Home Again

Bummer, I should feel like talking so I could write a story about our epic journey in a car to Ohio and back, since we couldn't get Kaylee by plane this time.  ;)  But I don't feel very chatty.  The weather looked pretty ucky, and the forecast was even worse.  We could have gotten there, but getting home was a big question mark, especially almost 8 hours later when we'd need to be coming home.  We had to make the decision early as it's a long drive, so finally we decided that for a flight we're not getting paid for that didn't have to be done, there was too much uncertainty and potential things to worry about, and decided to drive.  We went ahead and rented a car here in Kokomo, and it was a lovely small Ford SUV all loaded with fancy things.  I hooked my phone up via Bluetooth, played music and answered a phone call and all that stuff with it, just for the fun of it.  It was bright blue, and on the way home, Kaylee was playing with the interior lights and found that they all changed colors, from blue, green, purple, orange, white, red, yellow.  Pretty wild, actually, and things were lit up like little lights by  your feet, door handles, etc.  It was space age and Kaylee wanted us to buy the car.  :D 

Speaking of Kaylee, she was horrified when she found out we'd have to drive home.  We kept telling her that we already drove all the way here and she had no room to complain! 

Steve drove on the way down, and I drove on the way home, so I got the leg getting to drive tired in the dark and the rain, but he had a terrible sinus headache by the end of the day and wasn't having any fun after that either.  We were going to return the car that night and pick up our own Jeep there in the lot, but he felt so bad we just went home.  We walked in the door around 11:30 pm, and he went right to bed, Kaylee went right to bed, and I unloaded the car, did the litter boxes, food and pee pad, then sat up and tried to unwind a little.  Flying is better, and what makes the drive worse is that we could have made it home.  It would have been IFR and raining, but I can handle that--it wasn't convective, the storms were mostly gone, so we'd have been home in an hour (and a half including the drive home from the airport) instead of at 11:30 at night.  Oh well, better off being on the ground wishing to be in the air than in the air wishing to be on the ground and all that.  It's a true statement albeit a cliché. 

Kaylee had a great time, and wants to stay there.  She'd love to stay three weeks this year; not sure we can make that happen.  She's trying though. 

It did rain so hard and dump so much that everything around here, which was already saturated, is flooding.  The park is flooded by our house, with the roads closed.  Glenndale's lake was back, smaller, but there.  There's even a lake by Kokomo Airport now, too.  Driving home from the airport I came across two flooded roads.  Both times I was fortunate, because there was water running across one of the roads where a river had risen over the top of it.  I'd have turned around, because you couldn't see the road any more, but I happened to arrive in time to see a much smaller car go through the water and see how shallow it still was, so I went on through.  The second road was just static flood water, not running water, and a kid on a bicycle was driving through it, so I could see how deep that one was too, even though it was deep enough you lost sight of the road.  Kokomo has been hit a lot with water, and unfortunately, other than tomorrow, we're looking at at least 3 more days of storms and rain coming up.  Fortunately our house is on a hill, so we're fine.  The airport might not fare as well if it keeps dumping like this though.  And I don't even want to talk about the flying we're not getting done. 

A Pitts went down at an airshow in Missouri today.  You can see in the video that he botches a maneuver, stalls the plane and can't get it recovered in time.  It always amazes me when other pilots see the video and say "Pilot incapacitation?  Control failure?"  Horses, not zebras, folks.  He made a mistake, in a field where you have very little margin for error. There are a few every air, professionals who had done the same routine countless times. Nothing new there, but it's sad and a little scary--I wonder as these accidents get more press how much longer airshows will be able to get insurance, sponsorships, and be allowed to keep operating...*I* don't want to do it, but that doesn't mean I think nobody should be allowed to do it if they make the choice to...

I have some photos of flooded Kokomo but I don't feel like pulling them off and messing with them.  I think I will go have some Marsh Sushi, which is a questionable thought but I'm going to give it a try.

We're home, we're good, peace.