Oshkosh, Day Nine

As I'm writing this, I am watching the night show at Oshkosh. Now THAT is fantastic. The Aeroshell Team went, the motorized glider, the Twin Beech, and a few others. Several of them have actual pyrotechnics on them, meaning they are spouting fire off their wingtips, looking like giant, close-up shooting stars. They also have fireworks on the planes...shooting colors of fireworks off as they go. The show ended with a rousing round of real fireworks from the ground, just like the 4th of July or Disney, with one air show specific feature...the Wall of Fire at the Grand Finale along with a sky full of colorful fireworks. It's really, really neat. I haven't seen a night aerobatic show before in person, and I've really enjoyed it. We all agree that this was Most Awesome.

My phone went off at five something this morning-Nathan letting me know to sleep in after all because the photo shoot with the B-25 was scrubbed due to ceilings. Ah, well, that's how life in aviation works. Some day, maybe. :)

Steve and I took Kaylee and Jamie to KidVenture, where Kaylee made a t-shirt with a "Warbird Alley" design, a P-51 wooden airplane, sat in planes and did the usual KidVenture fun stuff. We were there for quite a few hours, rode a bus there and back, then took a Tram around the grounds and hit some of the areas we hadn't gotten to yet.

Meanwhile Nathan flew in the warbird show, as Fighter Lead, led the Missing Man formation as well, and the first strafing run had pyrotechnics that came in three sections of fire--in red, white and blue. Cool, man.

After we got back from all our walking, shopping, and air showing, we all ended up back at Kodiak Jack's for one last time and stuffed ourselves, preparing for tomorrow's departure...the fireworks were a fantastic end to the airshow day, and right now we are roasting massive marshmallows for smores...not a bad end to the day at all. :)

Oshkosh, Day Eight

I only title the blog posts this way because I can't think of something creative every day. ;)

I slept in this morning a little bit, then went and did laundry with Nathan and Jamie. We went into town and took our giant bags of laundry (which we were afraid to open). Since we were practically the only ones in there and had the facilities to ourselves, we were in and out in under 90 minutes, both reading our respective books while we waited. Kaylee stayed behind with Steve to play in the park with her friend, and it was just a quiet morning. Well, quiet other than the sound of all sorts of airplanes overhead all the time. ;)

I ran Nathan out to the warbird briefing room for the big air show brief for today, then hung out at the Mustang for a little while talking. The pilots from the C-5 Galaxy stopped by the Mustang and talked for a little while, and I thought that was kind of ironic. They are ooing and ahing over the Mustang, taking photos, climbing up to look in, etc., while last night we were the ones on the ground enjoying watching them bomb around the pattern around the ultralights and the Goodyear Blimp. As we were standing there, a flight of four F-15 Eagles also arrived...our new friend who camped with us last year and a few more buddies...

Nathan flew the Mustang in the warbird show as Fighter Lead (which is cool). He got to fly around above the B-17s too, and pyro, and had fun. (It's always kind of neat when you know some of the folks flying around at the show.) When the show was over and I went to pick up Nathan, Steve C. and Jon from the Mustang, it was lightly raining, so I took the golf cart, two umbrellas, four Gortex rain coats, and two towels to make the trek. This year the guards at the gates are totally letting us through, which is fantastic as it has saved us huge amounts of walking. We can drive that golf cart right to the airplane now, and anywhere we want basically. Somebody here has goofed up in not telling their people how to make sure golf carts are properly credentialed to get in, but I'M not going to complain! As we were driving home in the light sprinkle with Nathan holding the umbrella up in front of us, five people on this bogged-down golf cart, we got a few smirks and a couple of thumbs-up from people passing by.

Several more of our campers have left for home today. We're down to the Tummers, us, AE, Chuck and crew (who are leaving tomorrow morning), Sam & Ann, and Nathan & Jamie now. So tonight we cooked up steaks. Big, fat, juicy, serious meat market steaks. And corn on the grill in the husk. And rolls. It was really good.

Kaylee and Jamie have made a little friend named Dillon, and he actually joined us for steak dinner tonight. When he came in, he introduced himself quite politely, looking me in the eye. I said I was happy to meet him and that my name was Laura. He said "I prefer to call adults by their last name. What is your last name?" I said "My name is Mrs. Stants". He says "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Stants". When we invited him for dinner, he went all the way home to ask permission, and his grandmother came all the way back here to meet us first and ask if the invitation was real. Very polite, very sweet family, great kid, and it's been good for Kaylee & Jamie both to have another playmate right there. Each year they make one or two good friends for the week they are here. Last year it was Andrew and Grahm. This year it's Dillon and occasionally Spencer. I think it's great. :)

The F-15 pilots stopped in for awhile, this year on a golf cart they actually didn't steal. ;) We fed them too, then sat around the fire with them for several hours. They're full of some pretty good stories and we had a fun time. We also had a friend of Nathan's stop in, Stormy from Rosamond (California). Another military man, Edwards Air Force Base, pilot, navigator, A-4, experienced, funny, and smarter than anyone would probably guess. He hung out a good amount tonight as well.

Nathan was set up to do a photo shoot for the Mustang behind a B-25. He invited me to ride back seat, which I was looking forward to doing. Then he talked to the guy and they may add the T-6 in there too. The briefing was to be at 5:30 p.m. Formation and a photo shoot with a Mustang and a B-25. Hehe. But it rained today, and the flight was scrubbed. But then it was rescheduled for tomorrow morning. You know how pilots and photo shoots are...the earlier the better as far as they are generally concerned. So tomorrow I leave my trailer after 6 a.m. to see if I'll be flying the T-6 up close and personal with did I mention a Mustang and a B-25? Yeah, that's a smile...

Oshkosh, Day Seven

Whew did I crash last night! Well, that's probably a poor choice of words around here. I was so tired I was having trouble keeping my eyes open from after dinner on, and finally I just gave up and crawled in bed. I've been waking up way early and running pretty busy, and it caught up to me last night I guess. :)

This morning I was awake by 6 a.m., we had French Toast and bacon and hash browns that Steve Tummers cooked up (and did a marvelous job as always!), and then Chuck took me out to the T-6 for Judgement Day. First Judy and I put on our flight suits and took a picture by the airplane, for posterity, since no-one was around to take our photo when we landed at Oshkosh the other day. Jon and Steve C. and AE cleaned up the T-6, detailing it down to the floorboards and the belly, making it shine for the judges. This year's judging day went much more efficiently than last year. (Do you remember last year? Boy I do!) Anyway, Chuck was able to drive us right up to the T-6, which I wouldn't have bet on in a hundred years, the guys had her all spit polished and ready to go, and the judges were even there in about 30 minutes. You just can't beat that. I had a time slot of 9 a.m. to noon, and they could come any time, and you have to be there when they come, especially on the last time slot of the day, or you don't get judged. It all just worked out perfectly. Steve, Jon and I got our photo taken in front of the plane as the "representatives" of the airplane, the judges complimented the plane after crawling all over checking it out, and I was back at (an empty) camp in under two hours.

While we were waiting, we are parked right by Runway 27, so we got to watch a bit of the "show" of pilots coming in to land. You see some good ones and you see some not so good ones and some just normal ones and some holy cow ones. I saw two light taildraggers have a little trouble, one of whom wasn't a groundloop by sheer luck or guardian angel. An RV came in 3-point, bounced his landing, and then waffled his stick back and forth while he went careening down the runway. At one point he came up on his nose and his tail swung and I thought it was all over but towing the bent bird off the side of the runway. But nope, it straightened out and he stopped and taxiied off, probably calling in for a change of shorts. There's nothing like pulling off a landing like that in front of thousands of fellow pilots, video cameras, cell phone cameras, fans, and officials. YouTube, here you come! :O

I spent a good portion of the day alone at the camp site, relaxing. I did some work, returned a few calls, returned some emails, did some SMA and some airport stuff, read a book, had some drinks, and just...chilled. Doing work in a trailer while airplanes bomb around over your head is much better than doing work at home. ;)

I ran a headset out to the Mustang. It was a sterile ramp, but I convinced them to let me up into the Mustang anyway. The problem was I had a skirt/short on, and you can't climb up onto or slide down off of the Mustang with bare skin. So I screeched my way down the flaps most ungracefully, after sticking my rear up in the air and my head down into the back seat most ungracefully to plug in the headset, after climbing up on the wing in a skirt thing most ungracefully. All in public with a pretty good audience. Oh well, my nickname wasn't "Grace" for nothing...I just hope nobody I know was out there with a camera.

