The Weekend

Well, this was an eventful one.

The actual 4th was quiet. We stayed home, I think. I honestly don’t remember what we did. Kaylee worked the first half of the day, came home early the rest of the day to be with her cat for the first time in a week, and I wasn’t home the whole day, but I can’t remember what exactly we did. Nothing 4th related. We were out at the airport for a little while but didn’t fly, oh yeah, pulled out the Cheyenne and topped it off for Monday’s flight, and pulled out BOB and I taxied it over to the ramp and secured it so Morgan could take it Saturday morning with all the boys to Evansville for rides.  Then Steve and I went to dinner before going home and chilling.

Then came the rest of the weekend. This is going to get long, but I’m going to write it out for my own posterity more than anything else. So some day when all I do is sit on the couch, I’ll be able to read and remember that at one point still in my 50s I was running around like a crazy person.

Saturday morning we were all up at 5-something a.m. Well, Steve and I were. We get ready, and we’re supposed to leave the house around 7 am. We are headed to Cape Girardeau in the Aerostar for Dad’s funeral. Except Cape is fogged over, big time. Below minimums. This ends up helping Kaylee, who had eaten watermelon she had cut up 2 weeks prior and put in a plastic bag and in her fridge. She was up all night throwing up, and she wasn’t ready to go at 7 am but she still wanted to go. So we waited on the fog, and on her, as we were just going to be late to the ‘viewing’ part of it, not the actual funeral. She felt okay enough to go, and the ceilings lifted, and off we went.

We landed at Cape, and they let us use their courtesy car all day no charge, so we put $35 worth of gas back in it as a thank you. Went to the services. He’d been cremated, so I was admittedly grateful to be spared The Line of People Staring at the Body. (That is the worst custom ever and we won’t be doing it for the rest of us three.) I saw people I hadn’t seen in probably 20 years. Uncle Kevin had shattered his femur in multiple places at a dog park and was unable to come. Aunt Sharon stayed with him because he can’t do anything for himself yet, but sent their boys. Zachary is a big gruff sweet adult now who does a lot of construction and work with trees. Micah is the principal at an elementary school, smaller and more studious and quiet. Uncle Rick and Aunt Christie were there, but neither of their spouses made it either. 4th of July fireworks terrify their pets and they stayed home with them.  The viewing lasted until 11:30, then the service with a pastor, then a luncheon. They asked folks to come over to the house for a little bit, which we did, and then headed out.

Got to see Mom & Ernie for a bit, and my mom loves me because she left me some peach crepes to eat and they were delicious and make me want to make more of my own except I shouldn’t because I would eat them all and I don’t need another 5 pounds in one week. *sigh* SO good. Love those things.  Got to see the kitties too, who have all grown up a lot since we last saw them. Kaylee sat on the floor and played with them most of the time, the little Cat Mom in cat heaven. ;) It was great to just be able to sit and visit for a bit.

We took the airport car back and headed to Evansville to drop off Steve. Saw Morgan, Cameron, the Indiana folks and Jordan B for a few minutes, and then Kaylee and I loaded up in the Aerostar again, and I flew her home to Molly. All the way home, it was 4th of July weekend, so there were fireworks all across the countryside on the way home. We played “spot the flower’ the whole time, and they were pretty non-stop. It was an enjoyable trip home, easy and calm and quiet and just watching fireworks the whole way. We landed back at Kokomo fairly late, I put the Aerostar away, took Morgan’s VW Bug home, and got to bed around midnight or after.

Sunday morning I was up by 6 am, driving Morgan’s car to Marion Airport, because I was picking up the Meridian to fly it down to Evansville to join the Air Power Tour people.  I got there by 8:30 am, got the BT-13 ready, got the C-45 ready, and flew with Nick in the PT-26 for my CAF checkride. There was one batch of riders, and I let Morgan do that one and I’d do the rest. It was hotter than hell, muggy, and we were sweating like crazy the entire time, and the flightsuits were bad. Anyway, then she took the Meridian to New York to pick up Caleb, and I took over for BOB. I did one ride, that’s all that came out, so the rest of the day we sat in the shade under the tent and tried not to die from the heat, talked to the few people that came. The stop did well the day before, so hopefully even though that day wasn’t the best, it was good enough to have made it worthwhile.

Since Morgan was now in the Meridian, when she landed it at Marion, her car was there waiting, and when I flew everyone home in BOB, now my car was waiting at Kokomo airport where I’d left it last night. So it was a juggling act, but it worked. Around 2 pm, storms started popping up, and I said we needed to get out of there. When I left, fat glops of rain were hitting my windshield, and the winds shifted to 280 gusting to the 20s, and we were on Runway 18 where the winds had been all day. By now we needed to go or taxi back and wait because we wouldn’t make it to another runway. I sent it, and we were off and headed home quickly. I let Hayden fly us home, and then I did the landing and bobbled it a little, for which Steve and Cameron gave me a hard time. We were all hot, tired, sunburnt, sweaty, and we pulled out all the hangar planes, then put away BOB, put the rest away, then sat in lawn chairs under the open hangar door, in the breeze. Everyone else cracked a beer, but I didn’t feel like alcohol, so I just had a water. Ethan came out and loaded up the Cheyenne with a bunch of boxes and such for the trip to Colorado the next day. A LOT of boxes. We filled the nose compartment, and the back baggage too. That’s why he wanted to come out early, to see how much they could get in. We’re watching the weather at Kokomo because there are a bunch of storms popping up and aiming at us, but skirting the airport, just. Then I see one set coming right at us, and I say “hey guys, this one’s going to hit us”, so we lowered the doors, packed up and went home.

