The Heroes of Waycross

I don’t even know where to begin except to say that we have met some amazing people here in Waycross, GA.  As one of two teams seemingly stranded after the first leg, we look to leave GA knowing we will truly miss the people we’ve met here.  I mean, seriously, where else do you get an ambulance to come and service your sick airplane?  Here in Waycross, if your plane is sick, they call the local EMT!  We now consider Barb and Maureen to be our sister team – Classic #37 – and were thrilled when they were able to venture off by mid afternoon.  We wished them well and watched them fly away. (If you look at the picture below… I only caught the tail of their plane as they did the fly by to continue.)  Go Cherokee Chicks!!!!

 

Meanwhile, we were being taken care of by our hosts – the people of Waycross.  Bill served as our Stop Chair and was helpful in finding us assistance from Mitch our mechanic and Cleve and Mike who were willing to assist in a variety of ways.  Mike took Heather to Jacksonville on a quest to pick up the new part, Cleve left us his hangar keys only after he set out all the tools he thought would be needed for the carburetor replacement….just in case Mitch needed something.  Steve, who had been so helpful on Tuesday when we discovered the problem, made sure we had coffee, donuts, popcorn and in the heat of the day, a nice slice of cantaloupe!  Cindy, Bill’s wife, sat and talked with us as we were waiting for parts to arrive.

It took until dusk to finally have Bravoski running smooth….but boy did she sound good!  Under the supervision of Bill (as per the rules….) Heather conducted a maintenance flight to return the plane to service and ensure she was ready to go.  Back on the ground we parked the plane on the ramp, hugged Mike and Mitch goodbye as both Heather and I got sentimental as we thanked them for their commitment to helping us.

We now have our own personal cheering section here in Georgia – and we know they’ll be watching our progress.  All we can say is we’ll do our best to make you proud, and we look forward to coming to visit ya’ll again!

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