Kaylee and I woke up (way too) early Tuesday, and I drove us down to Indy. Honestly, the whole traveling thing went like serious clockwork. Not a single glitch in the matrix, which is unbelievable. We left the house at 6 am, to get down there by 7:15, with a little wiggle room for morning traffic and construction, to park in the garage and get checked in by 8 am, two hours early, as directed, for a flight that left at 10. By 7:45 a.m. we were already there, parked, inside, baggage checked, through TSA, and by our gate, with nothing to do until boarding at 9:30! So we got a coffee and a muffin and chatted. There was no traffic. There was no hassle parking. There was no line to check the bags. There was no line at the TSA. It was spooky.
We landed in Minneapolis, and our next flight boarded in 30 minutes, so we got a small snack, and walked right onto the next plane. No delays. I had a window seat. I watched a movie, and we ate cheese and grapes and apples and almonds, via the airline. No problem.
We landed in Portland, OR. We walk right to the baggage pickup, and our bags come through right away. Meanwhile, a lady says "Kaylee?" Then a girl says "Pineapples!!" It was "Ducky", a co-counselor from PHOC (Pleasant Hill Outdoor Camp), where Kaylee attended and worked in Ohio for several years. They were on the same flight from Minneapolis to Portland and never knew it, met up in Oregon after living in Indiana and somewhere else, and working in Ohio. What are the odds? Meanwhile, while she was in Portland, she met up with Zach and a friend of his and spent a couple hours hanging out with them, someone she went to school with in Greentown, Indiana. Seriously, small world.
We get our bags, and walk to the rental car place. I walk right up to the board, my name is there, walk out to a section, and you get to pick your car and the keys are on the dash. I let Kaylee choose which of the vehicles we would take, with the caveat that it could not be white or grey. We had red, blue, black, bronze...she chose the black Kia Sportage. I think it was brand new, and I think it had 5 miles on it. It smelled and looked like it, and I don't think that was just the trip mileage, it was the actual mileage. Pretty wild. Anyway, we hopped in, the keys were in it, we drove up to the gate, they scanned the car and my driver's license, and away we went. In and out of the airports like the rails had been greased. It was super sweet and easy.
Next we found the hotel. It's so close to the airport, and it was still a nice suite. I get us checked in, and then Kaylee goes off with Zach and Riley to have dinner, play board games, hang out, etc. for a few hours. I took the time to go see John Wick III, and eat at "Black Bear Diner". By the time I got back to the hotel, I was suddenly really exhausted. It ended up being about 1 am our time, so that explained that. Kaylee came in, was too pooped to go shopping for the last minute stuff too, so we just crashed.
I promptly woke up at 3:45 am their time and never really got back to sleep. So I got up, got ready, went and got our free breakfast for both of us downstairs, and then we went to Target to pick up the last few things she hadn't packed. Shampoo, facial cleanser, you know, that kind of stuff. We got it all in her bags, and headed towards YWAM.
When we arrived, it had so much the same camp feel that PHOC used to. Winding dirt road up hill with lots of cabin/buildings scattered around and one main building area, and a rope course and rock wall up on the side of the hill behind it, all surrounded by trees. I mean, it's PHOC in Oregon. We were met by someone fairly quickly, who took us to Kaylee's building (it's not a cabin, it's a full-sized real dorm-like building), with the name "Harvest" on it. They're dorm rooms, really. Behind a closed door is one small bathroom with a sing, toilet and shower/tub. To the left and right are two rooms that each hold six bunk beds in them. There are tags with 6 girls' names on the left, and 5 on the right. Kaylee is in the one on the left, with six girls. That means 11 girls are sharing one tiny bathroom. Yikes. Each main room also has a sink in it, so that helps for make-up, washing face, brushing teeth stuff.
We brought her three suitcases in (one holds bedding), and there was a girl in there unpacking, named Hannah. She didn't talk at all. Kaylee asked her a question and she looked at her parents and they'd answer. It was a little awkward and odd. What's even weirder is that later we found out that girl is 26. She looks 14 at the oldest. But she opened up and talked a little more by the end of the day. Anyway. So Kaylee picks her bunk. Bottom bunk so she's not having to climb up and down it all the time for the next 3 months, by the window, behind the door. Excellent choice. We set her up, unpacked all her stuff, got organized, chose her shelf and her drawer, and then...waited. There was nowhere to go, nothing to do, nobody else was there yet, Hannah had disappeared, and we didn't know what to do. So rather than leaving her there alone, we hung out. Eventually, rather than stay for their lunch, when nobody seemed to be around and it felt awkward, we drove back into town and ate at Red Robin, and then hit Target one more time for a water bottle, which we'd forgotten. Back at the campus, people slowly started arriving. We got a tour of the place with one other girl, at 4 pm or so. Come to find out, this girl was from Indianapolis! And she loves show choir and Doris Day movies too. I think Kaylee found a friend. ;)
We ate dinner there with the group, as more people started showing up. And then Kaylee was chatting with three of the girls who were going to be in her cabin, and I leaned in and said "It's time for me to go." My purpose had been served, I was a buffer and a safety net, and then she got more comfortable, and I wasn't needed any more. So I hugged her, walked away in the sprinkling rain, turned around and gave her the I Love You sign, she gave it back, and I drove off into the storm. Literally. It stormed, bad, lightning, wind, the roads were flooding, and the traffic...Portland traffic is a disaster. It took me 2 hours to go the distance it should have taken me 1 hour to go. A reminder of why I don't live in big cities.
