2024 Abel Island Fly-In: Are We Even Going?
We were able to participate in the Abel Island Fly-In this weekend. With an actual plane! It was so much fun!
Since I’m long-winded, this is going to be THREE posts (figuring out if we could go, flying there, the fly-in and flying back). You’re welcome!
First, where is Abel Island? It’s in Guttenberg, Iowa, on the Mississippi River. You can get there by car, plane, or boat. We’ve been visiting Guttenberg since I was a little kid, and my family has cabins on Esmann Island, the island next to Abel. Steven and I have both always wanted to learn to fly, and a part of that is so we could fly here (1.2-1.5 hour flight instead of a 4 hour drive) to see family.
What is the Abel Island Fly-In? It’s an event where people fly their planes/helicopters/whatever in, park on the island, eat, hang out, then fly out!
Why did we participate? Because we could actually fly ourselves there, and that’s hella cool! Well, we sorta could. That’s a long story that I’ll try to make brief…
So. We’ve had the fly-in on our calendar forever. Steven figured he’d have his private pilot license by the fly-in, and booked a plane for all day Saturday/Sunday a month+ in advance. He invited Josh, his previous instructor (who left the school in January) to come with us. Josh had fun when he visited the river (twice!) last year, and we thought he would enjoy going back, and he’s super cool and we like hanging out with him.
But as the date loomed closer and closer, it became clear Steven was NOT going to have his license, despite his best efforts to get his final oral and checkride scheduled. There is a LOT of demand and not a lot of DPEs (designated pilot examiners) around. Womp womp. Cross your fingers he gets on the schedule soon.
So we’re like “No big deal! Josh flies freaking JETS. He can be the PIC (pilot in command) instead of Steven!”
Not so fast though – Josh does fly jets, and is no longer current (day currency requirements require that within the preceding 90 days, a pilot must have conducted at least three takeoffs and landings in the same category, class, and type of aircraft they intend to operate as the sole manipulator of the flight) on the wittle baby single-engine aircraft we were taking (Cessna 172). He could be the PIC, but he needed to get current. Which required scheduling a flight for him. Which took a bunch of coordination.
Long story long, his currency flight got scheduled for right before we were going to leave on Saturday. So we wouldn’t know if we were leaving, for sure, until he passed his currency flight (which we were 99.9% positive he would, and that .01% doubt was not on him). Then, there was the weather to consider.
So for 2+ weeks I’ve been hoping we could go, but trying not to get too excited, since so many things had to align for it to happen and we (Steven) had done the most we (Steven) could. YOU GUYS. I really struggle with the unknown. It was hard not to be able to plan since things were so up in the air (<—- ha ha ha, flying joke). But, this is good for me. To learn to go with the flow. And be flexible. And manage my emotions. And all that.
And as you already know, since I started with telling you we got to go, Josh passed his test, and we were able to fly out, on Saturday. However. The fly-in was supposed to be Saturday, but on Friday night, got moved to Sunday due to weather. We had an interesting flight getting there, which I will tell you all about in the next post!
I have to add, we both really appreciate Josh jumping through all these hoops to get current so we could go. He could have just said, “nah, that sounds like a lot of extra work to coordinate and do” and then that would be that. But that’s not the type of guy he is (plus he wanted to go back and have fun on the jet skis and at the fly-in). So, thank you, Josh!
Random Thoughts Thursday 461
- Yesterday was me and Bobbi’s one year anniversary at WWM (the gym where I do strength training)! I’ve taken 180 classes there so far, and I’m so glad I started. It’s such an empowering and fun place to train and it’s really changed my mindset on a lot of things. I wasn’t sure how I’d fit strength training into my schedule when I started, but I made it work – mostly by doing less cardio.
- I had my annual with my gyno this week and she told me now that I’m 40 I get to start doing a mammogram each year. So I scheduled that. I appreciated the heads up she gave me that 1 in 5 first timers get a request to do a follow-up mammogram (because of the quality of the image? now I can’t remember, ha, good job Kim) and the advice to go right after your period ends when your breasts are the smallest (news to me!).
- Our carrots are actually growing! Woo hoo!
- My mom bought some Alanis for our river trip and now I’m hooked. And they’re not cheap! But I love me a super sweet drink. They have 200 mg caffeine but I’m not feeling it when I drink them. (Or maybe I am and would feel it if I didn’t?)
- A few updates from last week’s RTT:
- My toe is better! Woo hoo!
- I found the theatrical cut of The Fall Guy in the blu ray set I got. Phew. We will only watch that one moving forward.
