There's a hole! Get in there! Today started out ok, I checked the forecasts, and there were no storms associated with the fronts that were moving through, so I called to solidify the plans for lunch in Kansas when I was informed there were weather issues. What?!?! I checked the computer in the lobby of the hotel, and sure enough there was a small system working it's way across Kansas. Part of the system was already over the destination of Pittsburgh, Kansas where I was to meet for lunch, and was going to block the people coming from Arkansas and Missouri. There was also another bunch of thunderstorm cells in Nebraska moving into Kansas. I had two options. Either go east and hope that I could stay ahead of them without having to fly all the way to Atlanta to do so (and leave Kansas as the sole state outside of the New England area that I haven't been to in the continental US), or take a slightly more northern deviation and slice between the two systems, and included Kansas on the trip. Since lunch was out anyway and I really didn't want to make a special trip to Kansas in the future, I decided to take the slightly more northern deviation and get to Garnett, Kansas for cheap fuel. It was pretty cloudy once I got to the Oklahoma, Kansas border, but with me at 5500 feet the cloud bases were well above me, probably up around 14,000 feet. They didn't look like buildups that could turn into thunderstorms so I kept flying. And even if I did run into something, I was ready to put down somewhere if I needed to. The trip into Garnett was mundane, and I pulled up to the pumps to refuel. Hmmm, very old pump, it's not self serve. I walk to the FBO and look to see if anyone is around. Nope, and it's locked. Sticky note on the door says "Gone for lunch, will return shortly." I look to the northwest and am seeing that second line from Nebraska moving in, and it's getting dark. Really dark. Come on, come on, come on, hurry up and get back from lunch! He finally gets back (I just got interrupted while writing this - see below for why) and gets my plane filled for me. Real great guy, and sometimes that's the great thing about small town America. I made a call to my overnight host in Peoria, and let him know where I was, and he said it would be about 3 hours to get there from where I was, and it should be perfect timing for when I arrived versus him getting done with work. I hopped in the plane, double checked my route against the ominous weather and launched off to the northeast towards Peoria. Sometimes the weather can look like it's not going to cooperate, but it ends up helping you instead. Thunderstorms are almost always associated with some sort of low pressure system. Low pressure systems, hurricanes included, generate a counter clockwise wind pattern. Flying on the southeast side of the storm to the northeast gave me a great tailwind. Instead of a 3 hour flight, it was only a little over a 2 hour flight because of the huge tailwind I got from the thunderstorm's outflow and cyclonic nature. So I was a bit early into Peoria, but it gave me some time to make a couple calls and update people on where I was, and how things were going on the trip. Dr. Bruce arrived a bit after I arrived, and after putting my airplane in his second hangar for the night (I love this country!), whisked me off to his family's house where they were gracious enough to put me up for the night. We spent a short time there before I was treated to dinner. I don't know why, but I enjoyed yet ANOTHER steak on the trip. After dinner, I was back at their house writing up this journal in the hammock on the back deck when I was interrupted. "Hey, you want to go flying?" I'd never been in a twin before, so I was like "Sure, I'm not too tired." So we drove over to the airport (all of the 2-1/2 minutes away it is) and pulled his Turbo Seneca out of the hangar. We got done with the preflight of the airplane and he tells me to get in first. Well, just like my plane, whoever gets in first gets to sit in the left seat - the pilot's seat. Ok, I wasn't expecting this! I'd never been in the cockpit of a twin, let alone doing the flying. Oh, and did I mention it was dark? So my first time in a complex, or high performance, or a twin, I'm doing it at night. We did two take offs and landings, and even an engine out procedure - and fully shut down the right engine. And the cool thing is, he's an instructor, so I even got to log the time. After that we went back to the house, and I showed them pictures of the trip, and we talked till well after 11 about any number of things before calling it a night. Total flying time today 4 hours 30 minutes in my plane 0 hours 45 minutes in the twin