Saturday, September 08, 2007

My week as a mechanic

This week I got out of the house and into the hangar. It has been challenging, but at the end of the day, it feels good. Lucky for me, this was only a four day work week. The main focus was an annual inspection on a baron (think Beechcraft, not royalty ... we're talking aviation remember).

This week followed a weekend of attending a free festival in Sioux Falls, SD called LifeLight. Amazing what was packed into three days. On Monday we were invigorated and tired. On a side note, we have a great radio station here, called the Refuge, that plays a lot of great tunes from some talented Christian groups.

Wednesday saw me off to Scott City KANSAS ... Deja Vu I guess. It was a business trip and I became quite familiar with the airport terminal and the Wendy's in town. It was my first challenging situation as a pilot here, how to fill up six hours in a terminal building. More of Scott City to come, I'm sure.

Tomorrow is the 60th anniversary celebration of the airport. Pancakes, aircraft on display, aircraft rides, sky divers, and an aerobatic demonstration. Today we cleaned up one of the hangars and I did a familiarization flight in the Cessna 172 to get ready for the scenic flights tomorrow.

I guess no two days have been alike yet (out of four!) and I love it!

Saturday, September 01, 2007

The week in a new town


I am sitting in the public library listening to Costa Rican radio over the internet. Between e-mails I thought I would catch you up on the week.
Minnesota has been very good to us. Everybody has been extremely helpful. Dave and Jen helped us move up here, and helped us unload the U-Haul. They left Monday morning.

The people at Proclaim have let us use this week to unpack, unwind, and get familiar with the town. I would love to say that unpacking is over, but sadly it will be a long process as we decide what should go where, and if we really need it at all!

Here is what did get done:

Sunday we found a local Ethiopian restaurant, called the "Queen Sheba." It has a great abandoned Hotel lobby feel to it, mainly because it's in an abandoned hotel. Plan on a long meal, though. The lady who hosts the restaurant does everything, and I mean everything! It warmed my heart to hear Grace tell her she was very beautiful. The food was great, and all made from scratch.

(As an aside, we once drove from Wichita to Kansas City just to eat at an Ethiopian Cafe, so we feel incredibly lucky to have one in our little town!)

On Tuesday I found out that we can only get driver's licenses on Tuesday. So I crammed for my driving test and got my Minnesota driver's license and motorcycle license too!

Some friends from Proclaim, Jim and Kim, who have a farm near here, brought us some great fresh meat. I cooked them up for our first BBQ at the house. It was the first day that didn't threaten to blow us away, and it was great outside.

The weather has been gorgeous. We are enjoying it while we can. The kids are swimming in the lake with Breanna. We hope it lasts for awhile... winter is coming!