We had "Campground Buffet Extraordinaire" for dinner tonight. That's where you clean out the fridge and have leftovers, all you can eat. :) For dessert AE made homemade vanilla ice cream, which I topped with nuts and chocolate chips, and THAT was tasty. A nice way to end the day...

Kaylee and Steve hit a bunch of stuff today while I was doing my thing. She climbed a rock wall, they went shopping, they went to check and see if she won a "Duggy" replica (big yellow airplane painted with a smile on its 'face'), and just had a nice time too. :)

Again, I'm sleepy, so forgive the disjointed, but we're doing just fine so far...

Oshkosh, Day Six

We've been taking showers at night before bed, which I don't usually like to do because, well, I'm a girl and it doesn't do good things for my hair. But we're camping. So...whatever, other than the fact that I had my photograph taken by the aviation photographer, a close-up face shot on the ground, at 6 a.m. with bad hair and a puffy face. He's sending us a disk with all the photos he took, and I'm not real sure that one will ever see the light of day. Which means I'd better keep it away from Steve. ;) Anyway, there's nothing like being in the shower house and hearing someone say "Are you from Kokomo, Indiana?" I said yes, and a woman in a towel says "I toured with the B-17, we stopped in at your airport and you gave us all t-shirts!" Aviation is a small world.

Last night Oshkosh was hit was a big storm. Right before I went to bed I checked the weather, and there was a big ugly headed at us, with tornado watch in effect, and calling for heavy rain, wind, and large hail. Uh, eek. We have two planes sitting outside and quite a few people in tents. Sure enough, in the middle of the night our shades start banging and the wind starts kicking it up. We closed our windows, then Steve and I sat on the edge of the bed and watched the world outside get blown away. We lost our blue tent canopy that was tied down and staked down over the grill, bikes, etc. It crumpled with the first blast of wind. We watched the tents careening around with people inside holding them in place. And I worried about the T-6 and Mustang out there. The Six is tied down, but the Mustang wasn't, and...those were some ferocious winds. Fortunately I never heard any hail at least. This morning the guys took the canopy remains and deposited them in the dumpster, and you can see the detritus trail here and there at other people's campsites. Not everyone knew the weather was coming like we did, so not everyone was as prepared. I haven't heard of any complications today, and the planes were all fine. A few awnings got ripped, a few tents got wet, but all in all it was fine.

We spent today checking out more of everything. Homebuilts, warbirds, vintage, LSA, Aeroshell Square, Kaylee & Jamie did little tours through several of the planes there, the DC-7, the B-17, etc. We had ice cream, we walked around for most of the day, from morning through to almost 5 p.m. We covered a good portion of Oshkosh, watched the air show while we talked to LSA exhibitors about their products, and had a fun day.

(The day started with sleeping in until around 7:30 a.m., then having homemade blueberry pancakes, eggs, bacon, hash browns, etc., which is hard to beat.)

When we got back around 5 p.m. or so, I filled out the paperwork for the T-6 to be judged and golf-carted it back to the registration booth. You have to have someone there during the judging hours, which are 9-12 tomorrow morning. Nathan had the Mustang judged this afternoon, and each time your plane is judged you receive a plaque with your photo on it as a thanks. I'm not sure if I'll be there when they come, as sitting there for three hours might not be in the cards, but at least the plane will get a plaque whether or not my mug is in the photo.

Tonight we hit Wentz's restaurant, which is known for its Lake Perch and root beer. We ate so much I'm fairly sure I'm in a food coma right now. It was good, we had 13 of us go out. Wentz's is right by Lake Winnebago, and you can see Warbird Island from your seat. The sun was going down, the bugs were coming out, and we had a good dinner with everyone before heading in for our evening fire.

People are jokingly calling it "Sloshkosh 2010" and "Camp Swampy", but you know, it's one of those things where nobody can make fun of my brother but me? It hasn't dampened the spirits of anyone, hasn't cut the numbers short as best we can tell, and everyone's having a great time around it. In fact, it sort of adds to the atmosphere. Obviously pilots are slightly "off" people in the first place, but when they plan to come to the Aviation Mecca of the year, a little thing like rain won't deter them. ;) They've moved some airplanes to different areas, moved some camping to different areas, and it's working out just fine. The week is halfway over and there's still so much to do...

Oshkosh, Day Five

I woke up this morning when it was still dark out. I waited a little while, then finally looked at my cell phone, and it was 3:45 a.m. Ack. I stayed mostly awake until I had to get up at 5:15. Now why was I getting up at 5:15 a.m., you might ask? For my first photo shoot by a well-known aviation photographer where I was the one flying one of the planes, for an article by Warbird Digest magazine. :) Nathan took the Mustang and I took the T-6 and we were one two-ship. There was a Zero and a Corsair on a second two ship, and the Red-Tail CAF Mustang and BT-13 in a third two-ship. The briefing was at 6 a.m., which is when we found out there were three sets of us and that we were last to go. This ended up being a very fortuitous thing, because I had some issues getting fuel. I didn't have enough fuel to do the photo shoot and I couldn't get a fuel truck out to me for various reasons, and almost had to cancel. Fortunately at literally the last possible moment a fuel truck pulled up, the day was saved, and the flight was on.

We circled around one end of the lake while the photographer finished up with the CAF planes, and then it was our turn. The sun, the water, it was a pretty morning, smooth, and really nice. The photographer communicated with us over the radio on a discreet frequency, telling me to go down 20 feet or come forward 10 feet or whatever he wanted. Then they did single ship photographs of each of us individually, and we were done. Nathan joined back up after his single ship photos were done, and we flew out over the big lake, over to Warbird Island. We switched places and I flew off of him for the last half of the flight home to get more practice with that whole wingman thing. Coming in to land, he touched down first and I saw that I was going to be pushing it to be down and slow in time, and once I'm down I'd lose sight of him on the runway, so to be safe I did the first real go-around I've had to do in a very long time before coming back in for a nice, uneventful landing. That was all quite an adventure, and quite an experience. It's going to be hard to top Oshkosh for awhile, because last year was the first year I flew a T-6 into Oshkosh, and this year I got to fly in with Chuck and Nathan and Judy not too long before the show started, and do a photo shoot with Paul B. in it in formation with a Mustang. I suppose next year I'll have to actually fly in the show if I can get the formation stuff done and down.

Steve, Chuck, Kaylee, me, Nathan and Jamie hit the four vendors buildings this afternoon. Kaylee got some airplane earrings and a monocular, Nathan and Chuck each picked up some goodies, and we got to play with some of the new technology. The iPad was Everywhere. Several of the vendors used the iPad to showcase their products. One was actually pretty cool, it was a flight simulator you moved just by tilting the iPad around. I couldn't make a good landing that way, but it was fun to mess with, and would only cost $10 at the aps store. If you already had an iPad that is. Kaylee and Jamie both wanted to buy it and were offended to learn the $10 cost was not including the iPad they were playing on. ;) ForeFlight used the iPad to showcase their product too, and we messed with it some and like it. They may have made a sale today and not know it. Kaylee woke up with a "crick" in her neck, and there was a massage thing that she tried out on her shoulder. It would contract the muscles, so her shoulder/arm kept jerking up. I thought she was doing it, but she wasn't, and it was kind of funny to watch. Her shoulder did feel better after that, actually. A silly one was a balance/core strength thing. They stand you up on one leg with your arms out and push you over. Then they hand you this...thing...and try to push you over again, and your strength and balance have increased. Well, okay... Anyway, we saw all sorts of stuff today, from the latest and greatest to the tried and true winners. New planes, new instruments, gizmos and gimmicks. Oshkosh always has deals on things, and folks take the opportunity to pick up things they need...

After hitting the Bose (finally-new product with features they were behind on implementing!) and the Garmin big tents too, we drove the golf cart home to our campers so we could cook up brats and hot dogs and all the 'fixins' to go with them. REALLY good. There were only about 14 of us tonight. Ty and Mary have gone home and so have Dave and Laura (other Laura). We watched the air show from our good seats in the shade, and they had a nice show today. Lots of warbirds swarming around. We did learn tonight that Jack Rousch crashed his jet today coming in to land on Runway 18. Thankfully he is okay and his wife is just in the hospital for observation. That was a close one...early reports indicated a runway overshoot followed by a stall in, hitting hard enough to break off the tail. But that is all unverified and nobody knows yet other than the condition of the plane. He was very fortunate to walk away, and I'm glad.

As the sun went down we had a fire, talked about the fun exploits of the day, hit the shower house and hit the hay.

