Bug

I go back and forth on what to talk about with today. It was a day where everything was a struggle or a problem, but in the end I'm home and healthy and only out money, so...

First, I have damaged the transmission on the Ford Explorer, in a particularly stupid mistake.  I don't know how bad it is yet, but it's at the shop and I'm waiting to hear the damage.  So Steve had me take the Jeep today.  I had to leave the house at 6 a.m., so I hopped in the Jeep, pulled out of the driveway, glanced down, and the fuel is just above the E with the low fuel light on.  As I drive it bounces around on the E.  This isn't great, but I don't have time to stop for gas because 1) I'll be late and 2) I'm trying to beat out some weather that was moving in.  So I drive slowly and stare at it as it lingers on the E, wondering how far below the E it will go before it quits.  I'm hoping to have enough to make it to the nearest gas station when I get home.  I get out to the airport, and my passenger runs a bit late, it starts raining, in an area of weather that was convective around Indy but I don't think is now; it started dissipating, but still had a nice wad of moderate and heavy precip mixed in, in a wad moving right towards the airport.  We get fired up and taxi out, and Chicago is in control instead of Grissom, and they leave us sitting on the taxiway running for 15 minutes because they are too busy dealing with arrivals at O'Hare to take time to get us off of Kokomo.  So by the time we left, the weather was on top of us.  I had a path to go where I'd stay out of the red showing on our radar, but we were still getting pretty wet.  It was not convective anymore, however, so that was good.  Our first stop was in southern Indiana, and it wasn't far from Vincennes.  If it would have been VFR I'd have been tempted to fly over.  :)  But it was definitely not VFR.  We shot a nice RNAV approach down to 500' and about 2 miles, gentleman's IFR.  The airport didn't have much there.  Self serve only on the fuel, and the pump spat 100LL on my face, shirt and pants.  Fortunately I like the smell of 100LL.  ;)  There was no computer, or internet, or food, or drinks.  They had a coffee machine, but no cups. There was a plastic couch (like hard plastic, weirdest thing I've ever seen) and a bathroom that came with toilet paper, so that was good.  They also had a remote way to get your clearance on the ground, but that frequency was out of service, so you had to call on your cell phone and pick up your clearance the old fashioned way.  Our next stop was supposed to be Kentucky Dam.  Well, it was going to be IFR so we picked Paducah, KY, which has an ILS.  Except Paducah went down to 200', 1/4 mile and fog (below minimums).  It wasn't supposed to, but it didn't know that, so it did, and there it stayed, all morning.  D arranged for a car there, and I found another airport that was above minimums that we could aim for, and he arranged a car there, too, and we headed out for one or the other, depending on how it looked when we got there.  As we got close, the visibility went up to minimums at Paducah, so that's where we went.  We were #2 on the approach, and the guy in front of us goofed up the approach, and then quit talking to the controllers.  For awhile we were a little concerned that he was in real trouble, but finally he went missed approach and started talking, said he was in "new equipment" and hadn't seen the glideslope come in and wasn't able to figure it out.  Well, shooting an approach to minimums is a GREAT time to figure out new equipment, huh?  Now it was our turn.  Unfortunately the controller set us up very badly, didn't get us lined up with the final course until we were on a 2 mile final a couple thousand feet too high.  He said "Sorry about that" and asked if we could get down.  D put in the speed brakes and pulled back the power and started diving for it, but we had an issue with how the approach loaded too, and that was enough for me, and I told him to get out of there, go missed and get set up better.  We had to wait for the other guy to go first again, and he made it in this time.  So did we.  I was already tired and it was only 10:30 a.m. ;)

When we got into the FBO at Paducah, I needed food.  Their site said they had a courtesy car.  When I asked, they said they didn't.  I looked at the vending machine, at the Doritos and M&M's, and thought, man, I need FOOD.  So I went back up and asked what could be done to get me to some real food.  They said one of the line guys or desk people could drive me into town for food.  I was now on a roll and kindly stated I didn't want to drive through McDonald's, I wanted FOOD.  So one of them drove me into town and dropped me off, and when I was done eating and reading and relaxing a bit, one of them drove back out and picked me up.  Thankyouverymuch.  ;)

The trip home was fairly uneventful.  Kokomo was calling for clear skies when nothing else was, so we knew we'd have to shoot an approach back in.  The RNAV 32 it was, and I don't know at what altitude we broke out, but it was a good approach, made the 4th approach in one day.

Then it got funny.  I put the plane away, got in the Jeep, and Steve texted me and asked me to pick up Kaylee at school.  I joked that I hoped I didn't run out of gas on my way to Greentown.  I make it there, pull into the gas station, and the have "Out of Service" bags over Every Single gas pump, all 8 of them!  Okay, I think, I'll just go to the other gas station in town.  I pull in there, and...they are all blocked off, because they are replacing all their fuel pumps.  There are no more gas stations in Greentown.  There is not one working gas pump in town, and I'm not going to make it back to Kokomo.  I could Not believe that.  I went back to the first gas station, went inside and asked the lady what was up, and she said "I just ran out of gas a few minutes ago."  Annnnd HAHAHAhahaha!  Of COURSE you did!!  That was just...too funny.  I told her my problem, and she said "Well, I do have a little Premium left if your car will take it."  Uh, yeah, my car will take whatever you have.  She asked how much I wanted, I said 15, she thought I meant dollars, I meant gallons, so she gave me $15 worth of gas which was about 5-6 gallons, but hey, it was enough to get me to pick up Kaylee and get home and not have to worry about anything.  ;)

So, that was my day.  All's well and all that, time to rest up for tomorrow's adventures.  ;)