Let's see, I'll do it hodge podge.
Kaylee sent me a picture of her and Morgan brushing their teeth with charcoal. I guess it makes your teeth whiter. I hope it isn't too abrasive. lol
It was a busy flying schedule for awhile there. I just got back from St. Louis tonight. We were supposed to go at 7:30 am, and he pushed me back to 8:30. Yay! So I'm out there by 8, and we didn't actually leave until 9:45 . That's not so yay, I could have slept in more! But...oh well. :) It was like 2 degrees out there this morning. We left the airplane in the hangar until the last minute. When we got to St. Louis I had them put it in a hangar. My other option was to go out and start it every hour to make sure it would start after it sat out all day. We had one extension cord for a tannis heater on the left engine, but the right engine's heater was smoking, so...no good there. But it fired up fine and made my life easier, so I was thankful. Coming back into Kokomo we had snow showers, enough that you get that Star Wars effect as the snow comes at your lights. I try to take photos but can't get a good one yet. I need to work with my new camera and see what I can do. :)
The previous two days were busy flying days. Tuesday, the day after Christmas, Nathan took the Cheyenne over to Pennsylvania, and I was to chase him in the Aerostar. It was something around zero degrees, and frigid, and it had just snowed 3-4" the night before. So we had to wait until the airport got it plowed out enough that we could get out. Nathan got the Cheyenne out okay. I did not have the same fortune with the Aerostar. In the cold, there is a concrete "lip" at the hangar floor entrance. Meanwhile, the ramp in front of the hangar was ice. Combine those two things with the old slow tug, and once that tug hit the ice there wasn't a chance in heck of it pulling that plane out. I'd already called the fuel truck, and he was waiting, and I couldn't get the plane out. I asked him if he'd fuel it where it was. He hemmed and hawed, so I said "What if I do it?" And he let me. So I'm standing out there in the wind and the cold fueling it up, fingers burning (I wasn't prepared for this, obviously). I'm on the last wing, and suddenly I get a brain freeze feeling. My head starts pounding and throbbing out of the blue, like I'd eaten something super cold too fast. I put my head in my hands and had to wait it out for a second. Ow. I get done fueling, and get back to work on getting the plane out. The Cheyenne is already gone and will be waiting on me. I put some boards down on the concrete by the wheels to make a ramp to get the plane over the lip. It's not enough. I put kitty litter down in front of the tug wheels. No good. So one of the guys who was there got a tow rope and tied it around the front wheel fork. But he tied it and tried to pull the plane out crooked. I yelled "Stop stop stop!" and got down on my hands and knees in the snow and ice and took it apart, retied it on so it was even on both sides of the fork, had him recenter the truck, and then we pulled the plane out that way. It took a long time, but finally I was able to fire up and head to Pennsylvania. Cold, wet, and wanting to think about being in a bad mood, but decided not to be. ;)
Pennsylvania was cold but clear. We turned around and came home with a nice headwind. By the time I got back to Kokomo, I had to fuel up the airplane again, then it was time to run home and pack a bag. While I was throwing my stuff in the bag, Steve and Kaylee and Ann were loading up the Explorer with their stuff. I got my bag in, and we went right back to the airport, and took off for Nashville. We got down there after dark, and dropped Ann off with Cathy while the three of us hopped back in the plane and flew on over to Cape Girardeau, MO. That made four states in one day. :) Ernie was in the hospital, so Dad and Gayle picked us up, took us out to dinner, and then lent me their car so Kaylee and I could go visit Mom once she got home from the hospital.
When I woke up the next morning, I had a really bad headache, and it took me most of the day to recover from it, which is good because I had the day to do that. Finally I was mostly back to myself when it was time to leave, and we took off out of Cape, and headed back to Tennessee, this time to drop Kaylee off with her aunt and uncle and cousins and Grandma. Then Steve and I flew back home to Kokomo. We arrived home after 11 pm, and then this morning I was back up at 7 to fly to St. Louis. So it was a busy couple of days! We were going to be here to fly with students for a few days, but it looks like Mother Nature may not be cooperating with that idea. So we'll work on other things here for a few days, see if we can get some flights in on Saturday, and then Sunday we'll head down to TN to spend New Years with the rest of the family.
It's been good seeing everyone, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming weekend too.
This was our view for quite awhile on the way to TN. ;)
But once we broke out, it was quite pretty.
Chemtrails at Sunset
Some city at night in the Aerostar
I took this with my new camera, just messing around.
Dreary St. Louis this morning.
Sunset behind us, leaving St. Louis
You can kind of see the snow streaming in the landing lights. I think.
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