Mother Nature is Cruel

Yes, Mother Nature is Cruel!

cru·el

ˈkro͞o(ə)l/

adjective

adjective: cruel;

1.

willfully causing pain or suffering to others, or feeling no concern about it.

Back in August, during our OCMD photo shoot, Mary volunteered to help Laurie and Ted with their soon to arrive newborn twins and their son Robert, for a week.  I quickly ran the numbers and if Ted and I split the trip, meeting at some halfway point we would fly.

It would be hard for Ted to leave Laurie and the newborns for a day of flying and working the numbers it's just cheaper to fly on the spam can.  The other factor that we had to deal with is wx, a January flight would factor in the potential for ice and that's an automatic no go for me. Another key factor was Mary's health. Would it be a migraine week or a good week, there is no way to predict.

Here are the numbers crunched:

KOXB-W99-KOXB (4 Hr Round trip, 436 miles)
40 gallons x $5.50 = $220.00
Lets double that for the return trip to pick up my Bride, so I'm at $440.  Now that's strictly fuel burn, no fixed cost or reserves factored in.

If I was to make the entire round trip the fuel cost would be $880 and I would log just shy of nine hours. Unfortunately, sometimes the spam can wins when it comes to $$$.  I told Mary the one bright note is I could have had her out there in half the time the airlines did....sigh.

Flying out of Salisbury, KSBY is just a short hop for us by car, maybe twenty five minutes. The only flights will be a one stop, connecting in Charlotte-KCLT then on to Cincinnati-KCVG.

Of course on the day of departure Mother Nature sticks her tongue out at me at says check out this gorgeous weather. It was so nice I could have did the total trip if it weren't for the cost. At least Mary had a nice day flying even though I wasn't in the left seat.