hobbs showing 49.7 hours flown over 6600nm ;-) Here are the ground tracks to/from the Bahamas:



Here's our progress as of Friday, June 10, 2011 as we head home to California;



Here's the last leg we flew home from Texas on Sunday, June 12, 2011;

[fatherson]

Rosie and his pals say more with their actions about how to lead rich lives than bozos like me can say with a million typed words. Rosie took my son Tyson on his first private plane ride in his and Victoria's well-travelled workhorse, and arranged Dan Hall to take me up in my first RV ride, while flying in echelon beside Rosie so I could watch my son's first RV grin. Better than any salty sailor, the Rosales's have a friend in every port.

Have fun! Fly safely! Thanks for letting the rest of us tag along vicariously!

Someday, not too many years from now, I hope Tyson and I can join you in our own RV, that for all the work we put into it, will be built as well from the dreams Paul inspired in us.

--Stephen and Tyson

[NYTOM]

One of the highlights of this site for me are Rosie and Tuppergals travel stories.
It's what I use for justification of the build when negotiating with my better half for build funds. "See Honey, were going to do that someday".
Rosie I'm looking forward to tracking your trip and also seeing your usual ongoing (sometime daily) write ups. You have a big crowd this time so be careful, have fun and especially, fly safe. I got to tell you Rosie I'm jealous! Good Luck to everyone.

From Rosie: Thanks for the kind words Tom! People like you are the reason I enjoy writing trip reports because I enjoyed following the travels of Gary "Condor" Sobek when he was flying and I was building!

[pierre smith]

On your way down from the Biltmore, Louisville (2J3), your route will be close to me and if you don't mind, I'll tag along to Clearwater.

Best,

From Rosie: That looks do-able Pierre...let's work it! Will check in ;-)

[TS Flightlines]

For those of us not yet building, owning or flying an RV------this is what dreams are made of!! Keep doing it!!
Tom

[PaulR]

Rosie,
There's a Lambert's in Foley also in case you didn't know that. From Rosie: No coincidence there Paul. Care to join us? :-)

[turbo]

paul, 2 weeks of flying around in your rv sounds great. i will keep track of you on flightaware and hope to meet up with you for some fun in venice.

[krw5927]

Words cannot describe how jealous I am. Talk about motivation!

Have a great trip, y'all! Anybody going to be using APRS so we can watch your progress?

From Rosie: No APRS that I know of but I will be using my SPOT Tracker . On second thought, I think the Cards have APRS...

[RV7Ron]

Fly safe and have fun guys/gals...I have several friends in this group! It goes without saying, I cant wait for the day when I can join ya.

[Vlad]

I hope Foxtrot Flight from cold Northeast will join your group on next trip. My cousin will lead. I bet this thread will be the most visited.