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After securing the new reservation, we promptly checked out of the cement block motel, drove the rental car back to KMTH, got back in the 340, started the engines, turned the air conditioner on high, and departed for the far north end of Key Largo.
Twenty minutes later I was circling the runway at the Ocean Reef Club, just as I had seen the Comanche 400 do way back when. The 340’s tires made the same chirping sound as I landed, and I taxied up to the same exact spot the Comanche had parked all those years ago. Waiting there next to a white Ford van was a sun-bleached high school-aged kid who reminded me much of myself all those years ago. On the way back to the hotel, I explained that decades before I had held his exact job and asked him to give us a tour of the resort. It had grown somewhat, but to my relief was indeed just as fancy as I had told my wife. Our room faced the water, was cool and elegantly decorated — with no cement blocks showing. That evening we had a very
nice romantic dinner at the resort res- taurant with white tablecloths on a secluded table for two facing the water.
After dinner, with a light breeze blowing off the water, we were walk- ing around in the moonlight under the palm trees when my wife said, “Well, I guess we finally arrived”. And with her help and that of the Cessna 340, that is just what happened.
Kevin Ware is an ATP who also holds CFI, MEII and helicop- ter ratings, has more than 10,000 hours and is typed in several dif- ferent business jets. He
has been flying for a living on and off since he was 20, and currently works as a contract pilot for various cor- porations in the Seattle area. When not working as a pilot he is employed part time as an emergency and urgent care physician. He can be reached at kevin.ware2@aol.com.
20 • TWIN & TURBINE / August 2023