That hour, she said, cost them the race.

"That storm delay killed our time. We knew after that, our chance of winning wasn't good."

Still, they continued, eventually reaching Minnesota and the end of their cross country flight; but making friends in the process. "Everywhere we went, we felt like queens for a day. It speaks so well for women in aviation."

And after the lunches and tours, they had one final weekend to wind down and await the results of their cross-country trek.

This past Sunday Richison and Smith learned they had pretty much wrapped up the tail end of the competition.

However, they didn't go away empty handed.

For their 31st place finish, they earned $100 and the SOS Claude Gasson Award for the last place team.

Of course there's always next year.

"Oh we're gonna race again," Richison said. "We didn't have the best time, but we did have the most fun."

Next year, they'll start much closer to home. In 2007, Oklahoma City's Wiley Post Airport will host the Air Race Classic. The race, part of the state's centennial celebration, will run from Oklahoma City to New Brunswick, Canada.

M. Scott Carter 366-3545 scarter@normantranscript.com