I've been up very early the last several mornings, so my plan is to sleep in tomorrow a little. Hopefully at least past 7 a.m.! The only problem is that there's a big wad of thunderstorms headed our way tonight sometime in the middle of the night. That's a three-fold problem. One, the campgrounds do not need any more rain. Two, we have to close windows in the trailer which means it will get stuffy once it starts raining. And three, all that noise is probably going to wake me up and I'm tired! Hopefully nothing blows away!

Good day, good day...

Oshkosh, Day Four

I am sitting here by the camp fire, watching the sun set, with a Mai Tai, surrounded by 30 friends, enjoying the end of an excellent day. :)

We got up bright and early again today and headed to Fon du Lac, where Jerry L picked up Chuck, Judy, me, and Nathan in the Saratoga, and flew us back to Kokomo. It was a beautiful morning for a flight, cool and clear and smooth, and we were back home in under 2 hours, after doing a flight right by the Chicago skyline. I pulled out the T-6, Nathan pulled out the Mustang, and we all got suited up, fueled up and ready to go. Judy climbed in the back seat of the T-6 with me, and we took off out of Kokomo and headed to Wisconsin. We had a great flight, still pretty smooth and clear. Aboutg 15 miles south of Fon du Lac, Nathan and Chuck in the Mustang caught up with us, blew past us, then formed up off our right side. Nathan called up Fon du Lac's tower and asked if they wanted a low pass, and they said "Yes, please!" So we flew down their runway, then flew right to Warbird Island, then on into Oshkosh.

The airspace was to close in another hour and some for the air show, so this was the closest I'd come to landing at Oshkosh during a busy time. Nathan called us in as a flight of two, and the winds were down 18 but we were landing on 36, which had me on alert a bit as the T-6 is not an airplane in which to land with a tailwind. I was ready to go around at any point and request the crosswind runway of 27, but I came on in, came on down and made a perfectly good landing, so all's well that ends well.

When the Mustang taxiied in, I was behind him, and the ground guys sent Nathan in the Mustang down a very tight path. The T-6 wings are longer than the Mustang wings, and the Mustang was too tight, so I knew that wasn't going to work. Finally they sent me down with some other T-6s, waaaay down in the middle of nowhere, as far north as you can get. In between us and the Mustangs are a few bogs, standing water, mud, etc., but where I am is actually pretty firm ground. Judy got out fine, I got the plane secured, and we walked over to the Mustang and met up with Nathan, Chuck, Jim Z., Mark Watt, and several others for awhile before going to Warbird Registration and picking up our packets. The packet is in a bag that says "Warbird Pilot", has a hat, two week passes, the week's schedule, a mug, all sorts of cool stuff. :)

Tonight we had a group dinner. Over 35 of us Glenndale Guys and other camping friends got together and had chicken on the grill, hot dogs, all sorts of food and drinks, and for dessert we got birthday cupcakes and ice cream and cake for Chuck (whose birthday was today and was celebrated by arriving in the Mustang with his wife arriving in the T-6) and Nathan (whose birthday was last week). Chuck dumped one of the cakes down the front of him, but he was nimble enough to just get his hand in it. ;)

We ended the night with talking, food, drinks, friends and fire. And photos. And a few cigars. A nice time was had by all. :)

Oshkosh, Day Three

The sun was shining in the window this morning when I heard everyone rustling around outside, and when I checked almost everyone was sitting around the table, getting the breakfast food out, etc. I figured it must be getting late, so I got up, got ready, and went out there, looked at the clock and saw it said 6:28 a.m. Are you kidding me?? *sigh* I was awake, and thus the day begins. :)

We spent today setting up the camp site, running into town to pick up supplies, did some driving around and visiting and eating and helping the hoards coming in get their camps set up.

It's funny, the pilots are coming, mud or no mud. There are huge tractors with huge tow ropes trolling around pulling out trucks and campers who are getting stuck in the mud off the sides of the roads. Some of the bigger campers are set up on the actual road itself, something we've never seen here before. One large camper pulled up next to us, then stopped right in a muddy spot while we were chanting "Don't stop! Keep rolling! Ohhhhh, too late...it's over..." and it was. He was stuck but good. About 45 minutes later here came an EAA tractor, pulling him into his camping spot. The conditions haven't stopped people from coming, and the airplanes keep coming too, even though there's nowhere left to park. They closed the airport for arrivals due to lack of parking, and it was a strange morning, looking to the skies and not seeing any airplanes on Sunday morning. Finally that afternoon some arrivals were let in, including a mass arrival of 26 T-6s, which was a cool sight/sound, as always.

We brought the kids' bikes this year, and they have been set free. The traffic they have been riding around in has been slightly frightening, but they've been handling it really well, and it's good experience in a fairly controlled environment. I was pleased with how they handled it the one time I led them to a playground down the road...

Well, I have to get up early, as we're flying back to Kokomo with friends to pick up the warbirds and bring them back here. We'll be arriving just about an hour before the air show starts...should be fun. :)

Oshkosh, Day Two

We got up early this morning and just started evaluating the campground conditions, the aircraft parking conditions, the weather, and basically the whole ball of wax. Steve and AE along with Zak and his dad Steve decided to head on up and get set up, while Nathan and I waited to see if we could get the planes up there. It wasn't too long before we got the news that the aircraft parking area just was not going to be looking good, and Oshkosh closed the airport for warbird, GA, vintage, homebuilt, etc. arrivals. Well, that took care of that.

Nathan, Jamie, Kaylee and I started winging our way north in the Lexus, giving up on the planes for now. It only took us five hours and 25 minutes to get to Oshkosh, which is not bad at all! The ironic thing was that it took us longer to get into our campsite due to backups than it took for us to get through Chicago. We had no problems in the city, but we sure got logjammed at the campground entrance.

Reports were accurate: Oshkosh is WET. Our campsite doesn't have standing water at it, but a lot of them do. We've got soggy grass, and keeping the inside of the trailer clean will be a challenge, but Steve has come up with a system for shoe removal and non-mud tracking. So far so good.

We went to Red Robin, had a huge dinner, came home and sat out for awhile, set up our trailers, and crashed for the night. So, Oshkosh Day Two actually got us to Oshkosh after all. :)

Oshkosh, Day One

I've been getting up early a lot lately, waking up at six or so, but today when my alarm went off, most of me rebelled. I was tired. (And I had a headache that I didn't kick until sometime after lunch.) Steve went out to Kokomo to do an interview with a cable channel guy about the airport and the warbirds in my place, while I grabbed a few more things for Oshkosh. After his interview Steve was planning on heading to Glenndale and then taking off with AE and Steve & Zak T. and driving on up to Oshkosh, while I was on standby waiting to hear on airplane parking conditions before taking off in the T-6. So that was the plan.

Steve called about an hour later and said "Hey, how fast can you come out here and give him a ride in the T-6 so he can film it?" Forty minutes later I was out at Kokomo, plane pulled out, in a flight suit (sweating since it was in the high 80s already) and ready to go. The winds exceeded my crosswind comfort in that airplane for the runway available, so I talked to the airport manager ahead of time who notified working crews and temporarily opened the other runway for me. His parting words were "Just don't hit the crane!" Agreed! Away Mr. Reporter and I went, up for some rolls, wingovers, steep spirals, yadda yadda, and we both enjoyed it. He mentioned what a terrible job it was to have to go flying, and I mentioned a nice office with a view. I came in to land, did not hit the crane, and that was that. Jon came up to me afterwards and said "Nice modified assault landing, there!" Instead of flying over the crane high and chop and dropping down, I just turned final inside of it, which made for a bit of maneuvering there at the end to get lined up and down. But it was a very long runway with a very strong headwind, and I was still down and slow before I got to the second taxiway. No biggie...

By now we'd gotten several updates from the Oshkosh crew, and it wasn't promising. The T-6 and Mustang weren't going to be able to be parked in the grass, just lined up on a closed runway with chocks. With more storms coming. Did I mention not tied down? Not getting a warm fuzzy with that. The campgrounds are a mess, so Steve decided to wait it out and see how it goes tomorrow. We ended up at Glenndale sitting around looking at each other for awhile as we debated on what to do. I hand propped the Champ for Bill, which was the second and last productive thing I did for the day. We went to Culvers and had ice cream to cool off, because the air conditioning wasn't working properly at Glenndale either. Finally we called it off, came home, I picked up my laptop (which may be home but is wiped out so I still can't use it), and Steve and I both fell asleep. Too much food, too much heat, too much thinking, not enough sleep.

So the title of this blog entry is, of course, tongue in cheek. Today SHOULD be our Oshkosh, Day One, but instead it was NotOshkosh, Day One...

