Pre-flight planning really is worth doing.

Yesterday, I did something I don't get to do much any more -- just
headed off on a trip with no particular purpose in mind other than it
was a nice day and I wanted to go flying. I looked at a chart and found
an airport I'd never been to before, Claremont NH, and off I went. I
did enough pre-flight planning to be sure I had plenty of fuel, and that
was about it. I filed IFR just to stay in practice.

OK, I get there, and decide to fly the GPS-29. How tough can this be?
The approach plate has a note, "Obtain local altimeter setting on CTAF;
when not received, use Springfield altimeter setting". I'm still 20-30
miles out from the IAF when I start to brief the approach, and am mildly
annoyed that they don't put the Springfield ATIS/AWOS freq on the plate.
No big deal, I can look it up.

I pull out my AFD and find the entry for Springfield, Mass. Then I
realize I passed that quite a distance back, so that can't be right.
OK, I flip over to the New Hampshire section, and look up Springfield.
Huh, it's not there? That's strange. I go back and look at the plate
again. Springfield, yeah. Back to the AFD. Still can't find it.

By this time, Boston Center is giving me my descent and approach
clearance, so I deal with that. Then, suddenly, it starts to get bumpy,
just as I get to the IAF, and the GPS is giving me turns to fly. I've
wasted so much time trying to find the Springfield ATIS freq, I realize
I haven't really looked at the descent profile yet. Gee, it didn't take
long to go from fat, dumb, and happy to being behind the airplane!

OK, prioritize. I've got a recent en-route altimeter, that's more than
good enough (especially considering there's barely a cloud in the sky).
Screw the altimeter setting and fly the plane. Found the airport,
cancelled IFR, and landed uneventfully.

It wasn't until I looked at airnav this morning, that I realized they
meant Springfield, VERMONT. I guess if I had done more than about 3
minutes of pre-flight planning, I would have known that. Sigh.