Jay,

Researching on what to buy is probably the hardest part of any
purchases. I am glad to hear that you decided to go with the Garmin 496
and made good use of it on the way home.

The Lowrance rep I talked to sounded quite definite about a new
Lowrance unit with XMWeather to be introduced next spring at Sun & Fun
so I am going to wait for a while.

I just want to have a disclaimer about being a PC expert. Messing
around with PC hardware/software has been one of my hobbies but it is
not my line of work. I only have a background in electronic materials
science/engineering and work in the reliability field.

Without XM Weather, we just have to be extra cautious, plan ahead
and obtain frequent weather updates. We left Oshkosh Wednesday morning
heading to northern Minnesota. We had to scrub our next stops in
Houghton Michigan and Mackinac Islands to avoid the fronts with
scattered thunderstorms. We stayed a day and a half in
GrandHaven/Lowell area visiting relatives and enjoying a Lake Michigan
swim with water temperature in the low 70's. We left Muskegon at 8 am
this morning heading back to NY and picked up a 30 knots tailwind.
There was just a bit of weather in Buffalo area with the ceiling lifted
to 1600' just in time for us to do a visual approach at Buffalo
Lancaster airport. From there it took less than 2 hours to get home at
KPOU.

I am glad that we did not have to put up with the storms at Oshkosh
the last two days. Not sure whether our little tent could hold up
against 40+ knots wind. It was kind of scary to hear about the plane
damages at Appleton. The "Claw" tie-down kit which we ordered at
Oshkosh will certainly come in handy in our next trip.

Thank you for the beer and the good company. I hope to meet few
more of rec.aviation regulars next time.

Hai Longworth