BBQ Bash 2009

Whew!

Well, the Bash is over for one more year. People had a good time, lots of food was consumed, money was raised, there were no unpleasantries, and that all makes for a successful event!

Friday I did a fly-over of the Howard County Veterans Association in the T-6. They were looking for me to come over at 11 a.m. after they did some program on the ground, so I went over at 11 on the dot, turned around and came down in the other direction, slowly "waving" at them with the wings. The campers and such went on for about 3/4 of a mile long. I happened to be carrying the entire Glenndale Airport's Friday Lunch crew's lunch in my baggage compartment, so the next stop was taking the burgers and hot dogs into Glenndale just in time to be cooked up for a hungry crowd. :)

Friday was a set-up day, getting everything ready for Saturday, which encompasses more than anybody wants to read about. Duane gave some rides in the T-6. there was a little flying going on, Tre and Nathan made & brought homemade chili and grilled cheese sandwiches on Texas toast (yum!), we watched the movie "One Six Right", and ended the evening around the camp fire, where Kaylee fell fast asleep and softly snored while sitting on my lap and keeping us both warm. My Jeep was low on gas, but by the time I left, the gas stations on the way home were all closed. No big deal, I could get it in the morning.

Saturday morning Kaylee was pretty tired and I was a bit too, so we didn't get going in a super timely manner. We made it there in time for breakfast, and the day began. The crowd size was down this year from anything it's been in a long time, so I was surprised to learn that we gave more regular rides this year on Saturday than we did last year when we had a really good-sized crowd. There wasn't a big crowd, like I said, but there was a steady stream of riders all day long, and we ended up giving 136 rides. Not. Bad. I gave a few rides in a C-182, and ran a few people back and forth to Kokomo. The winds were not overly helpful (Saturday or Sunday either one), so the Mustang couldn't safely make it down to stay, but Nathan and Steve flew it overhead to say hello. I was in the 182 at the time so I didn't get to hear it, but I did get a good look at it a couple of times, which was worth a smile. The thing that was down the most this year was the T-6 rides-Duane didn't have to sit in the plane and run non-stop this year. Food sales and regular rides were really good though. Saturday evening was the Giant Airplane Shuffle. We had a bunch of airplanes that we would have left sitting out normally, but Sunday's weather forecast was not looking too hot and we did not want all these planes sitting out to get rained on. So I ended up flying the 182 and the Cherokee 180, and we got those two, the RG, the Toga and the T-6 all put away before coming back to another evening by the fire. It was chillier Saturday night, so I wrapped up in a blanket, and Kaylee crawled up on my lap under the blanket and finally fell asleep again.

Sunday morning I woke up early but I was tired. Kaylee was worse, she did not want to get out of bed for anything. Church started at 10, and we left the house at 10 till 10, meaning I still didn't have time to stop for gas. By now I'm staring at the needle a bit, and yep, it's not quite below the E yet, but it's sure on it. Our weather today was supposed to stink again, but really the morning was fine for awhile. We had our church service, then the rides began again. Chuck took me to Kokomo in the Citabria and I brought the T-6 back into Glenndale's Runway 18 for the day. I came up short on energy to flare and had a great bounce-best bounce I've had in that airplane since before I did the checkout with Jim-and I actually started laughing. It was a good and short landing at least. lol It did start raining not too long after that, but our guys kept the rides going for most of it, and people just came inside, snacked, and waited it out. After that, the skies cleared for awhile, and we had a beautiful several hours of flying and playing. Kaylee said today was the best day ever, and tonight in her prayers she thanked God for the "Best BBQ Bash EVER!" She had a few rough times on Saturday, but today she had a blast, no problems at all, and ending on a good note always makes the whole thing feel better. :)

A newly diagnosed SMA family stopped in today, and I got to meet the most handsome little guy with SMA Type 2. They are just starting on their journey in SMA, but I can tell after meeting the mom that she's one of "them", a "Badger Mom", one who doesn't just throw her hands up and say "it's over", but rather one who said "they said he wouldn't walk--we're going to see about that. He's already standing and we're going to keep working." It's not an easy journey, but when you can see the backbone already, you know they're going to be okay, or 'okay' as it is redefined after getting such a diagnosis.

In the afternoon I started giving rides in the T-6, and I ended up doing...six or seven of them. The ceilings were a little on the low side, so we couldn't go do any aerobatics or anything, but I did some low passes and people got some hands-on flying, flew over their schools and homes and farms and such. We held our raffle drawings, ate more food, finished up the regular rides, and needed to do another airplane shuffle to get all the planes put back for the day. The weather had gone downhill, ceilings and visibilities both, but Kokomo was still reporting decent weather of 6 miles and 2400', so Ty took the 182, Steve took the RG and I took the T-6 and we launched for Kokomo. Their AWOS was reporting...optimistically...but flying through the mist/light rain did clean off all the bugs on all three airplanes, and they had been covered. The clean airplanes are a bonus, because getting stuck-on dead bugs off a few days after they've "landed" is one tough job, and those wings were literally covered in them. We pushed the T-6 back into the hangar by hand because the tug is still broken, and caught ground rides back to Glenndale. Oh, by the way, Chuck had to stop and get gas in my Jeep before coming out to Kokomo because it was so low on fuel. Doh! When we made it back to Glenndale, we were really surprised to see how fast the clean up crew had gotten to work. Tables and chairs were down, stakes and tape was down, signs were down, food was put away, it was amazing! There was more to do, and there will be for a few days as things get put back in place, but after awhile we all sat down and just relaxed for a few before heading home for the night--for the first time in two days before 11:something p.m. :)

Pizza Hut donated pizzas, Coke donated drinks, Frito-Lay donated chips, Mitch donated a hand-built pedal plane done in a beautiful metallic purple and silver color scheme, Bill donated his DJ services for two days of great music, Nathan & Tre donated the hog and a whole lot of other food & time (& airplanes), Sheryl donated framed aviation art from the post office, the skydivers donated two jumps into our field, well, way too many people to list donated their time and muscle and supplies and property and planes and money. Like I say, and mean quite vehemently every year, we couldn't do this without a whole lot of people. The experienced pilots who can make it happen even when the wind and weather isn't perfect. The ground crew who keep the planes on the ground safe, parked, fueled, taxiing properly, inbound properly. The food crews who cook, serve, clean, straighten. The sales crews who answer questions, sell tickets for rides and shirts and hats and raffles and all sorts of stuff. The crew that keeps the grounds clean, the trash emptied--if you'd been at Mt. Comfort this year and been stuck on a flight line with port-o-pots with NO toilet paper and completely overflowing trash cans, you would realize real quick how important those guys are. The folks watching the moonwalks and doing the face painting, and the fire-putter-outers who fix whatever is going wrong at the moment at any given place whether the concession stand be out of forks, the ride folks out of tickets, the radios with dead batteries, or the million other little things that always need addressed by somebody at an event. It really is amazing the sheer number of people it takes to successfully complete the Bash, and they all have my true gratitude!!