Friday morning when we got up, we had to pack everything up and put the hotel suite back to rights. It was in pretty good shape for five people living there for multiple days. :) We drove to the airport and got lunch at the airport restaurant overlooking the runways. It was loud out there, with two Army helicopters hovering and flying around a lot, and planes going constantly. We got gas, and took off over the water, using up most of the runway available to get off the ground. I only put in enough gas to get us to Atlanta with an hour reserve, for performance and the shorter runway.
Everyone passed out in the plane on the way home. The girls all passed out in the back seat, Steve held out awhile longer then passed out in the right seat, and I was the only conscious person for awhile. We landed in Atlanta, got some snacks and more gas, and had about 2.5 hours more to get home, thanks to the headwinds.
When I touched down in Kokomo, suddenly the plane started pulling hard to the right, and I was fighting a bit to keep it on the runway. I asked Steve if he was on the brakes, knowing her probably wasn't, and he said no, so I said I assume we have a flat. Kaylee could see it from back there, and she said "Yes we do!" Rather than stopping like you generally should, Steve and I decided to keep taxiing it and try to get it back to the hangar, or as close as possible. I succeeded in keeping it rolling, and got it in front of the hangar before shutting it down. It appears that there wasn't any damage to the wheel/rim. We didn't want to shut down the whole airport, and we didn't have a good way to get the plane back to the hangar, either. Steve called Jon, who came out, and they barely got the plane back in the hangar even with it right in front of it. We've never had a flat on an Aerostar before, so that was different. I made nice landings, too, so don't blame me. ;)
And that was the end of our Friday adventure. I stopped at Wendy's and brought home some chili, the girls ordered Chinese and we stopped and picked that up too, and then everyone settled in and crashed for the night. It was a good day, minus the whole losing the right main on landing thing. I AM really grateful it didn't happen in Atlanta or Florida though!
Kaylee's been having a good time with her friends, and I'm so glad we had such a nice vacation for everyone, including us. Cathy and Ann accomplished a lot too, including hair cut, her first Covid vaccine, Culver's ice cream runs, a lot of visiting, and running around town just looking at stuff. :)
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