The following morning Clint and I both slept late in air-conditioned comfort. I showered 1st and we both caught a ride back to the café. I then got in my car and headed for Denton. I drove east and then shot up the blasted I-35 corridor. I wished cars traveled faster. There was nothing to do but drive and hope good music was coming from the radio. The intro to Bob Seger's "Turn the page" described my feelings on the subject "And you don't feel much like ridin you just wish the trip was through." I of course was driving not riding. I just wanted to get there and playing chicken at seventy only made me more restless. I just wanted to get back to Denton and back behind the lines of culture war on Fry Street. It was hours of heat and stress.

The following week flew by fast. I made two trips to Fry. Both times we missed Kathrine and dealt with Robert. Dealing with Tevin was more of the same. We also played spot the narc. Cops gave off a sqauwk that came across like 7700 on an air traffic controller's screen. I knew what they were trying to do. I then realized that the best way to deal with drugs was to legalize them all. Claire and I were not getting any closer nor were we getting any farther apart. As the Café's birth approached I looked forward to leaving Denton for good. This though the Fry excitement had me hooked. Adrenaline is a very addictive substance. I was being selfish at the time but did not realize it at the time. My relationship with Claire was bound to end. I had gotten accustomed to building doomed empires. My senior year was all about giving it all knowing full well this was the last chance to do it and in the end it would not amount to much. I did nothing to prepare her for it. I worked my butt of in 3 and 6DA for twelve hours doing ground reference work stalls, steep turns, short field landings and soft field landings short and soft field takeoffs crosswind take-offs and engine outs. I was also soaking my mind in a healthy dose of aerial navigation. That week was a blur of emotions joy, excitement, frustration, anger, peace, lust and mind numbing fatigue. I was flying or hanging out on Fry studying, hanging with Claire or sleeping. I did have much to myself.

The Saturday of my flight to the Café began in the predawn darkness as I headed down to Ft Worth. David and I chose 2DA for the run. 2DA is a Cessna 152. She was just a bit faster and the eight extra horses would make a difference on a runway as small as mine. I hated the near quarter inch play in the controls she was a pocket rocket in comparison to the 150's in the fleet. I considered the slop to negate the virtue of the power in most cases. The owner of the flight school approved it because he knew that I was 1 of the most conservative pilots in his school and I would not do anything that would but my butt in any sort of precarious position. The airstrip was untried but he knew about the fine gravel in the blacktop and it was built on solid limestone. Finding it would fairly simple it was parallel to Highway 83. I knew that area and the landmarks to look for. The pre-flight was routine. I also made double sure we got full tanks. I stuck an actual wooden wally stick to make sure they were completely full. The 1st fuel stop would be Burnet. The avgas would be cheap the personality Texan. It would allow for sufficient gas to make to the Café and enough gas after my drop off to allow David to make Kerrville without fear of getting near reserves.

Takeoff was smooth and we climbed noticeably faster then what I was used to in a Cessna 150 even with the full load. The plane accelerated faster and climbed at a higher rate. I started slowly leaning out as I directed the bird southwest over Ft Worth. I had to get used to speed being measured in knots. We climbed to 6,500 and found ourselves in a slight headwind. At this point we were southwest of Ft Worth. I was exited and after the communication of Ft Worth and the 3 times we had to stop our climb to run parallel beneath Class B I smiled as I took a bit off the power and trimmed the airplane and began the necessary cockpit house keeping. I checked the weather and monitored flight watch,as the ground went from flat plains to rocky hills beneath me. Texas was again beneath a Ring of Fire high-pressure area. The pattern had just started so visibility was still decent just not something to write home about. The wind from the south was ever so slight and for the most part altimeter settings were almost identical over a wide area. It would be a hot one that day. Once the airplane was trimmed and the ever so slight wind correction angle put in both David and I became a system monitor checking navigation and just cruising at 98mph over Texas. The only concern was the restricted area of Ft.Hood that we were flying west of. The route was difficult due to the lack of checkpoints but impossible and even with one VOR the navigation errors were slight. This continued for about 45minutes and then I started a slow descent into Burnet. The wind was slight but favoring a southbound landing. I checked the pattern altitude in the AFD and noticed it was left hand at a thousand feet above the ground. I called for an airport advisory and got the altimeter and the surface wind from the south a scant 5 miles per hour. The impression was familiar an airport cut into cedars a kind of aircraft carrier in the sea of dark green. I kept my eyes peeled for traffic including birds but Burnet was a just another sleepy Texas airport on a summer's day that promised to be hot. The landing was smooth and I taxied the airplane to the pumps.

He came out bow legged in slightly faded jeans wearing a cowboy hat. His face was wrinkled with dark hair on his mustache and hair closely cropped. I pulled out my checkbook and off-ered a current balance. He said that would do. He started pumping. David and I walked into the terminal. I pulled open the sliding glass door to let us in. It was decorated with shirttails of people who had soloed over the last 25 years the wood panel theme was familiar in this part of Texas. David pulled out change and we both chugged down Gatorade. I had a package of Oreos for late breakfast. We were asked, "Where y'all two headed?" I replied "That brand new airstrip north of Leakey on the East Side of 83 where I'm building a new café." This drew a nod with a comment "My brother sold you the property. Have a good trip." I paid for the gas. I got a weather briefing for more of the same on the flight. We waved goodbye as we headed out the airplane.

David made sure I did a thorough pre-flight and made sure I went through the whole pre-start and runup checklist since we had been on the ground for longer then 15 minutes. He warned me about not getting slack with checklist discipline on long cross-country flights. Attention to everything on the checklist take off in range pre-landing kept the mind sharp and focused on details which if the cross-country flight would continue the pilot would be-come lazy and complacent on. He warned me quite bluntly complacency kills. Takeoff was smooth and I turned on a slightly more westerly course once I got beyond the airport. We climbed back up to 6,500 partially for the cooling effect it was a good 12 degrees cooler up there. Also the hills made engine failure at any lower of an altitude highly unappealing. The in flight routine was established. We called flight service got the flight plan activated and got an update on the weather no rain slowly decreasing visibility but we were in a severely stable air mass. We flew between Fredricksburg 1st crossing the Colorado and finally the Perdinales River. We nicked the Northeast corner of Kerrville and caught sight of the Gaudalupe River. Once we hit 83 I opted for a straight in a long one. The airstrip was not on a sectional yet I had put 2 X's on it to be removed only when the café opened. I called Flight Service closing the flight plan. I pulled carbheat and power and started a 5 mile glide. Less then a mile out I added the full 30 flaps and put the mains down the on the numbers with a delicate plop. The runway was smooth and in good shape. I grinned about my landing on my runway. I was happy. David reached for flaps raising them transferring the weight of the airplane to as I held the nose up slowing her down aerodynamically, while applying firm pressure on the breaks. Once it became obvious we had plenty of strip left I let go a hair and let the airplane gently slow down near the café before coming to a complete stop. I hurried out of the airplane and got my backpack out of it.