- When I brought Penny in last week and the vet said I’m turning into a crazy cat lady, in a joking way (we go waaaaaay back). Sigh. I told him I’m trying not to, I really am. But she showed up in a bad situation, and I’m not going to ignore that!
Reading Update (2024 #46-48)
[46] Falling by T.J. Newman
Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense, saw on Stephany’s blog, Kindle
Synopsis: A pilot on a commercial flight from LA to NYC is told his entire family will be killed if he doesn’t purposefully crash the plane.
Review: What a high stakes, thrilling story. It starts out intense and never lets down. I struggled with some of the violent parts, especially with the pilot’s family, but mostly enthralled the entire read.
Recommend? Yes, if you can handle it
[47] Their Last Resort by R.S. Grey
Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, free Amazon First Reads book?, Kindle
Synopsis: Paige and Cole work at the same resort and can’t stand each other. But when Cole is told he has to fire Paige, he does everything he can not to. Then there is a hurricane that brings them together. Or something.
Review: This felt like such an amateur entry into the romance world. The writing was weak and cheesy at best, and the story was mostly boring and anticlimactic. Not for me.
Recommend? No
[48] Wild Love (Rose Hill, #1) by Elsie Silver
Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, rec from snis, Kindle
Synopsis: Billionaire Ford Grant has returned to the tiny picturesque town his family summered in to escape the press and open a recording studio. Then a 12-year-old shows up saying she’s his daughter. Then his best friend’s sister, Rosie, moves back to town. Now Ford is trying to get his new business going, learn how to parent, and try to keep his hands off Rosie, who he’s had a crush on since they were kids.
Review: I am usually NOT a second chance romance fan, but with the enemies to lovers vibe, I was totally here for it. I loved how sassy Rosie was and how fake mean she and Ford were to each other. Their chemistry was great. I was thrown off by the daughter thing in the beginning (because I did not read the synopsis) and thought it might ruin the story, but her character ended up adding a lot. The dark moment in the story was kind of weak and sort of out of the blue and there was definitely some cheesy parts, but I loved the book and am excited for the next one in the series (about Rosie’s brother) to come out in September. Oh! And I almost forgot! Great open door sections (smut) too.
Recommend? Yes
Two sides
I was walking to the office this morning thinking about how nervous I am to meet with a client later in the day because I don’t know what to say (especially when they are upset or yelling at me, which shouldn’t(?) be the case today) and feel awkward moving conversation along.
Then I made the connection that that’s the exact opposite of who I am socially. I never get anxious about talking to people, even strangers, in a social setting. Do I sometimes feel too lazy to do the work? DEFINITELY. Am I sometimes completely drained by it? OF COURSE. Do I dread talking to certain people? ABSOLUTELY. But I never feel anxious about it like I do for work.
I need to bring more of my social Kim vibes to that part of my work role. I mean… I think that’s why they put me in account management? It’s way different stakes, but I need to remind myself I am someone who (generally) likes talking to people (when they aren’t taking anger about a situation I had no involvement in/control over out on me).
No related picture so here’s me in the office last week using a Starbucks gift card I got for my birthday
2024 Friends River Trip
We’ve been back for almost a week! Let’s get this river trip recap going!
Let’s see if I can NOT make it a million words, maybe just a bunch of photos? No promises.
My family has been vacationing in Guttenberg, Iowa for many decades – since I was very small – and we love sharing the town with our loved ones. Last year Val, Tiff, and Tiff’s oldest came out in July, and this year they brought more of their families!
There are a few takeaways I want to get across in this post, in no particular order:
- I’m so grateful to have friends who want to haul their families from all over the states to go to a small town in Iowa with me and Steven and my family for a week. It was really special to have them there on my 40th birthday! I felt so loved!
- A sidebar of that is feeling grateful to have friends who 100% accept and love me and my family for who we are. I never have any weird relationship worries or doubts with these two and it feels so so good to just be me, and openly communicate with one another.
- I’m extremely grateful for all my snister does to make this trip so successful. She planned all the meals, got most of the groceries, and most of the meals set up. She also just generally keeps things organized. And! She and her husband let us use their boat and jet ski and golf cart!
- I’m very grateful my parents open the house to us, and let us play with their toys (jet skis, golf cart, boat).
- It was so so so so nice to have a week with no agenda. Just relaxing, enjoying each other. No schedule. Nowhere to be. No rushing from thing to thing. Just taking things slow. Sleeping in. Doing things whenever we felt like it. Being disconnected (hardly any internet). I needed that and it felt so good.
