We had a super fun (long, and at sometimes crazy) flying adventure this weekend and you get to hear all about it in FOUR SEPARATE POSTS. Yes – it’s your lucky day!
Ha ha ha.
Alright, so last month I asked Steven if he wanted to try to fly to Eureka Springs, Arkansas in October to visit our friends Courtney and David. I suggested this weekend because I had Friday and Monday off work.
Then it clicked for him that this weekend was also the weekend of his high school reunion and annual college get together – both in Kansas City (his college friends pick a different city each year and this year happened to be in KC). So we decided to “kill many birds with one stone” and stop in Kansas City and see his dad and brother, go to the reunion, see his college friends, maybe even see his friend Eric’s parents, travel on to Arkansas for the original purpose of the trip, and find a new-to-us airport to checkout on the way to and from Arkansas.
All weather dependent, of course. And obviously, the weather worked out!
We left at 3:05 pm on Friday from Waukegan (UGN) airport. Because it was such a long flight in distance (353 miles) and time (we landed at 6:46 pm), we used flight following. Flight following is basically air traffic control (ATC) watching you on radar and letting you know about traffic, weather, and temporary flight restrictions. They pass you along from tower to tower until you get to your final destination, or cancel flight following.
Flight following worked well, once we figured out which approach to call to request it. It’s nice to have a third set of eyes on your flight, warning you about things!
There was A LOT of chatter though, especially with St Louis and Kansas City Center and Kansas City approach. So you are constantly listening for your tail number and it disrupts conversation a bit. But, it’s also good to listen to other pilots and learn. We heard some interesting things too, like a Wu-Tang checkpoint and Mahomes approach. LOL, whut?
Anyways, the flight was approximately 5 million hours long (really, 3 hours 41 minutes). It should have been faster but we had a freaking 16 knot headwind GAHHHHH.
I was properly dehydrated and felt fine. Steven… not so much.
But we made it! And saw a beautiful sunset.
We chose to land at 0N0, a small airport in Roosterville, Missouri, because it was the same driving distance from his Dad’s house and less stressful then flying into MKC, the downtown airport we flew into last December.
This airport is interesting, to say the least! The runway is 20 feet wide. TWENTY! That’s it! Some new friends we made there told us it’s the narrowest paved runway in Missouri.
We tried to fuel the plane up after we landed so it would be ready to go in the morning. The fuel was locked, and Steven called the number and they came to help but could never get the fuel to work. While that was going on I talked to Jeff and Isaac, a local father son duo who keep a few planes there. We talked for a long time while they tried to figure out fuel. I felt bad Steven’s dad and brother were waiting for us, but they couldn’t get the fuel to work.
The finally gave up and parked the plane and said they’d try to get it to work that night so we could fuel in the morning (spoiler: Steven got a text later that it was broken and he’d have to fuel elsewhere).
I don’t think we left the airport until well after 7:30 and Steven’s reunion started at 7:00. We got to his dad’s, dropped off our bags and went to the reunion from about 8:30 to 10:15. I had fun chatting with his friends that I know and meeting and chatting with some new ones, including the “Steve” that made Steven “Steven.” (He had a substitute teacher in the fourth grade who said they couldn’t keep two Steves straight so one got to be Steve and one got to be Steven. It’s his Steven origin story!)
I felt like I was doing really good staying awake and engaging and not being raging hungry until about 9:45 and I started to feel dead tired. I’d been up since 5:00, hadn’t eaten since I had a snack in the plane at 4:30, and had spent the morning working, getting the house ready, then all that time somewhat focused in the plane (there was some texting to make plans for the next morning, I won’t lie).
Anyway, we said our goodbyes and went to Burger King and we split the best vegan whopper and fries of my life then we went back to his dad’s and hung out with them until midnight. What a long day!!!!!!
(Ahh! I almost forgot, while I was waiting for Steven to get gas Isaac asked what we thought of the airport code “Oh, no.” I thought of it as Zero November Zero so “Oh No” never occurred to me ha ha ha. Love it.)
