This was my second flight in a small plane for another route that made a lot of sense: going to Burning Man. The drive is just a bitch, and even a flight in an overloaded slower C172 was truly awesome in comparison.
After hitch hiking and having found a nice pilot who flew me from BRC to Reno to avoid the hellish drive home the previous year (I had a Reno -> SJC flight after that), I ended up looking for, and finding a pilot who was willing to pick a coworker and I up.
We did an 11th hour landing at BRC at the end of twighlight (cutting it a bit close), on the way back took off with only a few gallons to spare before we made it to the nearest refueling airport, and had an electrical failure just before landing in PAO, but eh, it sure beat the drive :)
![The C172 that got us there The C172 that got us there](/blogimg/05/thumb1024_105_20040902_PAO_to_BRC.jpg)
The C172 that got us there
![Racing the sun to the landing strip Racing the sun to the landing strip](/blogimg/75/thumb1024_175_20040902_PAO_to_BRC.jpg)
Racing the sun to the landing strip
![It's over there somewhere, right? It's over there somewhere, right?](/blogimg/78/thumb1024_178_20040902_PAO_to_BRC.jpg)
It's over there somewhere, right?
![Finding BRC was easy, finding the unlit landing strip was harder Finding BRC was easy, finding the unlit landing strip was harder](/blogimg/79/thumb1024_179_20040902_PAO_to_BRC.jpg)
Finding BRC was easy, finding the unlit landing strip was harder
![Back to PAO Back to PAO](/blogimg/22/thumb1024_222_20040906_BRC_to_PAO.jpg)
Back to PAO
After that flight, I finally decided that it was time to get my ass in gear, and get a pilot's license, something I started working on later that year.