I know it's been a while since anyone other than Pete posted here, but I'm still a contributor and I finally have a story to tell. My hiatus from the blog has not been a hiatus from flying altogether. I'm averaging over a hundred hours a year in Gigi, I just haven't had very many blog-worthy stories. But here's one.

My wife's cousin got engaged. She and her fiance are from NJ but moved down to Virginia a few years ago for work. While looking at wedding sites, she decided that she liked the sites (and I'm sure the costs) in VA better than NJ. She took a poll of friends and family and everyone, on both sides of the aisle, were enthusiastic about having the wedding down there. She booked the place and sent invites. Since last year we've known that this weekend, we'd be in Virginia Beach.

On Friday there was a small problem with the airplane and I freaked out thinking that I might have to drive. The mechanics at my airport jumped on the problem immediately and sent me a text an hour later that the plane was back in full service. Phew, I was not looking forward to driving from NYC to Virginia Beach.

The wedding was on Saturday, most everyone was going down on Friday but we decided to stay home and leave on Saturday. My sister-in-law met her husband in the city at 1:30PM on Friday and it took them 4 hours to get from midtown to the Holland Tunnel. It was a summer friday, Obama was in town and there was an accident on Varick st, basically a trifecta of problems against them. They got to the hotel at 3:30AM. With three kids in the car, I can't even imagine what that drive was like.

We slept at home on Friday night. My kids woke up at 7AM on Saturday and we slowly got moving. A few last minute packing items, showers for everyone and we got in the car at 10:15. We got breakfast on the road and made our way to the airport. Loaded the unbelievable, for an overnight trip, amount of bags into the plane and at 11:42PM the wheels were off the ground. It was a nice day but I filed an IFR flight plan so we could get up out of the bumps. At 8000' there was just a slight headwind, no bumps and nice natural air conditioning. We punched through a few clouds and hit a few bumps along the way but generally a nice flight with an easy straight in approach to runway 23 at Norfolk International. We landed at 1:20PM just one hour and 38 minutes after we left.

Landmark Aviation didn't have the car ready, but we only had to wait a few minutes. After unloading the, still amazing amount of, bags, we were driving away by about 2PM, still 4 hours to go before the wedding. We made our leisurely way towards Virginia Beach, with a few stops along the way (lunch for the kids and a few forgotten items), we checked into the hotel at 3PM.

The wedding was fabulous despite a thunderstorm which parked itself overhead the town and flooded everything outdoors. Of course the bride was beautiful and the cake was great. Mmm, I love cake. What's more interesting were the stories of all the friends and family who came down from NJ and NY. Stories of 8 and 9 hour drives were normal, and my sister-in-law's 14.5 hour ordeal was the worst. I really felt guilty telling people it took us an hour and a half to get there. They had braved I-95 during a summer Friday outside of New York and Washington DC or the DelMarVa roads. I slept in my bed the night before and sat in my seat for less than half of what my sister-in-law spent going five blocks in NYC traffic.

We got back to the hotel very late and the kids, thankfully, slept in on Sunday morning. We met most everyone for brunch the next day and everyone who was heading back to NY was packed and ready to go immediately after eating. They had a long drive ahead of them. We hung around a bit, said our goodbyes then took a bit of a driving tour of Virginia Beach and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. Got back to the airplane, loaded the unbelievable amount of luggage and took off into a clear sky. One little thunderstorm near Waterloo VOR which we went around and a few bumps on our approach to home. After getting gas, and unloading, we decided dinner was in order so we stopped nearby for a bite to eat. Upon arriving home, we received a text from my sister-in-law. They left right after the brunch and were fighting Sunday traffic back into NY still over two hours away and were just stopping for dinner.

Trips like this make me love having our airplane to use for travel. I just feel a little guilty that we can do this so easily and not everyone can. But at the same time, being a pilot is well within everyone's reach, so if you're thinking about it, I would say just go for it!