Here is the steed at the Maule factory in Moultrie Georgia. It's an M7-235C.
My brother ordered soooo many options and gadgets on this thing that we figured
if we filled up all the tanks we'd both have to slim down to around 140 pounds and take only a Hershey bar along

Well, you can't fly "coast to coast" from Moultrie Georgia so we took the plane down to Key west Florida

Coming back we passed Key Biscane and followed the east coast back up to Orlando at around 700 feet

We got back to Bob White Field just around sunset. We spent a few days around Orlando getting used to the plane
and collecting Florida bugs all over the nose and leading edges so we'd look like real bush pilots on the way out to California

After leaving Florida we made a stop at Moultrie to take care of a few things at the factory and change the oil
Our first major landmark sfter that was the mighty Mississippi near Baton Rouge Louisiana

An "antenna farm" near Houston Texas - these things give me the willies

Loading up in the morning at Hooks Memeorial Field just outside Houston

We made a fuel stop at Ozona Texas even though we really didn't need it. The terrain and winds to the west were less
freindly than what we had been used to so we figured with 85 gallons on board we could divert to just about anywhere
Flying a taildragger you are always mindful of wind conditions but exponentially more so if you are
a couple of greenhorns in a brand new Maule with about 350 pounds of baggage in the back seat.
For some reason, everywhere we went we seemed to be "blessed" with a direct crosswind.

After Ozona the landscape started to become decidedly more western

No this isn't a road - it's about half of the 7,000 foot runway at West texas Airport near El Paso
Why do they have a 7,000 foot runway?
Well, that would be only one of the questions you might ask about this bizarre but very interesting place

The West Texas Airport wind T

This is Phil, the proprietor of West Texas Airport for the past 30 years. He's got a "museum" out back and a '70 Chevy
Caprice courtesy car for 50 cents a mile that made some of the strangest noises we've ever heard
I'll have to admit that I had images of "Bate's Motel" when we first pulled up here but Phil turned out to be
a really cool oldtimer with lots of flying adventure tales to tell and lots of neat stuff laying around

After El Paso we landed at Ryan Field just west of Tucson. Ryan is like just barely in the same time zone as town
I mean it is way out in the middle of no-friggin-where but it's a nice airport with lots of taildraggers
I took a picture of some Cacti at nearby Saguaro National Park

Dan - bring on the Nuvite!
We spent a couple of days in Tucson and visited the Pima Air Museum
Also took the "boneyard tour"

After Tucson our next major landmark was the Colorado river

The California border at last. That's I-10 below

As we skirted the back side of the San Gabriels we could see that the entire basin side was on fire

We had to abandon our planned stop at Santa Paula due to the fires as well so we gassed up at Bakersfield
and headed stright out for the coast

We hit the shoreline at Morro Bay and headed north on a gorgeous afternoon

Looking straight down through the observer door windows at some kelp beds off Big Sur

Finally we squeek under the SFO TCA just off Ocean Beach and make our symbolic entry through...

The Golden Gate

Here's the "loaded" panel that allowed us to....

do this through much of the trip (fly hands off)

Safely nested in her new home at Tracy I give 969 Alfa Whiskey a postflight service and inspection
Everything worked flawlessly and with nearly 50 hours on the clock now we "almost" know how the handle the beast!