Once upon a time, in a land far away (Boulder, CO) there lived a woman. This woman, while competent in many things, could not add "doing taxes" to that list, if being honest with herself.
Fortunately, if one finds the perfect accountant, this is not a problem. So... From February to May, Latino and Associates toiled tirelessly on her behalf. Always available, full of great advice and working in her best interests. Eventually winding up a complicated tax year and putting to rest one of my biggest stresses.
I know what you're thinking... What has this got to do with aviation? I'm getting there.
It was very clear that Chris Latino had worked "unusual" hours, from home and even taking calls on his cell phone during times I knew he was with his family. So I was very surprised and quite overwhelmed when his invoice didn't reflect the time and effort my business had required and definitely didn't account for the brain damage that I had inflicted. When I tried to compensate him, he refused!
Instead he said: "Do me a favor. You and your boyfriend, fly to Thermopolis, WY for a weekend. Check it out for me. I have heard it's a really cute little town, an easy flight with a great general aviation airport and plenty to do in town."
He was serious, so I agreed... And did what most people might do. I added it to my bucket list and mentally prepared myself for going to Thermopolis, one day.
A day later, upon telling Mark about this conversation, we Googled Thermopolis, checked the weather and realized that Memorial Weekend was upon us in 2 days. Could this be any more perfect? We were overdue a "get-away".
That was Wednesday, May 21st.
By Friday the 23rd, the plane was ready, the weather rechecked, small bag packed, hotel booked and courtesy car (awesome) at Hot Springs Airport reserved.
Wheels were up just after 10am on Saturday morning. The flight plan was as follows:
KLMO-LAR-KTHP
Estimated flight time of just under 2 hours.
Winds aloft were expected to be light and winds on the ground at Thermopolis were expected to be calm... or light and variable. It was really a gorgeous flight and we took advantage of it to practice some VOR navigation and further test the new navigation app on Mark's mini ipad.
Runway 1/19 was reportedly in poor condition... still blacktop, but sloped with a low point along the way and less well maintained than you might hope for. It was 4800 feet long, 100 feet wide and was situated on a butte. Yes, a drop off on each end. Hmmm... This might be one of the good reasons the FAA is refusing funding and a new airport, with longer, flatter runway, is being built at Thermopolis!
We elected to land on 19, giving ourselves a bit more time to set up for landing. Runway 19 is also the upslope runway... Nobody wants to overshoot a butte and find themselves downtown a little too quickly!
Once on the ground, we were met by the friendliest FBO manager ever. Jerry had us in his hanger within minutes and the courtesy car was parked on the ramp all ready for us too. (Did I mention that upon hearing we were coming in for the weekend, we were offered the airport crew car... for the whole weekend?)
Then it was time to get lunch at the Thermopolis Cafe, book into our hotel (Best Western just inside Hot Springs State Park) and explore the cute little town.
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| Best Western - Historic, Renovated, Just inside the Hot Springs State Park. Pretty darn nice... And to top it off, they serve warm chocolate chip cookies in the afternoons. |
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