When I got back to the hotel, I was too tired to do anything, and I'd had dinner, and I pretty much just crashed. I didn't watch TV, answer emails, nothing. Just out. And woke back up at 5 am, up for the day. So annoying. ;)
The trip home went just as smoothly as the trip out. I pulled into the car rental return place, left it running and got my stuff, walked right in and checked a bag, walked right through the TSA line with no hold-up, and had too much time to kill before my flight departed. I ate a bowl of chowder that was killer. Every spoonful was chocked full of clam meat. I mean, you chewed that soup, you didn't drink it. It was Really, really good. Portland has killer clam chowder.
I had window seats both flights, the connecting flight was easy, my bags never got lost, nothing got delayed, it was just about the perfect airline flight experience. Which still isn't as good as flying yourself, don't get me wrong. It says something when you're this excited that it took all day to do something I could have done in a much shorter time, but because nothing went wrong, I was pleased. ;) We landed at 10:45 pm in Indy, got my bag (this one took longer), found my car ASAP thanks to me taking a photo of where I parked even though Kaylee was grumping at me to hurry up because she was cold, and drove home. Got home around 1 am. Crashed. Long, long day.
I only have one airline story. My last flight, I was seated next to a very large woman, who unfortunately had the middle seat. I felt bad for her, but she was pressed into my seat, and the aisle seat too. She apologized, and I know there's nothing that can be done about it, but it's no fun for us either, to lose part of our small-as-it-is seat, and to always be pressed up against the side of the plane and the side of the person next to me, for 3 plus hours. It was uncomfortable for everyone. But the second one was the guy behind me. He was one row behind in the center seat. He had some kind of sinus thing going, and he horked up and then coughed out every minute or so. The entire flight. Nose/throat loud hard snort of mucus, followed by loud barking cough. Every 60 seconds. I was about to lose it, so I turned the volume up on my movie and tried to tune him out. I'm walking through the airport afterwards, and hear it behind me again, and he's following me through the airport doing the same thing. Gah. I wanted to ask if anyone had any nasal spray emergency medical care asap. The two crying babies were *nothing* compared to that guy. People talk about banning children. I think they should ban loud barking phlegm snorters and coughers. :p The lady on the end of my row kept glaring at my open window shade and putting a book up to the side of her face to block the view. I let her. Next time if she wants to buy a window seat and close it, that's her right. I had a fantastic view out there, and I wasn't going to shut it down.
The flight before, my window seat had no window. The window was well behind me, and I just had a wall to my side and in front of me. But that last flight, I had two windows. So that averaged out. ;)
Kaylee's blog, she has made two entries so far. I hope she keeps it up. There's no way to "follow" it that I know of, other than just checking in. She won't write it in the mornings, that much I can promise. So far she's done it in the afternoons before dinner during a break. I think she's doing all right, it's hard to tell, but I know they're just now settling in and getting everything figured out.
I probably made my last trip to Aurora for ourselves anyway, today. John R and I took off in his 421 and delivered it there for its annual, and came home in our 340 that I picked up from its annual. Long story, but Aurora has screwed up a lot on this, and we won't be going back. I did a really good preflight before bringing it home. It's a long story and nobody cares, but we are moving our annuals to a place in Ohio, and looking forward to it.
On takeoff today, John made his radio call, pulled onto the runway, and added full power. I say "There's something on the right side of the runway. Wait, it's pulling onto the runway". It stayed there. We ended up having to abort the takeoff. It was a golf cart with lights on it, spraying weeds, and the guy in the right seat was looking over his shoulder at us. They had a radio, as did we. They say they didn't hear us. Fine. But you saw us barreling at you down the runway, and instead of GETTING OFF, you watch us over your shoulder and keep spraying weeds so we have to abort. Looked at us the whole time we taxied right past them to the right of them.
Not real bright.
Now that I'm home, I've started in on dishes and laundry and answering emails and such. Tomorrow I have a PT-26 check flight, and then we go to Michigan for the afternoon, me, Steve, Nathan and AE. I hope it's cooler up there. ;) Ann has a heart monitor on for a couple days, and tomorrow it comes off too. Then we have an appointment like the 7th of July with the cardiologist. And now you're caught up mostly from me being off of here for 5 days. Here are some pictures galore!
Kaylee glaring at me while I took a photo of where I parked.
On board and on the way
Dozing. 6 am comes early!
Baby Boeing.
Captain America!
A mean school
Pictures of the YWAM campus area
This is Kaylee's building. She's on the bottom floor and that's probably her window facing us.
More buildings. The post office is just to the right of Kaylee's building (which is at the top left of the photo)
This is their walkway of balloons to go check in for being here, at the call center where they call kids back who express an interest.
Kaylee's roommates
Kaylee's writing up her first blog entry.
Kaylee's desk is at the second table, closest to the window.
The other half of the classroom.
On this map are the names and faces of the "long term" missionaries they have out there living in other countries from this one facility, at the moment. One is in N. Korea. She acts as a tour guide to bring in groups of people and then does mission work underground there. Kind of scary.
Pretty little river and overlook, behind the buildings.
Kayee thinks she'll like this quiet spot.
Kaylee's room. Her bed is the bottom right one.
The other half of the room. We're not sure how the girl who ends up with the red top bunk bed is supposed to get up there regularly.
The one closet, one mini fridge and small desk, for six girls.
The linen/personal items closet and sink/mirror.
A close-up of Kaylee's home for the next 3 months.
A view of my "window" seat coming out of Portland.
A series of wingtip views from Portland to Salt Lake City to Indy.
Utah
Indianapolis at night. Home sweet home.
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