Adventure Number Next

The skies are clear on Monday, May 3, and Lewis, Gene and I are at the Scottsboro airport at 6:30 AM. The air feels cool and dry. Our devoted host, Mike Womacks, is there to see us off, standing next the the runway and waving as we lift off into the finally blue western sky. Breakfast consists of cheese cracker and blond Oreos while en route. I play flight attendent and sit in the jump seat for the flight. We see a lot of flooded fields from the recent storm system. I have never been to Arkansas so am interested to see the landscape, but find that along our route it is largely flat, yet unplanted fields.

Mena is almost to Texas and has no ground transportation so we stop in Hot Springs for me to rent a car, then drive to Mena to pick them up. As usual, there is a minor stir and folks gather to look at the plane. One is Bill Adams, who says his pilot seniority is "fairly high" at American Airlines. Bill's parents were both with American, pilot and stewardess and very likely flew on the Flagship. He was very interested and Gene told him he should join the Foundation and get his type rating so he could be a "real airline pilot."

The drive to Mena is pleasant, through a national forest and low mountains, very little traffic on the roads. Upon arrival, we start a mad dash to Little Rock to put Lewis on a plane to Nashville until realizing that we can drive there quicker. Therefore the pressure is off and I am allowed one hour to look at Hot Springs, which is why I wanted to come on the trip in the first place. I toured a restored bath house from the early 1900's and it was quite interesting. Hot Springs is a picturesque little town with interesting old buildings and history. Then we are off to Murray, Kentucky, still existing on junk food in the car. We arrive about 11 PM which is when he would have gotten to Nashville and drop exhausted into bed. After a nice visit and breakfast (our first real meal since Saturday night) we again head out, finally back to Covington at noon on Wednesday.