99s

Besides the North Jersey 99s, the race could not be as successful without all the other 99s.  Thanks to the San Joaquin Valley 99s who hosted us at the start, the Central Pa. 99s that hosted the terminus, the Eastern Pa. 99s who hosted the hospitality room at the terminus, the 99s at Norfolk, Nebraska and all the 99s across the country that  helped support us during the race.

Thank you Shannon, Lorna, Susan, Cathy and Bev for celebrating with Mary and I at the terminus.  The North Jersey Ninety-Nines rock.

Facts - just the Facts

Well we didn't win, but we took First place on the last 2 legs, so obviously, we know how to do something right but not everything.  The good news is I have almost  a year to try to figure it out.  15 teams  did not finish and there was 1 DQ (no it's not Dairy Queen).  That being said Juliet and Terry came in 13th and Marilyn and I came in 22nd.  The rest of Eastern Pa. came in after us.  But we were safe, we didn't get stuck in the snow and ice, didn't land off route and we had a blast!!!

Speaking of Eastern Pa.  - they rock!!!!  I have never been so proud in my life.  Thank you so much for all your hard work and donations of food.  North Jersey Chairman, Shannon Osborne also worked tirelessly doing whatever needed to be done but her hardest job was keeping me organized.  The purple volunteer shirts are beautiful - thank you Linda Evans - everyone looked so cute.

Already working in next year.  Thanks so much for all your love and support.

Mary and Marilyn

We are here!!!

We are safely on the ground in Harrisburg.  I would like to say that there was no weather issues this race but out of 7 races I think this had the most weather  to deal with.  There are a bunch of teams still on their way in with the deadline being 5PM tomorrow.  The Eastern Pa. girls unboxed the silent auction items and Shannon Osborne helped me it up.  She is the queen of organization.  I would love to tell you where we placed but that won't be known until Saturday night :)

Almost Home

We left Scottsbluff this morning and headed to Norfolk, Nebraska.  There were clouds along the way and we determined that it was ground fog but you aren't really sure.  We were on top of those clouds and you just hope that they clear out like they are supposed to when you need to get down.  At this point you wonder if you made good decisions.  Some people are still out west and things are heating up on the east coast.  We won't know till Saturday night at the banquet how well anyone did but we got to spend time with our friends and fly across the country.  We left Norfolk, flew over Iowa City and landed at Danville, Illinois late this afternoon.  We will start again tomorrow morning and weather permitting should be in Harrisburg some time tomorrow.  Sorry there aren't any pictures.  The weather just needed too much of our attention.

GO!!!!

And so we did.  Breakfast at 6.  Weather briefing at 6:30.  Pack the airplane, say hello to Tammy and Tim Hand who flew in to send us off.  Start the airplane, taxi out, take off and the rest is a blur.  Only kidding - sort of.  I know that we flew over Doris - no problem flying into there we followed 17 right in.  Flew by to continue and went to Elko, determined today was better than tomorrow was going to be, left Elko and flew to Pinedale.  I heard Elko was having a barbecue - dang we missed it.  Left Pinedale - we were worried about Pinedale because of the mountains and high density altitude but did it anyway.  Flew to Scottsbluff only to hear that it was a mile visibility in a heavy thunderstorm.  Miraculously it moved before we had to do our Fly-by.  We are in Scottsbluff for the night.  Rooms are hard to find but we have a reservation - oh wait, it's for tomorrow night (like I said we didn't expect to leave Pinedale in the afternoon).  Not to worry we are not sleeping in the crew room :)

Tomorrow is another day

Ready, Set. ....

Well all the paperwork is done and tomorrow is race day!!!!  We are all packed up and ready to go.  Handicaps were given out and ours is 154.416.  Breakfast is at 6AM, weather briefing at 6:30 and we launch at 8.  We will keep you posted - wish us luck!!!!