Air Race Classic     3rd Day

Yesterday was a total loss.  Those of us trapped in Elko never moved off the airport, nor did new teams come in.  In fact, with one exception, we 15 teams in Elko were the last racers.  We learned that 21 teams RONed (remained overnight) in Pinedale,  and10 teams were in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Not a soul moved in or out of Elko and we called ourselves the Elko Racing Team.  The mountains are beautiful with a new coat of snow.  This morning as we went to the airport at 5:30, we discovered that the airplanes were covered with ice. We all worked on the airplanes for at least an hour de-icing them by hand. Finally we were off air racing.  HA!  As we proceeded to Pinedale we became disillusioned with the weather prognostigators who promised good weather to Pinedale. It was a horror  - climbing to 13,500' to cross snow and cloud covered mountains, then into icy rain.  We finally gave up and landed off course with several other teams at an airport at Bear Lake in Idaho.  The clock continued as we sat on  the ground. We finally decided to detour around Pinedale and go on to Scottsbluff, NE.  That worked so well we flew the timing line and moved on to Norfolk, NB, my husband Bob's hometown, arriving in time to beat the deadline.  You may remember that several days ago a double tornado attacked Norfolk, then two days later another tornado hit.  When we racers arrived the hospitable airport folks went all out to find a place for us to rest our heads.  There were no hotel rooms available due to the tornadoes and a nice couple took us home for the night. Airport people are that way!  We understand that teams have completed the race in Pennsylvania and we'll have to fly four legs tomorrow to complete the race prior to the deadline - in Iowa, Illinois, Ohio and finally Pennsylvania.  So I'd best get to bed and be in the airplane ready to go at dawn.