And that basically describes our week! We were there four full days, and three of them we lazed around, then went out to the beach in the afternoon, and one of the days we drove to Dyersville to see the Field of Dreams movie site.
I won’t break it down too much further day by day cause zzzzzz, but I will organize these photos by day and share some logistics!
Sunday
Tiff and her family arrived Sunday afternoon and we all hung out at our place.
Monday
On Monday we left our house late morning in two cars, and picked up Val and her husband at the Milwaukee airport then made our way to Guttenberg, stopping in Madison to have lunch with Rachel! I loved that my favorite people got to meet each other.
We were caravaning, but somehow the boys got separated from us and ended up going through Prairie du Chien to get to Guttenberg, while we came up through Dubuque.
We drove through a lot of rain that day, and I was so pleased it was basically the only rain all week. We had sunny humid days that were perfect for playing on the water.
Ella is a vibe! I need that shirt.
Tuesday
Tiff, Val, and I met through rock painting, so we spent some of our free time painting, and sometimes other people would join us! Tiff painted 20 rocks total on the trip, and Val and I each painted 9.
Wednesday
Wednesday was my birthday! I was up early and painted, then Dad took me on a jet boat ride.
I painted and opened presents, we went and got coffee,
Rachel got me this sash and crown to wear in Europe (since that was my 40th present to myself) and I kept forgetting! Ugh! But I LOVED wearing it on my birthday.
then did beach time,
and ended the day with burgers and a loaded french fries bar and cake!
Thursday
On Thursday we went to the Field of Dreams movie site. It was so freaking hot and sunny. I got a tan on my sandals just from being outside for an hour. It was cool to bat on the field. It was a suggested donation of $20 (per car) to get in then $20 to tour the house. We skipped the house. Val and I both researched it and could not find anything about the house cost and were kind of annoyed. But whatever.
I’ve driven through Dyersville hundreds of times and that was the first time I got out and went onto the field. It seems like a better fall activity, and I wish we would have been out on the water since it was so damn humid.
Oh wait! We did go on a boat ride, I forgot.
We had a lot of fun playing games that night – What Do You Meme? and some other strange question game my snis found with highly inappropriate questions that I loved asking around my mom to make her uncomfortable muah ha ha.
Friday
I ran with Dad in the morning! I started the trip with a cold (which I combined with the cold my snis’s family had and gave to everyone, sorry) and was taking it easy, but felt well enough Friday to run.
I’ve said it before but my colds follow a typical routine since I’ve had COVID. Day 1 is scratchy throat, 2 is runny face, 3 is dry cough, 4 is productive cough. So when I woke up sick Sunday (and told everyone I did) I knew I’d feel better by day 3. It followed that schedule exactly. I also knew Steven would get it two days later which is why he’s not in a lot of photos. Poor guy. He stayed back a lot and rested.
ANYWAY.
We floated down the river in the late morning, which was a lot of fun!
Then we went to the beach in the afternoon. We had a fun evening of chatting and golf cart rides. Tiff’s kids went over to my snister’s for a gaming evening with her kids and they all had fun (the kids got along so well!).
Fun fun fun. Come up with a better word, Kim.
Saturday
We left by 10:00 am and drove Val and her husband to ORD to fly home and dropped Tiff and her fam off at friends (they flew home Sunday). Steven and I got home around 4:30? I was asleep at 9:30, got up at 6:20 and gave the cats their wet food, then went back to bed until 9:30. I NEVER sleep like that, but I obviously needed it.
Oh! When we were leaving we saw so many cool crop dusting applications – like a drone (after Steven had just been telling me about crop dusting drones), and a helicopter and plane that flew right over us on the highway.
It feels like this is the quick and dirty recap, without all the little stories and inside jokes that wouldn’t be entertaining to you guys anyway. Like how Val’s husband is also Steve, so we called Tiff’s husband (not named Steve) Steve-o so we could just call them all an iteration of Steven. Or how we did not know our nephew Thomas would be there, but he provided so much comic relief and everyone is requesting he is there again next year. Or the very long conversation about a certain medical condition. And so on.
Eh, maybe I will write myself some private stories and share some too. The short of it is that we had a wonderful time together; it was exactly what I needed, and I cannot wait to do it again. I love these people all so much. The only bad part was the stinking cold and that mostly everyone got a version of it. UGH. As our nephew William said “I wish sick wasn’t a thing.” I told him maybe he’d be a scientist when he grew up and make “sick” go away.
