Any steam engine enthusiasts here? No?
Yeah, us either. 😂 But when we were doing preflight at the airport today, the person who checked the plane out to us called and said “You’re going to Rochelle, right? Someone just posted on the board that some historic steam engine is going to be there today.” And Steven was like, “Oh, Big Boy?”
It turns out Big Boy is currently on an eight-week Heartland of America Tour and Rochelle is one of three spots Big Boy is on display. We know who Big Boy is because we were in Iowa when he went through several years ago. We didn’t see him in person then, or this time. But we did see him from 1000′ above today, which is close enough for me!
There was a ton of traffic going into town we when we flew in. People are SUPER into Big Boy. And the place we were flying to – Flight Deck Bar & Grill – was full of train enthusiasts (we played a fun game of “who’s here for Big Boy and who’s here for airplanes/skydiving?” using clues like someone wearing a train conductor’s hat or a “Heartland Tour” shirt or carrying flight gear or wearing a loud skydiving outfit to guess. Okay, okay, and age played a MAJOR proponent of this game).
But back to flying! We’re flying once a week so Steven can stay current and keep learning. I’ve been so excited for this part of his flying journey. I love going along. And I was telling my sister, it’s the same frequency he was flying before, but he’s no longer paying a CFI (certified flight instructor) so it’s like he’s saving money! #girlmath
Gosh, I swore this wasn’t going to be long and drawn out but here we are.
So we made a spreadsheet of local places to fly and check out. A lot of airports have restaurants at the airport, and this one wasn’t too far away (62.6 miles), and actually had some fake meats on the menu. Usually these places have NO vegetarian options, so that was pretty exciting.
The airport (RPJ – Rochelle Municipal Airport/Koritz Field) is an active skydiving place, so Steven called the airport Friday to ask about procedures for flying in with skydivers. They told him what frequency to listen to, where the skydivers land, how far to stay away if there are skydivers, and told him to never overfly the runway. We had no issues landing and taking off.
There was a long (hour+) wait for a table because of all the Big Boy people at the restaurant, but we enjoyed sitting outside and watching the skydivers until a table was ready. It was such a beautiful day! Then we ate and headed out, flying over Big Boy when we left.
It was so much fun! I’d love to go back (with friends?). I can’t wait for our next adventure, with Val next week! We tested out the passenger headset we got today. We’re all ready for someone to fly with us!
