Dustin was 250 miles out at 5 PM.

Gary called from in the air. He was 5 miles east of Big Spring (390 miles out)  at 10,000' at 5:22 PM. Looks like he's got the new light sailplane record in his little Woodstock.

The whole state of Texas is full of cloud streets. The forecast was good, but the reality was better. I got off first again at 9:42. Gary was holding back as was Dustin. Robin Hamilton in his Litespeed was ready to go after me.

The over running had been on since early and now the cu's were streeting up with the bases rising. Russell reported 150 fpm with cloud base at 1,800' AGL just before I launched.

There was plenty of sunshine on the ground now along with the obvious spaced streets. Russell took me to 3,300' AGL (I got off too early yesterday) to the east and I was getting lift above the clouds. I headed northeast to get to the gravel road that intersects with the east west St. Ygnacio road 10 miles to the north.

Despite the lift above the clouds, I didn't find any lift until I was down to almost 1,000' AGL. I spent the next thirty five minutes just hanging on, trying to stay up and drifting with the 22 mph winds out of the south southeast (155 degrees).

Soon after I crossed St. Ygnacio road I spotted Robin just ahead of me and below me. We hooked up and the flying greatly improved as I found 400 fpm just before I got to him. We climbed to cloud base.

Robin and I then worked together almost catching Gary in his Woodstock sailplane, twenty five miles out from Zapata. For the next hour we did well working our way quickly past the Laredo airport and toward the intersection of interstate 35 and highway 83. The cloud base was rising and we were getting to 4,500'. You could fly right in the misty wispies and not worry about being sucked into the cloud.

Then we made what Robin called a rookie mistake gliding over shaded ground and losing lots of altitude. I lost more than Robin who stayed on the edge of the shaded area and then headed over to I 35 to get under a cloud. I had to stay behind to work what lift I could find just to be sure that I could make it to the highway. I stayed in zero just so I could drift toward it.

I found some reasonable lift to 2,500' AGL (we just weren't getting that high) and headed north along I 35 to get under a cloud street. I looked down and saw Robin heading for the same street under me but he was low. He said that this was the second rookie mistake, jumping cloud streets low when he should have just held on and drifted with the lift that he had. He is too low and landed two miles north of the Texas Visitor Center.

The lift was weak and inconsistent but I keep working it hoping for some better stuff. There was a stretch of Mesquite ahead up highway 83 and I had to go back up wind to get higher to make sure I couldn't make it to some landing place. Again I was only getting to 2,500' AGL and cloud base was another 2,000' but I couldn't find any lift to get me up.

I headed downwind toward some cu's watching to be sure that I had reasonable landing areas, but nothing was working enough to get me high. I get nothing over 150 fpm. The landable areas were about to run out and I made one last run at the cu's to try to find something.

I find nothing and decided to land at the last field as I can't get high enough to see the next one (which is 10 miles away). I'm 68 miles out.

Pete and Kent launched after Gary and Dustin. After I break down my glider Pete came over my head and continued on. I heard that he got to 6,200' in places where I could only get to 3,100'. Kent in a Wills Wing Sport 2 was a bit behind him but going for it also (I told him to try to break Larry Tudor's king posted record of 308 miles).

Dustin was on another frequency but must have passed both Robin and I when we were low. He was about ten miles or more ahead of me when I landed.