Solo Cross Country

Today I carried out a rather long and incredibly hot and bumpy cross country solo. After a few problems upon arrival at Goodyear (namely the schedule being completely buggered, again) - I took the keys and tech book of N460X and headed out. Unfortunately N460X is one of the older warriors, and is therefore a complete piece of sh*t. This, coupled with 39 degrees and more thermals than you can shake an aileron at, made for a rather bumpy ride. It was nigh on impossible to get the aircraft trimmed for hands off flying, so it was quite difficult to do the navigation part of the flight. The lack of a timer in the aircraft also made things more difficult.
Not to worry, I pressed on and made it round all the airports I was supposed to, taking a few interesting photos along the way. Check out the giant hole in the ground near Casa Grande - taken from 4500 up it gives you an idea of how large it is.
I then passed over a set of fields that look like a set of giant targets for the Gods/Giants/Cloud people - not sure what the explanation behind these fields is, but I bet it's a good one.
I eventually made it back to Goodyear after 1 hour 45 mins - a little later back than I should have been, but a crappy old aircraft coupled with a very long climb to 6500 feet meant I didn't spend much time at the 100 kt cruise speed.
When I was taxiing back after landing I saw an F-16 having some work done on it - I had heard before I departed that an F-16 was due to arrive, but to taxi past it was pretty smart.
Overall - I fairly good flight and a really nice day. Tomorrow I am due another 2 hour cross country solo, but I have a feeling it will not go ahead, but we'll see...