KCHA-KCGI

The flight from Chatanooga to Cape Girardeau was over rolling hills in Tennessee and started out at 3500 feet. My route took me through the Nashville control area and we had a real gem of a controller! She had a voice that you could have sold by the ounce! Clear and clearly Southern! She recommended a climb to 4500 feet and once up there, it was smooth and fast. Later, near Paducah I went up to 5500 feet to avoid some building clouds.
Landing in Cape was a yee-hah! The wind was from 210 degrees and 12 knots with gusts. Runway 20 which would have made that a cakewalk was closed for airshow prep, so I went in with a 70 degree left crosswind and 12 knots. The maximum demonstrated crosswind in my airplane is 15 knots, so it was sporty! The first pass was going well, until I hit the last ten feet and got the big burble from hell! Powered out and went around. Now I've attracted the attention of everybody working at the airport and they've stopped to watch the newbie with the funny airplane.
My crosswind technique was "crab and kick". Let the airplane fly off heading with the actual path across the ground straight down the runway, then kick the rudder, lay in the roll and slip at the last moment. It worked fine, until I kept the nose off for air braking and the airplane weathervaned into the wind. 28 is a nice wide runway, but the edge was coming on fast, so I put the nose gear down at 30 knots and steered for the centerline. The tower came up and asked "You guys allright?" I assured him were just doing "stupid pilot tricks with crosswinds" and we taxied on in. Several others that afternoon diverted to Sikeston, so I didn't feel that bad!
The rest of the day was spent with Robert Cork building a 5000 foot by 40 foot plastic runway offset from 28 and held down with paver stones. 30 pallets of pavers holding 3000 pounds of white plastic down.
Sunday we finished the job. Sunday evening the job was rearranged by a strong meso cyclone with 61 knot winds. And all six tents went down. Luckily, I'd just folded the Remos' wings and moved it inside.
Before folding the wings, Robert took me out and we worked hard on "slipping" to land. I was taught this technique, but didn't really "grok" the thing. Know I do and it will make my life much easier.