The Day of NOT

Forgive me while I have a little cheese with my whine for awhile, but I promise it ends better than it starts. ;)

This morning I had a flight from 8-10 at Glenndale, then from 10:30-2 at Kokomo. Except the weather wasn't cooperating at 8 a.m., so I had to push him back to 9 a.m., which gave us just one hour in which to fly before I had to leave so I could beat it the 30 minutes over to Kokomo to make my next lesson. I was going to miss lunch, so I cut my lesson short, to only .7, hit a McDonald's and grabbed a breakfast sandwich, and raced out to Kokomo, making it two minutes late, and...he wasn't there yet. Perfect, I think! I sit and wait, and wait, which is odd as he's usually earlier than I am. Thirty minutes later I've tried to reach him to no avail, I've been stood up, so I leave and head back to Glenndale to pick up my glasses. I'm halfway there and Steve calls-we're doing lunch back at Kokomo. I make it back to Kokomo after almost an hour of driving around, and I swear to you, I was behind a car, truck, tractor, or other vehicle going 35-45 in a 50-55 mph zone everywhere I went. It became a joke to me. I'd pass one and another would turn in front of me. I'd turn at a light or stop sign and catch up to a pickup hauling a water tank thing. Without fail! It was a conspiracy to keep me 20 mph under the speed limit apparently... I do eventually make it back to Kokomo, and spend the next two hours waiting for this, that or the other thing. Make a pointless drive to Greentown and back. Finally I get home and Kaylee packs her bag, I pack my bag, and I start to unwind.

When I got home, I told Kaylee I was going to give myself a little quiet time because I was starting to be in a really unpleasant mood and it sure wasn't anything to do with her and I didn't want to be cranky at her. She came up and gave me a big hug and said "I'm so glad that even though you're feeling cranky you can still be loving to me." She's such a sweetie sometimes!

And then the news came in from Oshkosh. Our first round of guys made it up there this afternoon with trailers, only to find that the campground was flooded and campers couldn't set up. So trailers were lined up on the hard surface road, waiting for...well, dryness. Or an idea. Or a plan. The EAA folks were freaked out and didn't know what to tell people to do, they basically just took the camping money and said "good luck". We had at least one trailer parked at a JC Penny parking lot for awhile because they had nowhere else to put it. I started looking up and Steve started calling the nearby campgrounds to see if there was any place dry we could put people at least for the next day or two. Options are good, and rather than sitting there on your thumb, you keep working the problem until a reasonable solution is achieved, something Steve is always excellent at doing. Then Oshkosh closed down all airplane parking on the grass (which is pretty much everywhere). Meanwhile their website doesn't give a hint about the water problems, which seems decidedly not right to me. Our folks weren't sure if they should turn around and come home or not, but some of us rented trailers, and we're paying for them whether we go or not, so we joked about driving them back here to Kokomo and camping out for the week. Warbirds is under water, our campground is soggy, and right now we don't have a dry place to park the T-6 should I bring it up there. The Mustang area is a little more dry, but they are also expecting a big storm tomorrow night, and rain for the next couple of days in fact, and that on top of the already saturated area is just a problem. So I left my toothbrush out of my bag and got comfy.

Jim Z. made it up to Kokomo tonight, and we had dinner out with him, Nathan & Tre and the kids, and us. Some good crab legs and a half of a Chocolate Thunder from Down Under will make anyone's day improve. ;) We learned that the guys did get to put the trailers right off the road, into the grass a bit, and that at least two of the trailers are almost double the size of the ones we actually ordered-for the same price. Being right by the road means a lot of traffic, but it also means that we won't get really muddy either, because we won't have to traverse the mud bog lanes and roads to get to our trailers. We'll be far from The Hill the kids like to play on, but we already packed their bikes, and that'll be some good exercise for them of an evening. We're not going to be leaving tomorrow, at least Nathan and I aren't in the planes, because we don't have a good place to park planes on the grass yet, and because the lady in charge of warbird parking recommends people wait until Saturday to come up due to a storm that's supposed to come through Friday. Saturday is calling for 60% chance of more storms too for that matter...more rain. So, I don't know when we'll actually head out. We are playing it by ear for now, but in the meantime we are packed, laundry is done, house is almost ready, planes are almost ready, the guys driving up will have a few more options of when to head out, and we will do what we do-have a good time once we get there. Temps are looking really nice for the week-not too hot, thankfully, cooler than Kokomo is supposed to be in fact. I'll take it. :)

Oh, I kept a copy of the paper, but here are a few more photos on the online version of a small article in our local paper by one of the reporters I took up in the T-6 the day before our July 3rd air show...

(p.s. How bad would it be to let him know there are two fairly grievous grammar errors in his article?)

Technology

When Kaylee and I took off this morning, it was a little rainy, a little stormy, and a little clear all at once. I had to go around a fairly large cell right off the bat, ended up going through some rain and some buildups that were too widespread to be able to avoid, and it was a bumpy ride for awhile. Kaylee wasn't bothered in the least. She sat over there and played with the iPod, while I'm hand-flying because George the Autopilot was gaining and losing 200' in altitude at a time. Of course I didn't do a lot better as there were some pretty good up and downdrafts, but I felt better doing it myself for some of it. ;) The rest of the flight was just fine. Kaylee would crawl in the back seat and get a snack out of the bag then come back up, she was our Music Director again, and we had a nice flight.

(Why do my leg muscles feel like I rode a horse for an hour? Oh yeah...)

On my way into Council Bluffs on Sunday, I was canceling my IFR flight plan to come in to land. I pop out with "Squeaking VFR, so long", except I'm laughing by the time I get to "so long", because the phrase is "Squawking VFR", not "Squeaking" it. Oh well. They knew what I meant. But Kaylee laughed about it for quite awhile, and when I canceled IFR at Kokomo today, she whispered "Aren't you going to SQUEAK it, Mommy?" Smart aleck. ;)

Now that I'm home, I'm working as quickly as I can to get everything ready. I've got my 34 pages of Oshkosh NOTAM (what to do to fly in and out of there during the air show) printed off, got my laundry going as I speak, and you can tell it's a digital world. My little Canon battery is charging off to my left, my big Canon battery is charging in the same wall socket, my iPod is charging in my changing room, Kaylee's iPod is charging below me at the desktop here, my cell phone is charging in my room, and I've got 398 photos I just pulled off of my two cameras, meaning my cards are blank and ready to fill up at Oshkosh again. Meanwhile I'm going to try to at least go through my pictures, delete the bad ones, and edit some of them so that when I go to put them online the hardest part is already over with. Until my laptop gets back from the shop, I can't put them online anyway...it's the only computer I have with my website building software on it. There are cords and appliances plugged in all over the place while we get things ready, and that's all I'll be doing for the rest of today, I'm sure...getting ready. :)

Giddy-Up!

It was another busy day of activities at Mahoney State Park. I was still so full from dinner last night that even though I was awake in time for breakfast, I just didn't have the stomach for it-literally. We got everyone together and piled in a couple of vehicles and went through the driving Safari right by the park here. This time almost all of the animals were out and about, so Kaylee and Jasmine got to see everything except the wolves, and everyone had a good time.

A huge buffet lunch later (to make up for no breakfast I guess), and we went to get tickets for a horse riding trail. We wanted to go at 1 p.m., and found out they were sold out until 5 p.m. So we got the tickets for the 5 p.m. trail, and I took Kaylee swimming instead. We spent most of the time in the "wave pool", which is up to 6' deep and they, of course, make some big old waves. I got Kaylee a tube, and I just rode it out on my own. By the end of our time there, I was getting so tired I wasn't as able to keep myself from going under water, and I was hanging onto her tube, and still getting pummeled. At one point Kaylee looked at me and said "Mommy? Are you okay? Really?" I was starting to drink more of it than I should have, not able to pull myself all the way out of the water any more, so finally I caved and went to the shallower end where I could actually touch. Those waves were strong enough to knock you off your feet, even in the shallowest section of just a foot or so deep. It was pretty neat, really.

