Saturday the weather started off fine, but the later in the day it got, the worse the weather was forecasting to be. The game didn't even start until 2 pm, so we couldn't leave before 4:30 pm, and what started off as IFR and rain, was headed for thunderstorms, and then finally it started turning into tornadoes and hail. I texted my folks around 4:15 pm, and said "The bad weather has turned into really bad weather. If we're not off the ground in less than an hour, we are probably going to be staying here possibly overnight." There were already two lines of thunderstorms in between me and home, with a third line of storms coming at us from the southeast, and two of those lines were ugly. There were two other NetJet crews there in jets, and they were talking out loud with each other about the weather. One kid was talking about the tornado watch and the hail, and said they might have to go east and up north all the way around and come back down behind it. I looked at him funny, but didn't say anything. I knew where I was going. There was a gap to the west that took me behind the systems with just a little maneuvering around more rain than convection, just a few cells to go around. Going BEHIND the system is always better than skirting in front of it, where it is building and growing and nastiest. But even the jets were worried about the weather, so that tells you something.
But first, my morning. I was at the Super 8 Motel in town. When I went to take a shower, in the dingy and what looked like dirty bathtub, I didn't have hot water. I let it run for a long time, and got no better than cool. But I really needed a shower, so I took it, a cold shower, which is...freaking great. I get out, and I'm toweling off, and I turn on the sink faucet, and I get 5 seconds of warm water, enough to put some steam on the mirror, then it was gone again. But I look at the mirror, and someone had used their finger or something to write on the mirror so it only showed up in steam. It said "I SEE YOU". I started laughing, and then I stopped laughing and started looking for pinhole cameras. I didn't see any. It also shows that the mirror was not wiped down after at least the last person in there, but who knows how many people ago that was.
I go down at 9 am and get breakfast. There isn't any, really. There's juice and coffee, and then Quaker Oats packets you can mix with hot water, pre-packaged highly processed small muffins, and someone took white toast and wrapped up individual slices in saran wrap and put them in a cooler. Like that makes it sanitary. Nothing hot, nothing real, nothing good. I got coffee and juice and a small processed blueberry muffin. Some guy in there says "Excuse me, what's the difference between coffee and decaf?" I laughed. He was like 30. Who doesn't know the answer to that even if they don't drink coffee?? I said "Decaf is fake coffee". I didn't get a creeper vibe off of him, I think he was just trying to make conversation or something, but I shut it down pretty quickly anyway. I'm not a conversationalist anyway, let alone to strangers in a rando hotel.
I have to check out at 11. I text my "taxi" lady from last night. No response. 15 minutes later I try again. No response. I text the original number. He calls, and says her shift didn't start till noon. I told them yesterday I'd need to come back out to the airport in the morning and nobody said anything about noon. I didn't care, I had nothing better to do, but now I was just left sitting in the tiny hotel lobby on a small chair. She finally pulls up, says "Sorry, I was asleep when you texted", and in the daylight I could really see this car. It was a disaster. Crunched in front right fender. Her window wouldn't roll up all the way. They were tinted, and smeared with greasy smeared food like a kid with yogurt on his hands ran his hands all over the windows. There was trash and dirt all over the inside of the car. It smelled like an ashtray. It was nasty, truly. It took her 4 minutes to take me to the airport, she charged me $10. I actually gave her a $20, because I figured she probably needed it more than I did and at least I didn't have to walk.
I get to the airport, and it's all locked up, because this place is closed on the weekends. But then a guy comes and lets me in, he's there because the NetJet guys are there, so that helped me out. I spent the next several hours watching the weather. Around 3:30 pm I changed into my party clothes. Black slacks, black boots, red dress shirt, Christmas ornament colored ball earrings, and started watching all my windows for weather closing around me. That's when I texted them, as I'm watching our ceilings drop, the winds pick up, the clouds racing past, and one very large very ugly cell headed right for the airport.
They texted back after about 15 minutes, said "Six minutes out". When they arrived, they asked if there was time to go to the bathroom, and I said Please Do! Don't need people who have to pee in the back of a bumpy stressful flight. lol I told them that it was going to be a little rough in the beginning, but once we broke through the second line, it would be smooth sailing.
I took off, headed west, the waypoint I'd filed to got covered up by a storm, so I changed tacks, and ATC was very helpful too. I ended up working my way through pretty easily, headed north, got bounced around a little, and got warned about severe turbulence someone ran into ahead of me "1 oclock and 40 miles". But they were in the middle of the weather, and they got bit by it. I was not in the middle of it, I was avoiding it. We never got worse than light to occasional moderate chop and turbulence.
When I cleared the lines, the sky opened up, and it was beautiful. I turned around to tell my passengers that we were in the clear, and he was asleep back there. Now that is trust. Or faith. I got us home just in time.
We landed in the dark, and I taxied over to the temporary hangar we were storing the plane in. A couple folks moved their cars out of the way, and I was able to tug the 340 into the hangar and lock up, then walk over to our hangar and join the party.
The hangar looked beautiful, everyone did such a great job. There was SO much food, and over 100 people were there. I mingled for awhile, but the more I talked, the more I coughed. When it was time to eat, I didn't really see a good place to sit, so I took my plate over to the little picnic table behind the T-6, and John R. and Steve T joined me there. Later I moved over to the big conference table and people called it the Cool Kids' table. lol Really it was the Awkward People table for the most part! But we stayed and talked and hung out and snacked until 11:30. My only problem was coughing. I coughed so hard that at one point I headed to the bathroom, and I threw up from coughing. *sigh* But when I got home and quit talking, I went to bed, and didn't cough or talk at all. Today just an occasional hack. All the cold air and the constant talking took me out.
We got home around midnight, and I slept in until 10 am! Needed that. I hadn't slept well in my hotel room the night before, either. Woke up at 3 am and never got back to sleep. So it was a long day or two, and a full day or two, and some stress, and a lot of socialization, and I took today and sat in quiet comfort.
Here are a ton of photos. First, of the clouds coming out of the storm and breaking out over Indy too. Then of our party decorations.
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