Romancing a Dream

I remember as a boy riding my Huffy bicycle to the little airport in Hamilton, Ohio simply to sit in the grass and watch the planes take off and land. I could sit and sit for hours on end totally lost in my fantasy world of aviation. There was something magical about flying. And in my ten year old mind the men who could do it were the luckiest people on earth. Some day, I dreamed, I'd be up there, too.
The thrill of that "some day" for me came about 15 years ago when I soloed enroute to my private pilot license. Hundreds of flight hours and advanced piloting ratings later, I'm about to take off on a solo transcontinental cross country flying adventure that has been my dream for more than a decade.
This blog will be the daily chronicle of my adventure. I will begin Sunday, May 6 departing from Mount Pleasant Regional Airport near Charleston SC and fly west to Panama City, FL. My itinerary includes overnight stops in New Orleans, San Marcos TX, Las Cruces NM, Williams AZ, Santa Barbara CA, Sonoma CA, Reno NV, Salt Lake City UT, Cheyenne WY, Rapid City SD, Des Moines IA, Hamilton OH, Cleveland OH, Utica NY, Rockland ME, Nantucket MA, Washington DC, Nags Head NC, Charlotte NC and back to Mt Pleasant.
For the interested aviators reading this, I'll be flying a 2002 C172SP (N5296Z), a fuel-injected, single-engine, four-seat airplane that cruises at 115 knots (125 mph). It's outfitted with all Bendix-King nav's and comm's, including a KLN 94 GPS. I'll have oxygen on board for use at or above 10,000 feet, necessary when flying routes across the Rockies.
Am I excited? I can't begin to describe how rich the anticipation has been every day leading up to departure. The weather is looking wet for the first few days, but what's an IFR rating for? It'll be an adventure for sure, and one that I'm eager to share each step of the way.