Kaylee was not happy to leave, even for horses, but once we got back to our room and changed and on our way, she was excited about the horses too. She had said the other day she wanted the white horse. There was one white horse and over a dozen brown, red and black horses. I told her not to get her hopes up. Guess which horse they assigned Kaylee? "Freckles", the lone white horse. My horse was "Mildred", a cantankerous male "redhead" horse. Apparently my horse didn't like any other horse but "Freckles" behind him, or he'd turn around and attack the other horse. Uncle Rick was behind Kaylee on a black horse, but I didn't catch his name. It was actually a really nice ride, and 5 p.m. was a lot better time to have done it than 1 p.m. anyway. We had a lot of shade from the angle of the sun in the trees, and a bit of cooler temps. It was a really nice ride, over the river and through the woods, so to speak, and it was Kaylee's first time being by herself on a horse doing a trail. Before she always went with Steve. This group allowed you to take your cameras, which pleased me, until I got up there and they said "you can take them, but please don't take any pictures while you're riding. We don't want you to be distracted while riding." Apparently they don't know my mad multi-tasking skills very well at all. I was going to sneak photos anyway, but I'll tell you what, they did an excellent job monitoring everyone in line. There were 10 of us on this ride, and there were four "wranglers". One leading, one trailing, and two who rode right with the rest of us and made sure we were okay, our horses were behaving, and that I didn't have any room to be sneaking any photos. ;) At the end of the ride they let us take photos sitting in the corral with the horse tied to a post. Not the same, but it'll have to do. :) "Freckles" kept trying to sneak grass, and Kaylee did a good job pulling his head up and away and keeping him moving. She really had fun, and the ride lasted about 45 minutes, which was just enough time to be still having fun without going long enough to be looking around thinking "Man, is this over with yet??" They also didn't require riding helmets, thank heavens. I know, I know, Christopher Reeve and head injuries and stuff. You know a helmet wouldn't have helped him the way he fell, don't you? ;) Anyway, you have to sign a liability waiver stating you know the risks you run, and then it's your choice. See, I like that...my noggin, my choice, thank you! It was a nice, sedate, walking trail through some pretty countryside (which I can't prove since I couldn't photograph it) with my happy girl on her white horse. :)

We came from horse riding, went back and changed clothes, and went right back out to the swimming pool. This time I just let Kaylee go swimming by herself while I stayed on a lawn chair in there and kept an eye on her. Aunt Christy, Uncle Chris and Jasmine were there too this time, in the kiddo area. It took Kaylee a whole two minutes to find a little friend to play with in the wave pool area, and they hung out there and rode the waves on tubes for quite awhile. Kaylee ventured off onto the diving board, into the 10.5' deep pool area, and went down the big fast slides, too. No more water worries for this kid-she's loving it.

When we left the pool, after a quick clothes change again, we went out to the campsite and had dinner and s'mores. Kaylee roasted her own and several others' marshmallows, chased the geese some more, went up over the hill with Jasmine, Aunt Christy and Aunt Sharon, did some swinging and playground activities, and sat by the fire and snacked until it was time for us to head back to the room for the night. We're packing up our stuff tonight as we're getting up early to head back to the airport.

Kaylee also enjoys riding the elevator up and down and trying to beat me walking up and down the stairs. She hasn't beaten me yet. Slow elevators, short floors. ;)

Twas another busy and enjoyable day, and I have so many pictures I'm not going to be able to get to them all before leaving for Oshkosh, which will drive me nuts, but I have flight students on Thursday all the way through past 2 p.m., and at some point I'll have to do laundry and pack my bags again and get ready, get Kaylee ready, get the cats ready, get the house ready, and get my NOTAM and flight stuff ready to leave the next day. I don't think I have the time for it, really, but who needs sleep Thursday night, right? ;)

Hoppin'

This morning I shocked the majority of my family by showing up with Kaylee for breakfast. In previous years it was always Steve who made it to breakfast with Kaylee with the family while I stayed in bed then got ready after they left. So when I got up to the breakfast table, there weren't even any seats available--nobody expected me to make it. Fooled 'em. ;) We had the breakfast buffet, then Kaylee and I walked down to the paddle boat area. We didn't know for sure where they were or what time they opened for the morning, but we found our way there, to see that we had about a 45 minute wait. It was an overcast morning, fairly cool, so we sat out on the deck, watched the geese, relaxed and waited. When it was time, Aunt Cindy and myself got on the back of a 4-seater while Kaylee and Uncle Rick were the paddlers. On another boat Uncle Kevin and Uncle Christopher took 2-year-old Jasmine. We all wandered around the lake, then stopped up on the opposite shore where Grandpa & Virlene's trailer are, loaded up on cold drinks, and hit the lake again until our time was up. Kaylee did a good job paddling, and it was early enough that with the sun under the clouds we didn't even get hot.

Lunch was at the campground, Runzas, which are something that people not from Nebraska have no idea of. We sat at the campground for a little while, but not long, as the sun had broken through and the humidity and heat were cranking up and I decided I wasn't going to do a repeat of last night's sweating. I wasn't the only one. So we grabbed our stuff and then went to the Strategic Air Command Air & Space Museum. I took pictures of Kaylee next to the "SAC" patch/signs, because it reminds me so much of when Mom used to take me to the SAC Museum by Omaha. My first printed version of "High Flight" came from there, as did some patches and posters I had, and pictures of me and Stephanie on the wings of a little plane sitting outside. I don't even know what it was off-hand, but it didn't matter, it was an airplane. ;) The museum here is pretty good. They have a Holocaust "medical" section, talking about the things that the doctors did at death camps, experiments, sterilization, what children were determined to be not worthy, etc. More in line with aviation itself they have a Korean War section, Vietnam, WWII, etc. and two large hangars filled with planes...of course!

When we left there, we went right to a "Kids' Activity Center", which is like a McDonald's PlayLand on steroids. Huge, huge play area, several levels, different activities all inside this maze. Several ball pits in there, big slides and crawling things and hiding places and nets and just all sorts of stuff. Indoors, air conditioned and inexpensive. SOLD! Kaylee and Jasmine had a great time. It took Kaylee a whole 3 minutes to find a friend her age there to go play with, and we saw very little of her until it was time to go, and she showed up sweaty, red-faced, hair falling out of her ponytail, and happy.

Dinnertime. We ladies decided we did not want to go back to the campsite and eat a hot dog, so we all piled into the cars and drove out to a "Smokehouse" place. Uncle Rick's phone GPS led us down a gravel road and then said "You are Here". There was...nothing there. So we called the place, got better directions, and had way too much food for not very much money.

Back to the hotel where Kaylee and I hung out at the gift shop, went up to Aunt Cindy's balcony and watched the fireflies start to come out in the grass below, rode the elevators up and down for awhile, went to the black light room in a full white skirt and white blouse so that adults in the room came out and said Kaylee looked like an angel standing there, and finally came back to the room where I'm catching up on the internet and Kaylee is jumping around the room like she's eaten nothing but sugar for hours. That girl is bouncing off the walls! Me, I'm sleepy and it's only 10 p.m. local time, but tomorrow will be another busy day, so if I can get her settled down, it's time to get some rest...

Nebraska

Due to Greg's passing away, Steve stayed behind this weekend to attend the funeral and take care of some business. So this morning Kaylee and I got up and went by ourselves out to the airport, loaded up the Saratoga, and headed West. Of course there was a pretty good headwind. A trip that would be 2.5 hours in the Baron with no winds but about 11 hours in a car took us 3.5 hours in the Saratoga. I brought my iPod along, so we hooked that up and bopped along to music throughout the flight. Kaylee was our Music Director, and I was the Taxi Driver. It started off IFR, which I actually didn't mind as it was a good refresher/practice/currency thing, but it wasn't long before we popped out and had blue skies. I had one big wad of storms that we timed it pretty well to miss, though I watched it as we went by, and then we paralleled another batch of small cells, but they all stayed to the south of us, and it made for a nice, uneventful trip. The last hour of the flight or so I was texting Stephanie with updates and plans. Council Bluffs has a new runway now, so I landed on that one even though the other one was closer into the wind and closer to the taxiway. I'm like that. ;)

Steph and Todd and Gabe picked us up and took us to eat lunch at Culvers, and we got to sit and chat just for a little while, before taking us out to Mahoney State Park. We took a few photos and they headed back, while Kaylee and I went to check in. We had to wait 20 minutes before they'd give us our room keys, but we passed the time by people watching. :) The room is nice and big, two big beds, a lovely view out the two windows of rolling hills and the lake, I have my wireless internet of course, and we're just fine in here. Kaylee and I decided to pass the time by exploring the hotel first, so we found the kid room that had black lights installed in the ceiling and florescent paint splattered all over the walls. She was wearing a white skirt and I had white pants and shoes on, so we lit up pretty well in there. ;) We explored all the floors, went up and down the elevator, and walked around outside, checked out the gift shop, then finally sat on the 3rd floor chairs by the balcony and waited for others to arrive, which they all seemed to do at once. First I saw Aunt Sharon & Uncle Kevin, then Uncle Christopher, and then there were Aunt Cindy & Uncle Rick, all within a few moments of each other. Kaylee ran down to say hi, and then we all went out to Grandpa Shaffer & Virlene's trailer by the lake for the rest of the evening, had a nice dinner, and hung out. Dad and Gayle ended up not being able to make it, and Steve ended up not being able to make it, so we had plenty of food for us remaining brave soldiers. :) Kaylee and Jasmine chased fireflies, we went on a walk where the girls chased Geese and Uncle Rick chased the girls to make sure Jasmine didn't run into the road, we played on the playground for awhile, and sweated, and sat around the camp and had dessert, and sweated, and watched the sun go down...had cool drinks...and sweated. We played some music off of our phones so Jasmine could dance, Kaylee taught her the Chicken Dance, we watched YouTube videos on Uncle Rick's phone, and finally packed it up sometime after 10 pm my time, just after we quit sweating and the mosquitoes started thinking about dining out.