It was then that we learned when Caleb wanted to go back to NY and that Morgan could join her family on their annual vacation in Tennessee. Steve and Cameron were going to do it Monday, but it would be easier if I just did it that night. It’s only 1.5 down there or so, not a super long flight. The weather wasn’t great, lots of storms, but Steve also had a lot to do on Monday, and Morgan was looking forward to getting down there, so I offered to just do it that night. So…I went back out to Kokomo. Now here’s a story.

The Aerostar wasn’t full so originally I was just going to get fuel wherever we went. The closest airport to them was closed, and none of the others would be open either because it was so late at night, so it would just be self serve fuel. I figured, fine. We’ll top off down there. We picked the 2nd closest airport, which was still an hour drive away, but better than the 6+ hour drive she’d have had in a separate car from everyone else. I looked it up, no NOTAMS, the runway isn’t super long at 3600’, but it’s enough for the Aerostar. It’s in a bowl, there are mountains around it, but they’re not super high, and they have self serve, and an RNAV approach if you need it. Cool.  Well.  I decided if I was going to self-serve, I’d just do it at Kokomo and delay our departure by a few, but this way I don’t have to do it down there, can just turn around and go home. So we top off and take off, and I play dodge the cell until we’re out of the area, and then cruise the rest of the way there. 

We get down there, and thankfully it’s July and the sun doesn’t go down for a long time, but it’s set right about as we get there, and city lights are on. I key up the lights, and nothing happens. Try again, nothing. I ask Morgan to look it up and see if it says anything about the lights. Not on ForeFlight, no. I tell her to look up the AFD. She does, and in there it says “Daylight Operations Only”. The airport has no lights and it’s a daytime airport only. Well…shit! I can still see the runway and the mountains, so I tell her I’m going to have to drop her off and leave asap. So it’s a damn good thing I already put fuel on back at Kokomo. I tell her I hate to leave her at an empty airport before her parents get there, but I gotta get back out of here before it gets dark dark. I looked around, and that bowl the airport is in is not very big, I had to keep it tight in the pattern to land. The winds are making me take off on the west runway, which is where the biggest hills are. The runway’s not long enough to let me do a tailwind takeoff. I takeoff, and I’m looking at the mountains in front of me, and I can’t even turn to spiral over the airport and gain altitude like you normally would. I’m too low, too slow, if I try to turn tightly enough to miss the mountain over there, well, end up in the news. So I eagerly wait for the Aerostar to accelerate better, and then I outclimb the mountains in front of me, gently s-turning so I could see them clearly and not have my nose blocking the view. Occasionally I had to turn a little to go to a lower area. An engine out there and it would have been back in the news, or if someone wasn’t paying attention to their speed trying to pull up over stuff, or trying to turn too aggressively to get away, etc. I gave a little salute to the mountains as I finally turned on course well clear of them. As the sun now was down down, the mountains started disappearing, too, and that makes perfect sense why it’s a daylight hours only airport. You wanna see the big tree covered rocks pretty clearly going in or out of there. It was a beautiful spot, a cool airport, but required a little more info than I got on it. I thought about Steve and Cameron going in there the next day, on a hot daytime time, with more weight on board, and I didn’t know if I’d feel great about that. I thought I was close enough with just me on a cooler evening. I didn’t even take any pictures of the airport or runway or mountains because I was concentrating, man.

I had more crappy weather on the way home, that same line of storms. I had to deviate around, got a little wet, and then finally landed at like 11 pm. Put the Aerostar away for the last time, and NOW I’m tired. Drove home, got to bed around midnight again.

Which leads me to today. Didn’t have to wake up until 7:30, instead woke up at 4:30 with a headache (shocking), and 5:30, still headache, and 6, and then woke back up at 7:30 when my alarm went off, a little groggy but no headache. It was low IFR this morning at home, and I was taking the Cheyenne to Delphi to pick up Ethan, Amber, Atley, and Steven to go to Gunnison. I couldn’t get released with Grissom because there was an  archer or something shooting an approach, very slowly, did a touch and go, and then climbed away and in my path, so I sat there for 15 minutes burning gas before they let me go. I shoot the approach into Delphi, and I break out 100’ above minimums. Land, and I’m just tired, so I sit on the couch while the airport manager peppers me with questions I don’t answer that are none of his business, until he leaves me alone. Ethan et all come out, and they’ve got more stuff to fit into the plane. We load up, and I try to get my clearance, and the Chicago guy says it’s the wrong number. It is not, we’ve used it for years, but he gives me another number. This was after I was on hold with him for 10 minutes because I was #3 to get my clearance. I call the other number, they’re like, no, you need the first number, he’s wrong (which I knew he was wrong dammit), and that was after I was on hold for 5 minutes because I was #2 with him. So we finally get Grissom’s phone number working (it wasn’t) and get our clearance that way. I’ve now lost like 30+ minutes burning gas on the ground in two places trying to get IFR. Such a pain.

We get to Colorado uneventfully. I go with them, we unload the plane in two car load trips, unload at the cabin, and while they work, I sit in a chair and close my eyes for an hour or so. That felt better. 

I left Ethan and Amber and Atley there, and took Steven home with me. I have to drop him off in Delphi (I’m writing this from 39,000’ over Kansas) and then get home. We should land after 10 pm at Delphi, which puts me in Kokomo at like 10:20 or so, and then put it away, and then get home again after 11 most likely. 

And now you’re all caught up!