Random Thoughts Thursday 460
- I took Penny (the stray that showed up on Father’s Day) to the vet yesterday to get a general wellness check and to see if she’s chipped. She is chipped! She’s a 12.5 year-old female from Sturtevant, Wisconsin, originally adopted from a Humane Society in Wisconsin. The vet tried to contact her people but couldn’t get a hold of them, and will keep trying. This vet appointment made me very emotional for a lot of reasons, a big one being that Penny was a house cat that was either booted or escaped/is lost, and has been roughing it for who knows how long. She’s not in great health shape and we’re doing everything we can to make her comfortable outside, but I feel extra bad now, knowing she definitely had indoor house cat perks before (and that’s not something we’re going to offer – we do have that dope cat house though that she’s welcome to use!).
- I heard back that I did NOT get into the work leadership course I applied for. 190 people applied nationwide and 28 were selected. I’m not upset; I’m actually relieved. I have a big change coming up at work and was not sure how I was going to focus on that and an intense leadership course.
- I have a kind of funny work-related story. I was buying plane tickets this week and was like, “first class is $300 more, ‘f*ck it’ I’m getting first class for this 4+ hour flight each way.” Then I got a $300 Special Acts Award at work. It was meant to be!
- It felt great to get that award/recognition for the hard work I’ve put in on a very specific thing over the last year.
- The tickets are to Seattle in November! That will be my next meetup with Tiff and Val, and, AND, my snis is coming too!!! Woo hoo!
- Steven is still waiting for a date for his final oral exam and checkride. I keep hoping me writing about it will make it happen, like when you call IT with a problem and it resolved itself by the time you connected with someone. But no. Steven is calling DPEs (Designated Pilot Examiners) outside of his school now, to see if one of them will do the exam and checkride.
- Here is the mani I had for my birthday:
- And an interim one when I got back because the water was too much for my nails.
- I’ve been having “500 Internal Server Errors” here for a few weeks. I keep trying to get them fixed to no avail. So if you are seeing those, sorry! They’re super annoying and go away after a few refreshes, but I don’t even want to sit and wait for that so I know you don’t want to.
- I loved The Fall Guy and thought this one scene where the main character drives a valet car to “Thunderstruck” was so funny. I remember laughing out loud at the theater. Then I received a copy for my birthday and they’ve changed that song to “A Man Without Love” for the extended version and completely killed the vibe. I was so dissapointed!
- We came home from our trip to a ton of green beans. Delish!
Wear your water shoes
I feel like it’s been one thing after another this year, holding me back from going all out at the gym. I had a weird pectoral strain, I was training for a marathon, my right shoulder was sore, I hurt my neck, I had infections, my chest hurt again, etc. etc. Ugh.
I was excited to have an entire week off last week then start with a fresh, uninjured slate on Monday this week.
But then I was lazy and didn’t wear my water shoes at the river.
First I got a cut on the bottom of my foot. Then I had a teeny tiny piece of metal or something in my big toe. My snister worked hard at the beach and at the house that night to get it out. Thanks, snis!
Did I learn my lesson?
No, of course not.
The last day on the water, I stepped on a log or something and it tore that same toe the f*ck up. If you want to see gross pictures of it, click here and here. The good news is, that metal or whatever is definitely gone. The bad news is it’s torn the f*ck up and needs to heal.
So… another week where I am babying something at the gym. Sigh. Maybe next week. Or the week after.
2024 WWM Olympics
Gah I have so much I want to write but I am not prioritizing blogging time, clearly! I need to tell you about my first spray tan, the 2024 WWM Olympics, my week off in Iowa with friends and family, turning 40… like I said, so much!
I’ll start with the WWM Olympics since those are the easiest pictures to sort, ha.
I had no idea what the WWM Olympics were and had no intention on doing them. I have bad memories of being a trainer at Efit and doing a summer event where I went too hard with bad form the entire time and hurt myself. So much that I vowed to myself never to do it again and made plans to not be available for it, but then the pandemic took care of that.
ANYWAY. I was worried I would hurt myself because I turn into such a competitive asshole (and worried I would lose friends because I turn into such a competitive asshole)! But then I found it it’s several events and you pick a team member to do each event – you don’t have to do it all. Then three people asked me to be on their team (there were 13 teams of 4 each) and I couldn’t say no! And I promised to myself I would behave (I did!).
We were the red team! Each team was assigned a different color to wear, and a song to play during their competition. Ours was “Work B**ch” by Britney.
