I have to preface this by saying that the reason we went down to Llano was for the BBQ. I could have had to peddle a tricycle into town and been happy. The BBQ here is just that good. I've been to Hard 8 in Stephenville and Coppell and thought that they were awesome. This is a whole new level of awesome.
We began by leaving McKinney about 10:40 AM in the Cirrus SR 22 that Keith flies. It cruises at about 165 knots. Lucky for us that Keith is an IFR guy and a professional renter. He always files IFR no matter where he goes. When we left, the ceiling was about 2500 feet and about 1500 feet thick. After takeoff, ATC cleared us to 2000 feet and to expect 4000 in 10 minutes. When we finally got to 4000 feet, it was right at the top of the clouds so it was really bumpy. Our clearance to our cruising altitude of 6000 feet didn't come until we were out of the class B shelf. Once we got above 4000 feet, it was smooth.
A strange thing happens here in North Texas that prevents thunderstorms from developing. Normally the higher you go, the cooler the temperature gets. We're not normal here. We get this layer of very warm air that comes off of the plains of Mexico that prevent moist warm air from condensing (which is how thunderstorms build). So our temperature was 16C when we took off but was 17C at 6000. Normally it should have been about 6C at that altitude. That is a strange phenomenon.
So we finally get to Llano after we broke out of the clouds at 2500 feet. Nice touchdown and taxi back where we were met by Llano Larry. The first words out of Larry's mouth when he saw Keith was, "I thought you had died!". Larry and Keith go a long way back. He is probably one of the best Ambassadors for the town of Llano there is. There is a great article on him, the airport and the hill country way of life at http://www.flyingmag.com/pilots-places/pilots-adventures-more/gear-taking-hill-country-spin.
We finally got a key to one of the vans so we could head into town to Cooper's BBQ. Coopers has a van there and so does the airport. It seems that Cooper's knows that there are a lot of people who fly in just for BBQ so what better way to get them fed than to let them drive themselves into town. These are big crew vans. Not the latest models but they get you to Cooper's. That is all you need.
I can't begin to tell you how good the food was. I had ribs and sausage and my wife and daughter had ribs and a pork chop that was about 2 inches thick. Don't be shy, get the sauce. It is awesome. All I can say hours later is still "WOW!".
We got back to the airport and decided that it was time for a little conversation on the porch with all of the rocking chairs.
It was a lazy overcast day with nothing moving faster than it had to. I guess everyone was still getting acclimated to the time change that occurred last night where we had an hour stolen from us while we slept. The hills in the background made for a very calm and peaceful day spent doing some hangar flying.
We knew we had to head home as much as we would like to stay so we saddled up and began our 200 nm trek back to McKinney. At least we had a slight tail wind this time although Keith predicted we would have a head wind both directions. We got out early enough to avoid the nastiness that will be over us tonight.
In conclusion, the presence of good BBQ trumps a crappy crew car, you don't need to review it. It did get us safely from the airport to Cooper's and that is what really counts. Maybe on my next visit, I'll actually pay attention.
