Midwestern Weather Forces Course Change

We, and a hundred other women pilots, spent much of the last day or so peering anxiously at the weather map, wondering how on earth we were going to be able to get out of here on Tuesday morning, thunderstorm lines and high winds notwithstanding, bound for the Dakotas, and then the easternmost mountains of Wyoming. Well, turns out, we're not. The early-morning weather briefing didn't sound very optimistic, and by late afternoon, it was obvious that there might be airplane-eating dragons northwest of us. Accordingly, the race course has been truncated. The powers that be have decreed that the race will NOT start in lovely, hospitable Iowa City, but what was to have been our fifth stop, Alliance, Nebraska, a day and a half later. New plan is to hunker down here in Iowa City (Ms. Lima has lucked into a hangar for what might be a wild night) until this big low pressure area and associated lines of thunderstorms get by here, and then high-tail it for Alliance. At noon on Wednesday, we will officially start, and aim for the rest of the adventure... Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and finally, Mobile. While both of us flatlanders are disappointed not to be headed for the mountains and the Dakotas, to explore what would have surely been magnificent territory, we have to admit it's really better that we won't have to negotiate such high terrain with high winds and low clouds. The saddest part is that we won't be able to say we've been to Spearfish, South Dakota. Meanwhile, more good food and good company in Iowa City, and more adventures to come, as we head west to the other side of Nebraska tomorrow.