So two Sundays ago, on the 28th, I participated in my first WWM Olympics! This year’s obstacles (noted with who did what) were:
20 250 lb tire flips (me)
50 squat jumps each (all)
50 ball slams (Dary)
50 goblet squats (Patricia)
50 rope slams (me)
50 in and outs (Sulmarie)
20 burpees each (Sulmarie and Patricia)
The event started at 8:30, the trainers explained it all, then we went one team at a time, everyone cheering everybody else on while their team went. We were done around 10:30, then enjoyed acai bowls, a taco truck, and adult beverages.
I did the tire flips, squat jumps (I think I only did 30 though! My quads were dead from tire flips!), and rope slams. I would share videos but my form was HORRIBLE (but I didn’t hurt myself, yay!). Also, I woke up with the sniffles that morning, so that didn’t help. My heart rate was jacked for about 40 minutes after I did my two events, which I think only totaled about 2+ minutes.
I had SO much fun though. The energy was electric. Everyone was working their hardest and genuinely cheering on other women doing the same. WWM is such a special place! I loved being part of this event.
We ended up 6th out of 13 teams! 4th, 5th, and 6th were all really close. I’m really proud of my team! I’ll definitely be there next year if it works for my schedule.
And bonus, I saw Steven fly by a few times after my group was done (I think we went about 7th?)!
Rando Friday
It’s just one of those weeks where all the thoughts I put on here are short and random! Here’s some more.
I used an exfoliating mitt last night to get ready for my spray tan today. Have you ever used one of those things? Whoa! My skin feels so soft, but everything that touched it right after agitated it – my watch, my bracelets, my flip flops. Very interesting. Maybe something I should do more often… the internet says like 2-3x a week. Oops.
We saw Twisters last night. I love summer blockbusters, and I can only pay attention to action movies like that in the theater.
The action scenes were fun and I was on the edge of my seat, but I don’t think Steven and I have ever eyerolled at each other more during a film. Ha. But that’s okay, we had fun.
Speaking of paying attention, I told a coworker this week how the pandemic killed my virtual meeting attention span and they were like “no it didn’t.” Ha, okay. You obviously know how I feel more than I do. (And hey, if they didn’t notice, that’s GREAT.)
When I was on my way to Guttenberg last week I overhead someone asking for directions at a rest stop and asked if I could help, and lo and behold, they were actually going somewhere I knew about. After 10 minutes of discussion they were like, “you’re really nice!” I said thanks, and wish I had been wearing this shirt, ha.
Don’t mind the odd face, I was preparing for a jump photo
On Monday right after I wrote in my One Line a Day journal about the great therapy session I had where we talked about accepting things as they are, I proceeded to remember I never received a package, then looked it up and saw it was marked as wrong address* and returned to sender. In China. And it was one of those Makeship campaigns where (I thought) they only make the amount ordered.
Then I proceeded to freak out, essentially forgetting earlier, calm and collected “it is what it is” Kim.
Sigh. Then I felt bad for letting it bother me so much. I’ve really had to relearn being kind to myself about the emotions I am having lately.
Long story long, I contacted the company and they were able to reship it and I got it yesterday.
It being a stuffed animal. Yep, that is what I was upset about!
But I had to get Mocha and complete my Honeybelle collection OKAY?!
*Someone must have received a bunch of our mail and marked it as wrong address, because I also received a birthday card with the correct address on it, with “wrong address” circled on the envelope
I apologize for the vagueness on this one, but have you ever felt like you can’t compete/prove yourself against the story/image someone has of you in their head? Obviously, those are NOT your people, but you often don’t know that’s going on until it’s too late!
Random Thoughts Thursday 459
- I forgot this week is RAGBRAI week until I was driving to Iowa last Friday. I don’t feel sad that Dad and I are missing out this year, but I do hope the route is closer to mid or northern state next year and we pick a day to do!
- Ick warning – two months after the marathon and my three bruised toenails finally came off. With assistance. From me.
- We did bush green beans instead of pole this year because those are the only seeds we found and the yield is miniscule compared to the pole beans. So sad! We need to look for pole seeds next year.
- Last week’s mani!
- I meant to post this last week but I never got around to writing a RTT. But the amount of rain we’ve had this summer is nuts!
Hi! I’m Kim, a 40-something-year-old living in northeastern Illinois with my husband Steven, and our cats, Khaleesi, Apollo, Starbuck, and Eddard aka Ned. My current main hobbies are running, painting rocks, flying, reading, and eating. I follow a vegan lifestyle and work in an account management role. I write about a variety of topics and consider this a “life” blog – a place I can share anything that’s on my mind. Please visit the “About” page to get a better idea of who I am! 🙂
