Animal Kingdom

The wind really blew yesterday afternoon and into the evening.  It mellowed out by the time I went to sleep so I was surprised to here the tent rustling in the middle of the night.  I thought it was strange that it was gusting at night but rolled over only to hear the snorting of an armadillo 3 inches (25 mm)  from my face digging for crickets.  I actually punched through the tent and pushed the armadillo away.  It must have been hungary since it just moved around to the other side of tent and continued digging.

I went for a nice long run this morning in the cool air and continued my encounters with the natives.  I ran by vultures enjoying an armadillo pizza.  They looked up, decided I was no threat and continued eating.  I told them to enjoy the meal because we had a busy day of flying ahead.  Further down the road a large flock of starlings set along a power line chatting away as I ran underneath.  On the way back two adult Sandhill cranes and one chick crossed the road directly in front of me.  I could have easily reached over and grabbed the tail feathers of one of the adults.  I passed by the vultures again and then two rabbits sitting right on the berm of the road.  Of course I had my daily encounter with the local fire ants.

Flying-wise the day was a bit odd.  A front was stalling to the south and strange cloud formations were zipping overhead in the mid-levels of the atmosphere.  The computer models predicted no clouds with weak lift blown apart under a strong inversion;  not exactly a forecast to get excited about.  We didn't start launching until 2 PM and I almost didn't launch, but decided I could use the tow and landing practice.  Pilots were already sinking out when I launched so I was ready for a short flight.  However the flight was much shorter than I expected when the tug and I were tossed in different directions at about 200 feet (60 m).  I pinned off, flew back to launch through 5 or 6 bullet thermals, landed, and walked over to the tie-down line.  Enough for me.  Several pilots hung on for short flights and Jason even managed to climb to 3200 feet (975 m) before succumbing to gravity.

Flights: 1, Time: 0:05