A Great Saturday!

For once we had good weather for a fly-in!! Light breeze and not a cloud in the sky. Atchison's Amelia Earhart airport had their annual fly-in and we went with our Pilot's For Christ group. Joy, Katie and Caleb were able to join us which added a lot to the fun.

The crowd was bit light. A lot of our smaller airports are struggling to survive - so if your local airport has a day where folks go to the trouble of cleaning, fueling and flying their planes and/or cars in - take an afternoon and join them. They love to talk about their planes and you can usually find a vet or two with quite a story to tell.

Rolled the super clean Stinson out about 8 a.m.

The floods we've had have wiped out initial crops. Hopefully the farmers will have time recover and replant. All the fields in this picture were under water for some time.

Here is our little base at the fly-in. I hadn't noticed the drooping sign on the table. The Dr. Pepper tent came in very handy in the sun.

Typical fly-in scene

You see all kinds of aircraft from all kinds of time frames.

and usually there are some pretty neat cars to look at too!

Fluids are always important even if they are easily half your body weight.

Sometimes it is hard to stay awake - what with it being your nap time, the droning airplanes, the soft breeze and Mom's arms.

Lots of questions for Papa - I love the 'little girl' stance.

Membership has its privileges and when you are a grandchild of Papa O'Donnell's that means getting to actually sit in the super cool airplanes.

One of the best times of the day was when Katie Beth managed to get a ride from Atchison, KS to Cameron, MO. Joy was nice enough to meet us in Cameron so Katie could take a ride in Papa's plane. Katie B was one happy little girl even if we had to pad the headset.

Papa banking on take-off didn't faze her.

She spent the first half of the trip watching out her window. It was a little bumpy so she had to hold onto her headset and stabilize herself with her nose.

Pretty soon she started singing - Twinkle, twinkle litte star, of course. I couldn't help but join in.

We were having a great time!!

Papa was even having a great time and invited Katie to join us up front and to fly the plane.

She did a great job. We got such a kick out of her putting her hand out the open window and giggling when the wind hit it. Once she was shown how to turn the plane, pull back to go up and push forward to go down she was a pro. She had a ball and none of the movements seemed to bother her. Her headset was in the way so that had to go. She kept looking at Papa and grinning every time she tried something. We may have an aerobatic pilot on our hands!!

After arriving home, helping the neighbors round up some stray cattle and unloading the car Pat took the hot dogs up to the pond for a quick cooling swim. They came back some pretty happy dogs and when you are surrounded by happy dogs not much can spoil your day. Hope you have a great weekend and remember to thank a vet!