Kaylee misses her Dad but is having a fun time so far, looking forward to doing a little paddleboating and swimming, which hopefully we will get accomplished tomorrow...

Trouble in the Wings

I had a Discovery Flight this afternoon in the C-172, at 4:30, about when it was as hot as humanely possible...and the airplane has vinyl seats. I'm glad I'm not a big sweater or anything. ;) *sigh* Anyway, Steve and AE were out loading up the trailer for Oshkosh, while Nathan was out with his kids, working on a few things as well. When the kids saw me getting the 172 out, they all wanted to go with me. I told them they couldn't come along on a Discovery Flight, but that if they really wanted to go fly, when I got back I'd take them up (with parental permission of course).

So I get back from my flight, the kids still want to go, and up we go, me and the Three Amigos. This was the conversation as soon as I left the ground:

"Can we go upside down?"
"Not in this plane."
"Why not?"
"This plane isn't built to go upside down very well."
"Can we do a barrel roll?"
"Not in this plane."
"Why not?"
"Because that's upside down too and this plane can't do that very well."
"Oh. Can we buzz our dads down there?"
Pause. "No."
"Why not?"
"Because."
"Because why?"
Kaylee interjects with "Because this isn't a private airport like Glenndale and we could get in trouble." (Not bad, Kaylee!)
"C'mon, buzz our dad!"
"Nope. It's just not a good idea."
"Well, can we do a roller coaster thing?"
"Only if everybody wants to. I don't want to scare anybody. So everybody who wants to do it raise your hand."
Two hands go up and one halfway goes up.
"Can we do a little one first and see if it's scary?"
"Okay".
(Insert little whoop dee doo here).
Instant laughing and hollering and "DO IT AGAIN!" from everyone.
More, bigger whoop dee doos.
Screaming laughter from three kids having a total blast.
"Keep going!"
I did a few more in a row, then did a pretty aggressive "Grand Finale".
Hysterical laughter and "Don't stop!" and "No, we don't want to land!" and "We have to tell Dad about this!" and "C'mon, PLEASE keep going?" and "You made the book back here float on me!" all the way down to land and put the plane away. A good time was had by all, including me. Watching them laughing their heads off having fun in the plane was probably even more fun for me. :)

The first thing I thought-and said-when I got back? These kids are going to get in trouble when they're a little older! Of course, as Nathan said, they do come by it honestly. We all like to do whoop dee doos too, you know. ;)

Prep Work

I've just spent the day trying to get everything I can in order before being gone. It's not very exciting, just paperwork, emails, and getting things as set up as possible for the house, the business, SMA, and every other way I can. Steve won't be coming with us to Nebraska, as he has too much to do here, and I'm just working on getting everything I need done in as quickly a time as possible here. Kaylee and I leave Sunday, and when we get back we'll have one whole day to prepare for Oshkosh and being gone for ten days. So...it's Crunch Time.

Wow

This whole week has been horribly hot and muggy...welcome to Summer. Yesterday I flew the 172 out of Glenndale at 9 a.m., and as of 9 a.m. we already were sweating to death, and that's just wrong. That afternoon I did something I haven't done in a few years-I went and got an actual professional hair cut and style. Of course it only lasts as long as I'm there (the style part that is), but when she was done, I had to admit it looked nice, to me anyway. I'm not sure it looked $30 nice, which is why I usually cut my own hair, but hey, $30 over several years isn't that bad. ;)

I was supposed to take Kaylee to the fair that afternoon, and her friend Grace was going to be able to go with us so that I wouldn't have to get, um, "tired" of spinning and make her go alone or quit too. Things changed around a bit and it was going to be the two moms and two kids, and then Kaylee tells me that she doesn't want to hurt my feelings and isn't sure how to tell me this, but she'd like to just go with them. Well, alrighty then, I was a little surprised, but if that's what she wants to do, I'm okay with it. Their whole family went, and Kaylee tagged along by herself, and she had a great time, and I didn't have to get sick at the fair this year out of love for my daughter, and I guess all's well that ends well. Thanks to the A. family for adopting a third child for the evening. :)

Then came today, which started normally enough. I kicked rear end on getting things done and ready. My pile of paperwork, billing, SMA stuff, sending out work stuff, household bills and duties like catching up laundry, cleaning, I was on a serious roll. We had lunch out at the hangar, and from there I ran errands, completing the stuff I started at home. Shipping boxes, bank runs, all that stuff. I was supposed to go back to Kokomo and take a plane over to Muncie for a lesson, but as I was running my errands I noticed the sky looked particularly non-good over to the west there, so I stopped in at Glenndale to deliver a check and look at the radar. Well, that flight wasn't going to happen. While I was at Glenndale we got the news that a longtime friend and business partner, Greg Messer, had died sometime that morning, sitting at his computer. He was going to come over to the office today to return something to us...I emailed him day before yesterday and he talked to Steve last night, and this morning he was gone. He was 45 years old. It's a little surreal, and troubling, and problematic too, for multiple reasons. I still can't really believe he's gone, and he was Steve's main brain backup on a lot of things, and he'll miss him as a friend and as a muse. Greg did a lot for me with the SMA Angels and SMA Support technical end of things over the years--what I did back in my hayday, back when SMA Support was my 14-hour-every-day-fulltime-job, all that was only possible because of Greg...as were a lot of other things over the years. He was sarcastic and twisted and funny, but honest and good, and I will miss him too.

Tonight I met a friend for dinner, and have come home to work some more, as we're supposed to leave Sunday for a family reunion in Nebraska, be gone three days, be home one day and turn around and go to Oshkosh for ten days. Now...who knows. You just have to put one foot in front of the other and try to be prepared and do the best you can, but there's a Lot of work that has to get done in a Short period of time...

The Day

I did something this morning I don't usually do...I spent an hour lying on the couch cuddled up to Kaylee, who fell back asleep that way. She is almost as long as I am now, getting so big so fast. So when she turned her face to my neck and fell back asleep, I just...stayed there. It was a nice way to spend time.

The rest of the day wasn't quite as relaxing. I took lunch out to the airport, after which began the gerbil wheel of running around. I had to pick up a few things from Walgreens, went to get my eyebrows done (now at a place where I have to have an actual appointment because String Lady went out of business and so did Mall Hair Place), mailed off some things at the Post Office, took Kaylee to the store looking for some shorts and shirts that would fit her for summer here (she mostly only has long pants) and looking for some shirts and summer pants/shorts/something for me, too. Now THAT was depressing. I...hate shopping. Absolutely detest it. Anyway, had to leave there after two hours to go back to a place for the second time and pick up computers, then through two drive-thrus because Kaylee wanted one thing and I wanted another and I figured, why not? We were home long enough for me to do dishes and laundry, and then it was time to meet Steve at Wal-Mart so we could pick up a new bike for Kaylee. She's outgrown her princess bike in more ways than one-but more importantly it's just too small even with the seat all the way up. So she spent time narrowing down the selection to two, but there were things about each of the two she didn't like. So we went to Meijer, where we found cheaper bikes than Wal-Mart, which is interesting, and another two she narrowed it down to. Finally she decided on the one she'd liked right off the bat, black and hot pink, black tires, hot pink rims, very snazzy looking. But it took a LOT of time and effort to get to that decision as she tried to remember her favorite from Wal-Mart and decide which she liked better. She wasn't sure if it was really her or not. It is. We get the bike, and go to get a helmet, and...they only had princess helmets. So Steve went home and Kaylee and I went Back to Wal-Mart to pick up the helmet. At this point I've tried on 40 pieces of clothing, had her try on 10 pieces of clothing, been to five stores in one day, some of them twice, and I'm Done!! We made it home after 9 p.m. when it was all said and done.

