Piper-Saratoga

This is just too much. Yesterday I needed to be in New Ulm, as Midwest Aviation operates the small airport facility there and I needed to be sure to incorporate their systems into the umbrella data model I am implementing at headquarters (a.k.a Marshall). I thought I'd have to drive there which would have meant about 4 hours on the road (round trip). But I thought wrong. Art (the chief of all the pilots who work for Midwest), said..."when do you need to go?" I said "Now...why?" (I was getting the keys to a company vehicle at the time). Art said, "Because Joni, you are employed by a bunch of people who fly airplanes, silly...Joel can fly you there!"

How cool is that? We hopped aboard a smaller plane (I forgot the tail number but it ends in Juliet Mike...My old initials)---a Piper Saratoga to be exact. Joel flew low and I saw my house in high resolution as we passed through Marshall. With the head sets on we just sat there chatting away and he gave me mini-flying lessons and tips. He likes to fly manually---but we were also testing the auto-pilot GPS.

Joel is kinda funny. He's somewhat cynical --- too young to be that way really. But a super nice guy. Very smart. And a very good pilot. I was happy to know that he is the Flight Safety Officer for the company, in addition to being a pilot---been flying for over 20 years and he is only 36 years old. He's got that dry, Minnesotan humor---gotta know when to take him seriously or not.

New Ulm had way more snow than we had...it was pretty seeing the change from brown square miles to white square miles. It is so FLAT here. You really get a perspective on just how flat when you are in an airplane but flying low enough to see stuff. I couldn't see over the dashboard...it was too high, so I kept looking out the side window. And he swooped around and we went sideways when he turned and circled the plane. Sort of like being on a roller-coaster ride, you know how your tummy gets airy and bubbly. Something tells me that if I was staying...I'd learn to fly. It's so freeing.

But I am not staying. Mike leaves on Sunday and I've got about two more weeks after that...pretty mind-boggling if you think about it. It's all sinking in now. The load of "to-do's" has been reduced considerably and we've managed every hiccup the way we always do. Together. It's how we do it. We set our sights high and even when we aren't sure about how we are going to get through something...we keep our mind on our dream and make it a reality. We're not there yet---and I expect a crazy month or two (at least)...but my heart says we are doing the right thing. And we are both very excited to get to Boston!