Frozen Michigan

I actually woke up 15 minutes before my alarm went off at 5:30.  That means I got about 4.5 hours of sleep last night, but apparently I was mentally ready to get up and get going on this flight.   I watched the sun rise, and had a nice conversation.  Yes, I conversed at 7 am.  We first went to Ionia, MI.  Had to shoot the RNAV 27 in, but it wasn't super low.  But when we landed, I was going to get a top off, and then wait a couple hours there.  Instead, the FBO was locked up tight, and the keypad at the door had no hint on it to tell me what the code was.  I tried the unicom frequency, and I tried both combinations of the runway layouts.  I tried 1200.  Usually it's one of those, but not this time.  So I flagged down the other two guys and said "Wait for me!!"  It was like 20 degrees up there, and blowing light snow, and I didn't care to stand outside until someone decided to show up.   So instead I went to the job site with the guys.  We were there over two hours, before heading back to the plane, and going over to Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor/Detroit Michigan.  This place had a lovely crew car, and I went into town and had "Twisted Rooster" for lunch.  I ended up with a salmon sandwich with maple sriracha sauce and coleslaw on it, and it was so weird I had to try it, and it was just delicious.

At 5 pm, apparently they closed up shop.  The desk lady didn't come tell me that though, she just left, and when I came out of the pilot's lounge, the main area was dark, and I couldn't get access to the ramp.  For 40 minutes I didn't see another soul.  Finally a line guy came in and I said "How do I get out to my plane when my folks get back?"  After the conversation of "why do you need out there", "I'm the pilot", he said "Oh, we give the code to the pilots. It's xxxxx."  I said "Great!" Might want to tell the desk person to tell the pilots who are here about that before she goes home for the day, but hey it worked out.  ;)

I had a sunrise on the way there, and a great sunset on the way home.  It was a beautiful, clear night.  Beautiful.

Kaylee's voice lesson went okay today, her voice still isn't all the way back, but she's feeling better, more confident, nervous but confident both.  Mrs. E doesn't usually give the lead to someone who has never even been main cast before.  Kaylee started off just hoping for main cast.  Now she's really hoping for the lead.  She really wants Dolly.  I'm already nervous.  Auditions are tomorrow, hers is at 5 or 6 pm.  Her voice can only take one run-through at full force, so she's going to practice halfway one time after school, then rest up her voice, and at audition give it everything she can and belt it out.   Cross your fingers her voice doesn't betray her, crack or wobble on her.  Give her a fair shot, even if the world isn't fair (mom).  :)

Ann is dealing with nausea and dizziness today.  We found that some ginger candies I had helped with the nausea, which is what ginger is supposed to do, so that's good.  I used it when it had been a long time since I'd done aerobatics and I went up with Bob and we wrung out the plane, and I wanted to make sure I could go longer, and it worked for me, too.  Good stuff. 

The weather looks beautiful for the next several days, so unnatural in January!  Like 45 degrees!  We have some students to take care of, so we're working around that a bit. And now, it's time to head to bed and get ready for tomorrow.

I got some hiking in today, went walking even in frigid Michigan, working on getting back in the groove of healthier habits.  Not because it's Jan. 1st, but because I'm sick of having tight pants.  ;)

Photos from today:

These first few are the sunrise.

Skimming the tops

The view underneath the clouds is not nearly as nice.

Next is a series of photos of the sunset on the ramp.

A jet nearby on the ramp

Sunset on departure out of Willow Run Airport

I mean, are those gorgeous, or what??