With the race behind us and adventures ahead, Terry & Vern pause at Twitchell's in Turner Maine to get their sea plane ratings. Follow thrir journey throughout Maine and beyond on the 2008 Air Race Classic page and enjoy the sights of New England along with Wild Mama.

Day 2 of the race finds Team Wild Mama and most other teams passing the night in KY. The weather from Mason City to Decatur was not giving in to allow us to leave. but we finally got off. Read more aout it in the 2008 Race pages and enjoy the photos linked on the page.

We are having a blast in Bozeman with all of the pre-race activities. The setting, in the valley surrounded by snow capped mountains, is peaceful yet exciting. We will remain here through race morning; then depart on the race at 8 a.m. local time (10 a.m. EDT) for the next part of our adventure. Check the 2008 Air Race Classic page for our daily blog, pictures and more.

With just over 1 week until our departure for the race, we find Wild Mama in the shop getting her last minute mechanical go-over: the cowl flap has been repaired, "Betty" has been silenced appropriately and all other squawks and ticks have been repaired. We have to install the numbers on Sunday and put a new set of tires on her (apparently, I am hard on tires). Monday is her spa treatment from IMMACULATE FLIGHT then she gets packed and ready to fly!

Theresa is in Trinidad right now with her job; but she is still in communications with the majic of e-mail (thank goodness). We have been reviewing all of the fly-by information that was just posted on the ARC web site; and all of our drawings and NAV LOG are now complete. Hotel reservations are made; flight plans are made; cookies are being baked (for thank yous to hand out along the way) and thank you cards are complete. Theresa has been diligently studying the historical weather patterns for our route and Terry has studied the terrain; both has been watching the steady stream of storms riding throughout the mid-west and hope that the pattern ceases before race time; otherwise, it might be a very weather driven race for 2008.

Our many thanks to all who have sent in contributions to support our racing effort. There is still a few days if you would like to help. With the cost of fuel sky-rocketing out of control every dollar is extremely helpful and appreciated.  Please remember to sign our guest book and let us know you are out there and follow us on the web. You can check in on Saturday, June 14th, for a test flight of the GPS tracking and guess where Wild Mama will be on Saturday.  

We are set! With less than 30 days to go until we leave for the race, we have finally gotten our pre-race stuff all completed: charts are marked; route is Google-earthed; reservations are made and now ... we wait... we wait for the plane to be completed (she is scheduled for her time starting June 1st); we wait for fly-by information and other news to come from ARC HQ; and we wait to meet all the other racers. My bags are packed - if it will not fit in the flight bag, it will not got ... well, other than the computer, the jacket, the survival kit, cooler, spare oil, tools and our race kit. Even then, we are travelling light.

Theresa and Terry need a bit more flight time together so we have decided that we will head back to OKC, snatch Theresa and make the final 7 hours of our 14 hour journey to Bozeman together. Our sad news is that Mario's Alzheimer's disease has taken a turn for the worse and he will be unable to make this trip. We were hoping that he would hang on to make this his last big adventure, but it looks like that adventure has already come and gone for him. We are extremely grateful to his cousin, Magda, who has agreed to come stay with Mario and be the hometown support part of the Team so we can continue to focus on the race. We will still carry Mario's spirit with us to the end.

So the countdown is on ... 26 days until blast off!