Thursday, July 8, 2010

Day 3 July 6

Today started with overcast skies again, and a fifty percent chance of rain. Not a very promising soaring day. At the team captains meeting, it was announced that future team captain meetings would only occur after the regular pilots meeting if requested by one of the team captains. After the pilots meeting, we waited about fifteen minutes before being notified that there would be no flights today. The pilots left the grid in droves to avoid the drizzling sky. We ate a warm lunch on the field before Grandpa and I headed off to Tesco (Walmart).

That afternoon, Sharon, Lilly and I went in search of a swimming pool and ended up in a hotel spa. We swam in one of their mineral pools for about an hour before leaving for the hotel. In the evening Lilly and Sharon came over to eat dinner at our hotel, while Mike went to the airfield to watch the TV spot over the Chilean Grand Prix. Apparently, technical difficulties with the video kept him at the glider port later than he anticipated, so Lilly and Sharon had to walk the two blocks back to their hotel.

Nancy and Bill Snead went home once they found out that no one would be flying, and tried to relax. However, upon their return to the hotel, they discovered that Bill's cell phone was nowhere to be found. After thoroughly searching in the hotel room, it was back to the glider port for the Sneads. Nancy and Bill went up and down the runway in the rain, all in search of Bill's phone. By some miracle, they were able to find it on the grass covered field, and so trekked back to the hotel before setting off to go eat. They ended the evening with a game of European bowling in the hotel basement. In Europe, they only use nine bowling pins, and the bowling balls are much smaller than those in America, more comparable to a large grapefruit than a bowling ball. The bowling balls also only have two holes instead of three, and each pin is pulled up by a string attached to the top after it is knocked down.

Although the pilots might strongly disagree with me, I personally hope for at least one more rain day so we can go explore the wonderful town of Prievidza, and get a proper tour of the castle, hopefully in English.

Blair