Prairie Lakes for Thursday Dinner
Article by
Barry Ward
Pictures by Barry Ward and Brian Gilomen
On Monday July 5th FVFC-E was attempting to get
together for dinner at Prairie Lakes. Well, the weather had other ideas and we
had to cancel. I am happy to say everyone was as disappointed as I, so the
dinner was rescheduled for Thursday 7/8/04. Wheels up at 5.00 P.M.
Despite all of the wrangling about what time to show up, and who needed to do what repairs before we leave, the turn-out is great and everyone is early! (almost everyone). Seven planes are waiting to take off 5 minutes early. Bill Mills, Mick and Jude Pahnke, Vance Lorenzana, Brian Gilomen, Ricky Anderson, Jim Wolak and myself:
Christine, my wife, got off of work early so she could follow us in her car. Brian Gilomen generously agreed to take her up in his 2 seat Challenger to save her the drive. THANK YOU Brian! She had a great time. I owe you one.
We departed Clow around 5PM on 36. The sky is clear but there is a bit of a wind out of WNW. Our original plan was to go directly to Prairie Lakes but we redirected to Cushing for fuel and to see if we could increase our numbers.
Most of us proceeded low and fast. I thought my Phantom was fast until I tried to keep up with Brian’s Challenger. Damn. Rich Wild was waiting for us at Cushing. He took several pictures of us as we landed. No one else from FVFC was there but Bill asked Arlen, and one of his students Eric, from the hang gliding operation to join us.
Twenty or so minutes later eight planes are up and on their way to Prairie Lakes. Arlen is a few minutes behind. Rich is flying close to everyone taking more pictures. Then we hear Kevin Bertorelli on the radio. He is on route from Clow. Our numbers increase by one more. Kevin convinces Ricky to order for him, and we get to listen to him go though the choices and finally make a decision. Burger, steak, chicken or fish? OK chicken.
As we get close to Prairie Lakes Brian does a quick fly-over, from North to South, to alert the golfers of our impending arrival. Then he pulls a quick 180 degree turn and lands 36. The rest of us follow like baby ducks behind their mother.
We parked politely at the North end and piled into the restaurant. A couple of the guys pulled two tables together on the patio and we scrambled for seats with as much shade as possible. Sorry to say, Mick and Jude got the worst two seats.
I don’t believe the restaurant was expecting this much business on a Thursday night but they made every effort to accommodate us. The waitress came out and offered us the special. A steak sandwich with your choice of potato and a salad for about seven bucks. Sounded like a great deal to everyone so we all ordered it except Ricky ordered Kevin his chicken. Oops.
A few minutes later the waitress came out with a pitcher of coke and a pitcher of iced tea "on the house." Bill asked if they have any bread baskets for the table and is informed that they don’t have any rolls during the week. Bill grouses a little, I think in good fun. Then the waitress comes out and says our steak sandwiches are not going to be sandwiches. No bread! Most of us are laughing, but Bill does not look happy.
The steaks are served, and they are good-sized. Too big for a sandwich in any case. I jokingly inform the waitress that Bill has a serious problem if he doesn’t get his roughage. A few minutes later she shows up with 2 baskets full of soft French bread. The rolls are cut in half, buttered and toasted. All in all the meal was great. The conversation was lively and at some point Vance pulls out a couple of our new patches. Nice job!
It was getting late so we got our cash together and settled up. We sauntered out to our planes, some of us still sucking on cigars. We started up and took off in an orderly fashion from 18.
The winds have died down and it is pretty smooth. Brian graciously agreed to slow it down so I could fly next to him and Christine. Most of us stayed low except for Jim and Bill. Rich headed for his own home base. We flew most of the way to Clow and then circled for a minute so we could bunch up a little. This is when Brad Wolfe flies over us, on his way back from Clow, and asks what he missed. We happily informed him and continued on route to Clow.
By now it is getting dark and I am anxious to get it on the ground. As we approach Clow I hear a cascade of announcements…"five miles out, inbound for 36 Clow"… As we entered the left 45 the announcements continued, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang. If you listened you knew where everyone was. I have never flown with the group when we were so tight. It was cool.
We filled the pattern with planes and landed almost in unison. Some landed grass strip, some hard pavement. I decide to land on the pavement. I have to say it was one of my best landings ever. I was so smooooooth I still don’t know when my wheels touched the pavement!
We flopped out of our planes and I grabbed my chairs and a 5 gallon bucket full of beer, soda and water. We parked ourselves in front of Vance’s hanger and partied until well after dark.
That was one hell of a dinner!
Where To Now?