Pittsboro, Southport, Asheboro, Pittsboro!

Our rental plane was "stuck" down at the Southport (near Wilmington) airport with a broken starter.  The pilot had to get a ride back to Asheboro Sunday night, leaving the plane there.  Richard arranged for the maintenance shop there to install a new starter.

The plane was ready for pickup, so Duane and I asked our neighbor to run us down there in his airplane.  All was arranged for 8am take-off.  But when we woke up it was foggy.....and our neighbor had a noon meeting he had to attend, so those best-laid-plans did not work out.  We ended up just getting in the car and driving the 3 hours.

 

The plane was all ready to go - and cranked on the first turn!  Yay!  But the weather was still foggy at home, so we just moved the airplane over to the terminal building so we could do some weather/flight planning.

Since it was 600 overcast at Asheboro with a forecast to lift in an hour or two, we decided to leave the airplane and drive around a bit.  Drove past the lighthouse we've seen from the Atlantic on our Bahamas trips.

 Our neighbor (who has a house on Oak Island) texted with a suggestion for a fun lunch. 

 The staff makes quick work of the order-taking.  Beverages (including beer and wine) are honor system and self-serve.  You just tell them as you leave how many beverages you had.  We just had sodas, of course....

View from the table of the intercoastal waterway.

My yummy "lunch special"!  Steamed shrimp and a wonderful crabcake.

 Duane then flew the plane back to Asheboro, skirting the clouds at 1500-2000ft.  

I drove almost 4 hours to pick him up!  Glad that chore is over but everything is an adventure!