Kaylee had fun, though. ;)

Briefly

I got photos up from Friday and Saturday both, finally. I have a lot more photos from Friday, but they included people whose permission I don't really have to stick up on the world wide web, so I'll hold off on that one. :)

Today was an indoor day, other than a few errands. Paperwork, computer, housework, all that mundane, non-exciting stuff that still needs to get done.

Now we're just trying to wind up and get ready for Oshkosh...it's coming fast. :O

Time for some quotes catch-up:
------------------

“I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change.” ~Jim Rohn

“Millions long for immortality who do not even know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.” ~Susan Ertz

"The respect of those you respect is worth more than the applause of the multitude." ~Arnold Glasow

"Change has considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening, because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging, because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring, because the challenge exists to make things better." ~King Whitney Jr.

“He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.” ~Abraham Lincoln

"There is incredible value in being of service to others. I think if many of the people in therapy offices were dragged out to put their finger in a dike, or take up their place in a working line, they would be relieved of terrible burdens." ~Elizabeth Berg

better stated as...

"Man hoards himself when has nothing to give away." ~Edward Dahlberg

Summer Sunday Smiles

Today the Howard County Fair opened with the National Anthem and a Flag-Raising Ceremony, and I flew over the ceremony in the T-6 while they were raising the flag. A quick, quiet, respectful flyby. Hopefully the timing worked out properly; without someone on the ground with a radio you just have to go by the clock and hope it works. I could see the fair all set up and ready to go this week, so I'll be trying to find a good day to take Kaylee. I do wish she had a friend who I knew loved the spinny rides and never got sick who could go with us so that when I've met my limit she doesn't have to go alone or quit too. But going with me is better than not going at all (so far), so we'll give it a shot. :)

I took my motorcycle out for a ride tonight, for the first time in over a year. A friend had gone through it and fixed it up so it ran like a charm. It had been so long since I last rode, I went to a nearby parking lot first and did a little practice on some of the motorcycle course maneuvers I'd learned, but fortunately it didn't take long to come back, and I was off and running. I went out to some of the curvy country roads, went past Glenndale and waved at Dale, went out to Kokomo Airport, wandered around the back roads quite a bit before my clutch hand started getting tired and I decided to head in. The ride reminded me that it may have been awhile since I last rode, but some things don't change: Every car on the road is still out to get you. I am apparently one of the only people in the state of Indiana who wears a helmet (it's not a state law here). Riding on a beautiful late afternoon with the sun heading down and the wind in your face is relaxing. Sixty-five mph feels terribly slow in an airplane, feels normal in a car, and feels almost speedy on a motorcycle. Smiling invites bugs in your teeth. Seriously. For once I had a perfectly sane, perfectly normal ride, where nothing went wrong on the bike--it was great!

Steve worked hard today around the place, scrubbing and steam cleaning our carpet, fixing my laptop, working in the garage, doing those things that sometimes get left behind when you get busy. The carpet is looking good, and hopefully it will feel fresher in here again.

This evening we had a little fire in our back yard, and Kaylee would get up and chase fireflies around the yard. They were out in force tonight, lighting up all over the place, and at one point she pointed down by her feet and said "Man, there's a whole herd of them here!" (The vision of a "herd" of fireflies still makes me smile.)

A barefoot kid chasing fireflies at sunset, family hanging out around a fire, leftover blackberry pie, a little flying, a little riding; have I ever mentioned that Summer is awesome? ;)

Groundbreaker

Today was Anderson, Indiana's airport's 50th anniversary celebration. They had quite a line up of interesting things going on, from the best pancakes we've ever had at a fly-in, free for any pilot who flew in, to drawings, gift bags, hot air balloon and helicopter and Pitts rides, Young Eagles flights, several tents set up, and they had gotten quite a few warbirds and interesting airplanes to come and park on the ramp for folks to look at. They did a really nice job overall.

But I'm ahead of myself. First we had to get to Anderson. Naturally Nathan took the Mustang and I took the T-6. Kaylee expressed an interest in, and asked Nathan if she could ride with him, and he said yes. So Miss Kaylee rode to Anderson in style, in the back of a P-51, a chance of a lifetime. I'm not sure how long it will take her to fully understand how rare and unusual it is for her to be able to ride in the T-6, and how amazing it is that she now has about an hour's time in a Mustang. So was she scared of all the earsplitting noise on takeoff, the speed, the forces, flying right next to another airplane close enough to see nose hairs sometimes? Oh no. She thought it was great, and has decided it's her favorite airplane. So...she likes to go fast. What a shock. ;)

Our one adventure for the day (don't read this paragraph Ann) occurred on our way to Anderson. Steve turned his seat around and was taking photos out of the back of the plane. GREAT view back there, seriously. Anyway, I was just flying along, and all of a sudden the plane jerked down and to the right, kind of a wing dip, as if I'd run through somebody's wake turbulence. In fact, it was almost exactly like when the Mustang blew past me and Di yesterday and we got hit with some prop wash and rocked sharply to the side. I kind of laughed, got the plane back into position, and in a fraction of a second realized the Mustang was behind me, not in front of me, and that couldn't have been it. I didn't have time to think "Huh!" before the plane suddenly pulled fairly hard right and down, and I grabbed hold of the stick with both hands and tried to wrestle us back level--and I couldn't. That'll get the ole heart rate up. I kept the wing up as best I could with rudder and yelled out a "HEY!!" (very articulate, that), Steve said "What??" (he was irritated that I was messing around), and I said something like "I think your stick is pinned!" Twas a cord that was too long, had wrapped around down below and pulled on the stick back there. He got it taken care of asap and we were back in business. Actually, that was a good time to learn that lesson, because we were planning on leaving that particular headset with that setup in the back of the Six, as it works well. Now we know to take off an adapter which adds too much length to the cord, which can cause a problem. I'd much rather have found that out now, with him back there able to not freak out and know what to do on his end to fix it than some day in the future at perhaps a more inopportune moment with someone who wouldn't have a clue what was happening or what to do about it. I'd call that a fortuitous timing learning experience, actually...

THEN it was time for pancakes! We did decide those are the best fly-in pancakes we've ever had, and we've sampled more than a few! It was really hot, but we kept fairly cool as long as we stayed in the big hangar. We ran into several people that it was good to say hi to, and Chuck was there in the mighty Citabria, too. In fact, his Citabria beat us there. :) It looked like a pretty good turnout, well represented by airplanes. Vlado was there with his Mustang too, which was neat. (He's a Fighter test pilot for FAST cards, has over 3000 hours of Mustang time alone, does the Heritage Flights at air shows, and seems to be a genuine, nice man on top of it.) They hadn't really thought out their fueling plan, and both coming in and going out my ground marshallers kind of goofed up, but all in all it looked like they had a nice event going. No event will go perfectly, that's for sure, and nobody knows that better than we do. :)

Time to go, Kaylee got back in the Mustang, and away we went for home. At one point Steve started laughing and said "He's so close under our tail I can't even see him!" He'd come RIGHT up on us. Me, I didn't look, I figured I'd better focus on flying straight and level very smoothly. ;) Kaylee later said "We were looking at the T-6's butt!" She didn't get a picture of it, unfortunately, but Steve did take about 150 photos today, several in which you can clearly see that it's Kaylee back there, so that's a pretty special memory to have for all of us. Some day I think she's going to cherish those photos. Around Tipton Nathan broke off, dove down at a rate of speed of...250 knots, no more, of course, and Steve and I watched him mess around down there and smiled on our way home. You can spot that plane very easily, as polished up as it is. The sun shines off of that thing like a laser. Beautiful.

The airplanes had hit a lot of bugs today, so I wiped down the T-6 and cleaned it up, and Kaylee followed tradition by wiping bugs off the Mustang. It's kind of a rule...you fly in it, you clean it up. Clean it while the bugs are fresh and they come off a whole lot easier than if you wait a week, by which time the cement that must reside in bugs' veins will have time to set in, and you'll require a heavy duty cleaner instead of just a wet rag. Besides, who can stand seeing those beautiful airplanes put away all nasty? Anyway, she did her job without complaint.

There was an IAC (aerobatic chapter) meeting out there this afternoon, so we stayed to make sure they were going to get there okay, then went over to Nathan's to go swimming. Well, Kaylee and the kids went swimming, we hung out under the awning, or I read a book while the guys worked in the garage for awhile. It was a perfect day to be a kid in a pool, and they all made the most of it. I don't know how many hours the kids swam--six? seven? Something like that, before we all came inside and had a delicious, huge dinner, and pigged out.

