Thursday
The Dallas group loaded up John's big Suburban Thursday evening, and headed out I-20. The advantage of the big beast was apparent to Tre and me, as we didn't end up having to do a driving shift on the way out. We arrived at Gordo at about 4AM, and as we hadn't reserved our rooms at the Satellite Inn until Friday night, we headed to the LZ to catch some Z's before the sun came up.  We were surprised and shocked to be attacked instantly by mosquitoes!  Yes, mosquitoes in New Mexico, courtesy of recent monsoon rains.  At least that took care of the fire danger...
Friday
After a few hours sweating it out pre-dawn in the truck with the windows closed (Scully's panting woke me up), we stumbled off to Denny's.  After, we got one of our rooms, and sent Lynda and Charles off of La Luz for a warm-up launch.  Lynda was warming back up to foot launching, and Charles was getting his first mountain launches since California:

Best I can remember it, Friday morning (La Luz) was pretty much a sledride, I'll log 10 minutes. EZ launch and nice big LZ (watch the powerlines), for first timers to Gordo.  Friday evening I got 45 minutes from Dry Canyon launch, felt like I could have stayed up for hours in the WonderWinds but the sun was setting and I had no landing lights.

By early afternoon, we found ourselves on top of Dry.  The road was the best I've ever seen it in eight years, having just been 'dozed in mid-

August.  Not being entirely conscious, most of us opted for a wonder-wind flight, although Greg outshone us all by launching earlier and managing an out-and-back to Tularosa (13 miles each way) to join us in the smooth evening air.
Friday night we dodged mosquitoes as long as we could stand it, then went out for 'meskin' food (as Greg called it).  Several beers later, we crawled back to the Satellite for some much-needed crashing. 
Saturday
Saturday, registered, picked out our T-shirt, and was handed a baggie full of flour with our pilot number on it--for the new 'bomb drop' task.  We all made it to the top, set up, and started the waiting game.  The early launchers did OK, but not great, and some sank out. My plan was to follow Greg, and I happily said so.  As the reigning SkyGod, Greg had to field several inquiries on his plan--his response became: "I'm going to follow Pete."  Actually, the only goals I really had were to beat Greg, as least once, and to make it as far as Scarizozo,

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