Bash

I'll try to fill it in later, but the Bash is done for 2016.  I've been sick since what, Thursday, Wednesday?  Bad timing.  Friday was set-up day, and everyone is like a well-oiled machine any more.  Not that it goes perfectly or without hiccup, but it really does go fast and well, both set up and tear down.  Friday I flew cross country with a young man, and then had to crash for awhile to recuperate.  That evening we had grilled cheese on texas toast that Tre put together, and chili that the Glenndale ladies put together, and boy that was good.  Good enough to make note of.  ;)

Saturday rained.  It rained all morning, and when it quit raining, the clouds hung out at 500' overcast until about 3 pm.  The event was supposed to be over at 4.  I felt terrible.  I mean...Terrible.  I could only be up and around for a little while.  I couldn't do people, I couldn't do noise, and I felt just slightly better than death.  I would be out and about for awhile, try to be social and present, and then I'd crawl back into Dale's office and go to sleep on his little mini couch back there.  The first time I went out for like an hour and a half.  I felt even worse missing most of my own event.  The second time I napped for like 45 minutes.  When the clouds cleared at 3, we actually had a few riders show up, and we gave 22 people rides by the time we shut down.  We didn't expect to do any, because with the weather that way, people didn't come out, just our own regulars and workers.  But a few did come at the end, and that was just great.  I'm trying to remember how the day ended, when I went home...I felt so bad I don't remember most of the day, actually.  I know that Kaylee worked in the food tent all day, with a couple of her friends, and we got her one friend and her dad a ride in the plane as thanks, and the tent was dead quiet because, well, the event was dead quiet.  I remember the skydivers made it in, and I was really happy to see them.  I DID start feeling better by the end of that evening, but I still don't remember a lot.  We didn't bother bringing the T-6 over, and that was for the best anyway, or Nathan would have had to do the rides.

Today.  Today the sun came up on a gorgeous day.  Thank heavens.  Maybe one of these years we can actually have TWO good days in a row again!  :)  But today was about perfect.  We finally had a light wind day, for the first time in recent memory of Bashes.  It was foggy down by Sheridan and Indy, so the PT-26 couldn't make it up, which at first was a bummer because we had people asking about it, but in the end worked out for the best as the other pilot was going to have to leave at a certain time anyway, which meant I'd have had to do those flights too, and the T-6 ended up booking up all day.   I wouldn't have been able to do it all.

While the day dawned perfectly, I didn't.  I really did turn the corner on the cold or virus or whatever I had, and I felt much better there.  Instead what I woke up with was a  headache.  A normal, not good one associated with full sinuses.  I woke up at 6 and took some Tylenol and a Claritan D and tried to sleep it off.  No luck.  Had to get up at 7:30, took some Advil.  Got to the church service at 9 and took a mixture of the two.  Anyway, long story short, I know myself and my limits, and I was okay, right up until about noon.  At that point I told Jon I was stopping, to eat lunch, to try something else on pain meds, etc.   Jon sent Justin P to the corner CVS to get some Excedrin M, and I took two of those, ate lunch, drank water and some caffeine, got gas in the airplane, and felt good enough to go again.  By the end of that first ride back, the Excedrin kicked in, and the headache was gone, finally and thank you Lord.   Compared to the last several days, I felt like a million dollars after that headache lifted!  I was really bothered at the thought of having to shut down operations on the T-6, when the PT didn't make it, and the New Standard didn't make it, and Nathan couldn't take over, and we lost yesterday to weather, and here we have The Perfect Day, and my stupid head would kill it off?  Ugh.  But obviously safety is first, and like I said, I know my limits, and I was at it at lunch there, so I'm grateful for the fast-acting Excedrin so that didn't happen.

Kaylee served in the food tent with friends again today.  Her friends all got plane rides for helping except one.  That friend's mom had a dream that her older daughter died in a plane crash.  So she told her younger daughter that she was not allowed to get in an airplane today because of the dream, said it was a "foretelling" or a "foreshadow".  Or maybe Mom's subconscious or even conscious was worrying about it ahead of time.  ;)  But obviously we'd never take someone up in an airplane who was that worried about it, nor would we ever take someone without parental approval.  It was a bummer for her, though, as the only one of the friends who didn't get to go.

I gave twelve T-6 rides today.  That's a fair amount for 5-6 hours including getting fuel, loading and unloading, etc.  We kept them moving.  We used Runway 18, which actually works out kind of nice for the T-6, because when you land you can just roll to the end and not have to worry about hitting the brakes and getting stopped and turned around for the people behind you.  And when you don't have a 28 knot direct crosswind, it's not so hard over the wires and trees.  It was kind of an easy day, actually. Thankfully.

Today we sold out of food for the most part, we sold most of the t-shirts, we sold a ton of cookbooks, and we were backed up on rides for hours.  We ran rides almost two hours past the time we advertised we'd be shut down, but we kept going until we ran out of riders.  Several people were turned away because they didn't want to wait two hours to get a ride.  We could have likely run two T-6s the whole time, and we definitely needed another regular airplane/pilot too.   We ended up giving 166 people rides yesterday and today, and I don't know how that compares to last year, when we also only had one day, but it was pretty busy.  Most of the pilots went home wiped out, not getting much of a break all day.  It's character building.  ;)

Now I'm really tired and it got late, so I'm going to go to bed and figure out the rest tomorrow...