Kaylee had a blast, she had a wonderful day, got a lot of exercise, got some sun, and is currently sleeping like a log. Summer is awesome. ;)

Friday Funness

Nathan had some friends in town this weekend, and took the opportunity to show them hospitality our style. Steve made a Meat Market run and I made a store run, while Tre baked up some delicious potatoes and desserts and Judy brought her famous banana pudding and a terrific relish plate. We had two tables full of food when it was time to eat. But before we got to the food, we had to do some flying first.

Nathan took up his friend Chuck in the Mustang while I took up Di in the T-6. We did some formation flying for awhile and they took pictures of each other back there, plus I ran the helmet video camera. Then we split up and did a little fun flying, met back up and flew formation back into Kokomo. A quick break and we swapped riders, and Chuck went with me and Di with Nathan. More formation, more separate canyon flying above/around clouds and, met back up over Converse and came back in formation again. Everyone had a great time, including the pilots. That never gets old...the sight of the Mustang right up close and personal is just a beautiful thing. :)

Then it was time...time to do what we actually do best...
EAT!

We stayed until the sun went down, then dragged home tired and happy...

Bombing

I was up pretty early this morning, to run out to Glenndale and get a few things, then be over at Kokomo. The B-17 was headed to Champaign this morning, ending their stay with us. I handed out free t-shirts to the crew, and took photos of our six guys who went along for the ride on the B-17 over to Champaign. Bob and Ty acted as chaser planes to go pick up our guys in Illinois, and thus an adventure was had by all. :)

I've spent the rest of the day sitting in front of the computer doing June's billing. Fun stuff, that...

B-17 And Such

The B-17 on tour through the EAA has been at Kokomo since Monday. We've been a little busy after the show to get out there and do much, but fortunately there are some folks who have been out there working. Today Kaylee and I took Subway sandwich party platters out to the airport for lunch for all the B-17 crew, the airport crew and our own crew, and we brought out some potato salad, cole slaw, etc., and a few other folks brought chips and cookies, and we had a nice little impromptu lunch for everyone.

It was HOT out there. Seriously unpleasantly hot. Kaylee and I took the 4-wheeler around a little bit, and I checked her out on it on concrete, which is different than using it on the grass she's used to. Kind of like a taildragger on concrete vs. grass...you have to be more cognizant of turns and traction and such. :) I was less comfortable with her riding it around on the concrete, but with a warning to her not to go too fast and to make gentle turns, she was off on her own and doing just fine.

The starter on the T-6 had a problem. Saturday at the show, I was lucky that it started--it didn't want to--and that night Nathan couldn't get it to go. It did work again when it was cold Sunday morning, thank heavens for the flyby we did, but it obviously has a problem. So Nathan took it off, worked on the starter, and with Jon and later Bob J., got it back on the plane and got the plane put back together. Now it needed to be run to see if it would start, and if it would then hot start. What a terrible job. ;) So Kaylee went with me, and we took off and headed out in the T-6 to get it good and warm. I was just going to take off, come back in and land, but Kaylee said "We're going to land already? Do we have to? I like looking around." Wellllll, twist my arm! So we went around town, and she saw her slip-n-slide in the back yard of our house and thought that was pretty cool. I wish I could take a picture of her flying around back there. :) Anyway, we came in to land and I parked the T-6 on the ramp next to the Mustang, which was by the B-17. Looked pretty good out there! About an hour later I hot started it and it fired up right away, first time, so I think they got that fixed, which is fantastic since this Saturday I'm supposed to hopefully fly it to Anderson for their 50th Anniversary event and then Sunday is the flag ceremony at the County Fair that I'm supposed to do a fly-over of. Hopefully all that works out. :)

Kaylee and I stuck around a little longer, sitting in front of the "Arctic Cooler" fan while Jon and Steve C. worked on the Baron's annual, and then it was time for Steve (S) to go fly and me and Kaylee to go home. Did I mention how hot it was? Holy Moly!

Twas a good day regardless. I got some photos up on Kaylee's Site of her time with her cousins and her sewing adventures. These photos are now HER photos from her camera and her viewpoint on her site now for the most part, and I like that! You go girl! I also got up photos from the B-17 on the ramp and Kaylee riding around the 4-wheeler...

Good day!

Summer Hits Keep on Coming

When we woke up this morning, Kaylee had been invited to do a sewing learning/teaching class with her friend Maggie, taught by Judy and a couple of other ladies through a local church program. Kaylee jumped all over that! It lasted from 10 a.m. (9, really, but the girls got there at 10) through to 3 or 4 p.m., included lunch, and gave the kids the opportunity to design and sew a pillowcase. My nine year old daughter now knows how to run a sewing machine, and I don't, and I think it's great. :) The kids each picked out the fabrics they wanted to use, and I thought Kaylee's fabric choices pretty much fit her. One side was bright orange, the other side bright green. Bold, cheerful and bright. I've got pictures that I'll have up on her site tonight. She took her own camera, which has been getting a workout, and took quite a few pictures. I enjoy seeing her day and her events through her viewfinder. One thing Kaylee was really pleased with is that the adults didn't do the sewing for the kids...they showed them how to work the machines and the kids did the sewing themselves. With supervision of course, but they did it, and that meant something to Kaylee. She, like most of us out there, appreciates it when someone has faith in them, from little to big things. Her finished product looks really good, and it's on her bed right now in fact. She gets to choose whether she's feeling bold (orange) or relaxed (green). :)

Maggie then spent a couple of hours with us, and I loaned her a swim suit and broke out the slip n slide and the sprinkler and sent the girls out to play in the water. They didn't want to come in for a long time, but what finally did them in was a "wasp". Kaylee starts howling something about a wasp, and I thought "oh brother", because she's had this thing about bees for awhile now and I thought she was almost past it. No, she had actually stepped on one, and the stinger went right into the bottom of her middle toe down at the skinny part, and it really hurt. It took me awhile to get her calmed down enough to let me look at it, but fortunately the stinger was not stuck in there (THAT would have not been fun to try to get out of her), and a bit of ice and a cleaning later, and it looked like it was going to be okay. She mentioned her toe swelling and numb, so I kept an eye on it to make sure it didn't spread and she wasn't going to have an anaphylactic reaction, but within 20 minutes she was just fine, walking around fine, and acting like it never happened. It was time for Maggie to go home with her grandpa, but we extended it a little bit with a naughty stop for ice cream first. ;)

I told Kaylee this evening, and I quote, "Hang up all your clothes". So she has me come into her room with the words "I did what you said, Mom, I hung up all the clothes from Rania". So I walk to her closet, and I see...
The little smart aleck had just taken the bag of clothes, put it on a hangar and hung it in her closet. Points for creativity and smart aleckness. Around here that counts for something I admit. ;)

The B-17 is here at Kokomo on tour this week, and tomorrow is the last day it's giving rides and tours. I am supposed to be helping out there, but I haven't had a chance, so I may see if I can make it out tomorrow. I've been working on tying up loose ends from the weekend, communications with various folks, some paperwork, housework, even putting up my photos finally. Mostly I'm just really really tired! I'm sure I'll catch up on that sleep thing soon. :)

Patience

She's back!

When I woke up this morning it was to Kaylee snuggled up against me. She'd sneaked in sometime this morning and I was so wiped out I never even heard or felt her. We both slept in this morning, and boy did I need that.

I left Kaylee with Steve at Culvers while I hopped in the RG and flew it to Muncie for a lesson. He was working on instrument approaches, first time in a long time, and it was a hazy, hot and bumpy day. This all means it was a lot of work, and as we were finished up for the day, I said something about it being quite a workout. He comes back with a very dry "Yes it was, and I'm pretty sure my deodorant was not up for the challenge." I burst out laughing, literal out loud laughing--I just did not expect that from him.

Kaylee had been a very good girl, very patient sitting at the office while Steve worked and talked on the phone for hours. So now it was Kaylee time! I picked her up from Glenndale and we went to the library to stock up. She got a stack of books bigger than she could carry by herself, so she'll have something to keep her occupied now and then. We don't have any kid TV channels right now, so she's been on her own like the good old days for awhile here, minus the computer which she has also not played for a couple weeks. From the library we went over to...Da Mall. Kaylee shopped at Claire's Boutique, picking up a couple of toys and some color-changing-with-mood nail polish. We hit up Target next, and after exhausting ourselves (okay, just me), we stopped for a cinnamon sugar pretzel and a drink. We didn't get home until almost 8 p.m., and Steve walked in the door about one minute after we did.

It's good to have her back! Now she's settling in, getting her clothes unpacked and her room in order, and me, I need to work on my pictures still-I can't stand having so many days go by without getting them in order. ;)