the sky (and shot me down) on the last day.  So the fine hosts of the Rio Grande Soaring Association decided to postpone the Dry Canyon Fly-in to Labor Day instead.
The Dallas crew was represented by John Russell, Tre Groeschel, Greg Chastain (going for  his fourth XC title in a row), Charles Canney (who moved to Weatherford from California a few years ago, right after his Hang II), and myself.  Oh, and Scully too.  Some of the Texas usuals didn't make it this year, including Kelly 'girl' Russell (kids), Kelly 'boy' Scroggins, Duane McCune, Peter 'KPL' Lee, Kent Robinson, Keith Brown (excuse for all: work), Ken Tolin (still recovering from shoulder surgery), and all the rest of you (you know who you are…)
Many other of the usual Texans were missing as well, but Marco Zaldivar and Bob Loper came out from Houston.  Lynda Wacht drove down from Denver. But also missing were some of the regulars from Albuquerque, including 'Ganja Dave' Prentice (doing the PG Nats in Aspen); but Burt and Leonard, our new friends from Ribera, showed.  The usual Gordo locals were there, including Robin, Parker, Bill, and hosts Tommy and Cindy West.  A gaggle of German paraglidists were also in attendance, getting flights in the smooth morning and evening air.
Here's the tale, day by day.

Continued on next page…..

GORDO2K
By Pete Hammer, with commentary by John Russell and Charles Canney
t took all summer, but the Texas assault on Alamogordo in why-too-kay was a resounding success.
The 20^th Annual Memorial Day fly-in this year had to be postponed due to the extreme drought conditions--the National Forest was closed at the last minute due to the high fire danger (not that hang glider pilots are any more likely to set fires… equal exclusion to all).  Some fires reached as close as the suburbs of Cloudcroft. We ended up going to the First Annual Psycho Psoaring Fly-in in Ribera, near Santa Fe.  But that's a whole 'nother story (yeah, I know, never wrote it down…).  Even at that event, smoke from the Pecos forest fire blocked half

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