Girl's State

If you want to follow the event Kaylee is at for the next week, they have a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/alahgs/ that you can "like" and follow.  Maybe they'll even explain what's happening better.  ;)

They are divided into Federalists and Nationalists.  Kaylee got Nationalist.  They had a quick election, and Kaylee had to get up and give a speech to get people to vote for her.  When they did, she was voted in as "Nationalist City Precinct Commiteeman."  I'm really surprised that at an all-girl event in this day and age they didn't force them to call it "Committeeperson".  Not that I'm offended, mind you.  I asked her what that was, and she doesn't even know, but she does know she has voting power.  lol

They have to dress up professionally all day every day, with different "classes" of dress, from dressy casual to almost formal business suit attire.  She had to pack two bags to get all the clothes in they wanted her to bring/wear throughout the week.

So now you know as much as I do about this.  Wait, she's in "FREEDOM" something or other (district?), in the city of "Bubala", which is not pronounced "boob-uh-luh" like WE thought, but "Boo-Ball-uh".  Sorry, it's going to permanently be "boobuhlu" in my head now.  NOW you know as much as I know.  :)

I flew her and her friend Clarissa and her dad up to Angola, Indiana, in Gumby.  It was an almost 2.5 hour drive, and a 26 minute flight.  So we flew.  God Bless Aviation.  Richard went to college there, which is neat! I bet he'd get a kick out of Kaylee being there for this.  Everything ran me late today though.  Kind of one thing after the other piled up. I was supposed to be back by 11:30, and I made it back by 1:15, with someone waiting on me.  His name's Bob, and he's an aerobatic airshow pilot.  Super nice guy, and we're trading favors.  He's flying aerobatics with me and I'm doing some T-6 checking out for him.  Win/Win.

When we got to Angola, Steve had arranged a courtesy car ahead of time, as the airport office wasn't officially open yet.  But when we got there, there were three guys sitting in the lobby hanging out.  When I went to the counter to get the clipboard, one jumps up, I say I arranged the car ahead of time, that I'm to go behind the counter and get the clipboard, he does it for me, doesn't want me back there apparently, I fill it out, he watches, and he walks past me and goes to the dad and says "So how do you like that Aerostar?"  The dad, being on his like 2nd ever small plane ride, looks confused, and says "I don't know, she's the pilot".  The guy says "REEally!?" and turns to me.  Now I was the one on the radio, I was the one shutting the doors, I'm the one going up to the counter and getting the courtesy car and answering all the questions on the form and such, it's my driver's license on the thing.  C'mon.  Kaylee laughed.  When we got outside she said "They never think you're the pilot, do they."  I laughed and said "sometimes not, no", but the truth is, if there is any guy on board at all with me, the line guys or desk guys often have to work their way through them before they get to me. ;)

When I finally got to Kokomo, I was feeling rushed, behind, late, and probably a little flustered.  But I had a water, talked for a few minutes with Bob, and then we went up.  It was nice and cool up around 8000'.  The first trip up we mostly did stalls.  Clean low power, clean no power, dirty low power, power on.  We did them where you don't recover right away, where you let it get a little out of whack, where you're upside down, etc.  We came in and got some gas, and went back up and I did some loops mostly.  Then some other maneuvers, various rolls, etc., all in all good stuff.  When we ended, we'd flown a good several hours total, 2.5 or so, which is a lot of time to be going upside down for someone like me without a current tolerance built up.  But I was in good shape until the very end, and then I felt my head ting.  I have a three tiered warning system.  I feel it in my head, first, that my gyros are getting tumbled.  Then I feel a poke in my stomach, like a hot spot.  If I ignore both of those things and keep going, I will be not feeling great within another 5-10 minutes or so and will be forced to quit, and will sit on the ground and feel yucky for awhile.  So I quit with the head today.  ;)  But I was pleased with how long I was able to go, and that even then it wasn't bad, I could have done more.  I just chose to stop now, felt like I'd accomplished what I needed to for that day, and still could feel totally normal.  Seemed like another win/win to me.  :)

Afterwards, Bob flew home and Steve and I went to Applebees and did a "drinks, appetizer and dessert" kind of meal.  I'd had 2/3 of a subway sandwich, and a grilled chicken sandwich to eat all day, not wanting anything heavy going on for what we were doing.  So I had some food latitude.  Just the drinks, appetizers and dessert were probably more calories than I should have had for the day, but it was worth it, and better than adding a meal to it too!

Okay, now it's not that late, but I am a busy girl tomorrow; someone in the morning, a break for lunch, and then I have people non-stop until 8 pm. So...better go get some sleep.

I'm pleased with today...