OK not in OK

For those of you who don't get the FlightAware alerts, I'm home safe and sound.

For the rest of you, how come none of you waited up to text me a "welcome back" at 2 a.m.?? I feel deserted and unloved. Ya bums.  ;)

I had to check out of the hotel at 12. So I went down to breakfast there, lounged around, got ready, and at 11 the cleaning people knocked on my door.  I said I was still in there.  They asked if I was going to be a late checkout.  I said no, I'd be out of there by noon.  They wanted a little earlier because they were there cleaning.  I had until noon, I took it.

At noon I went to Cheesecake Factory for a really good and high calorie lunch.  I also got a piece of cheesecake, which is right now in my fridge, but I'd just had a 1000 calorie rice and chicken dish (Almost EVERYTHING there was huge on calories!) and I was full, and I figured I'd better save the 1400 calorie cheesecake for another day.  That one piece of cheesecake is more calories than I was eating in an entire day for a long time.  Unreal.  Maybe I'll divide it up into two days.  Nah, that won't help, it'll just be too many calories for two days instead of one.  ;)

From there I went to the airport.  The plane was way out on the ramp and they hadn't fueled it yet, but I had until 9 pm before I was supposed to leave anyway, so no big deal.  I hung out there for several hours. Tried unsuccessfully to nap.  It was really hot in there.  Read a book. Couldn't concentrate.  Finally gave up and went back to the car and drove 6 miles away to the mall where I just got an unsweet tea and read in air conditioning for awhile in peace.  Walked for some exercise.  Got gas in the car, and went back to the airport.  I got the text around 7:30 that it was going to be 9:45 or so.  I had the airport top off the plane and tug it to the front.  At 10 they called, lost, looking for the FBO.  By 10:30 they were there and I went to call up, and tower was closed.  It feels wrong taxiing down that big airport on your lonesome, not talking to anyone. I kept expecting to get in trouble.  But it was dead out there, not another airplane in sight.  And the moment I took off, they cleared me initially to 3000', then to 15,000', then right up to 35,000'.  Don't get that a whole lot.  The plane did fine up to 35,000', though that last thousand feet it was slowing down, especially since there hadn't been any level-offs to let it build up some speed in between.  It was still doing 1000 fpm though.  Not bad at all for as much fuel and people as we had on board.  At least I don't think so.

Off to our right was a line of thunderstorms.  The lightning show was fantastic, as always, especially since I wasn't headed for it.  The radios were quiet, they kept me high for a long time, we were only burning 500 lbs/hr total up there for most of the flight, and it was a nice, smooth ride home.  I thought the ceilings at Kokomo were going to be 300 scattered, 1000 overcast and light rain.  I was hoping I remembered how to set up the approaches.  ;)  No need.  It was 7000 and 10 miles.  Beautiful.  So I did the RNAV 5 into Kokomo just to make sure I remembered the button pushing anyway.  No sweat, although without the GPSS steering, the plane wanders some on autopilot on the approach.  So I kicked it off and hand flew the rest of the way once I knew I remembered the buttons. Why not.

I pulled into my driveway around 2:10 am.  It's now 2:30 and I'm hoping to be able to get to sleep.  It's not super easy for me to get back from something and just fall into bed.  It takes me a little unwinding time.  So we'll see.

Tomorrow is Kaylee's first day of her Junior year of High School.  Fortunately I don't have to be the one to take her at 7:20 am.  :)  Say a prayer for a smooth first day, or as smooth as first days can usually go, anyway.  I know she's excited about being a teacher's aide, and about Encore, and even about band since she's not in marching band now.  There are a few other classes to keep up on though too.  :)

That's it.  I'm home.  Later!