We are off on our first family flight (alliteration coincidental)! We left Aero Country Airport in McKinney, Texas on Saturday morning, July 26th. The newly restored Cessna 195 was well packed with Will, Molly and Lucy in the back seat and the baggage compartment filled! We were all excited to get going. The kiddos were all high tech with headsets hooked up to the seatback DVD system.
Everyone was really excited - even ME! I guess I'm getting used to this flying stuff. Despite the headset and "air-conditioning" doing a number on my hair, it's a pretty comfortable ride. I didn't get a picture of Jon in the pilot seat, but he looked very pilot-like and official. With charts ready, we headed north for Wisconsin!
We made a stop to wait out a bit of weather in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. There was a nice FBO (that's pilot-talk for an airport rest stop) with a lounge where we read, used the computer and lounged about. We also had lunch in town at Paradise Bakery.
The pilot lounge was a good spot for a family photo, complete with props from Will. Thanks, buddy!
We got on our way again after Lunch and after a while I was looking out the window and saw this:
Just under the wing I see this white building and I say to Jon, "Hey, that looks like a temple! Where are we?" So we checked the map, and sure enough, we're above Nauvoo, Illinois! And that is a temple! So we circle the town and got a little closer look.
We determined we needed to come back and spend some time in Nauvoo. It's not a bad flight and there's an airport right outside the town. We even considered stopping on the way home, but it will most likely be a Monday, and none of the Church historical sites are open on Monday! Bummer. It was really fun to see it from the air, though. It's a beautiful temple.
We decided to stop not too far from Oshkosh for the night so we could fly into the air show early in the morning and avoid the traffic. So we stopped in beautiful Juneau, Wisconsin and stayed in the AmericInn. After a fun time at Applebee's for dinner, Will and Molly went for a swim.
The next morning we were up early and with our matching t-shirts we headed off for Oshkosh! The whole landing process was very organized (a huge number of airplanes fly into Oshkosh during the air show, making it the busiest airport on earth for that week) and it was much easier than we anticipated. We were guided to the Vintage Airplane area and then to the Cessna 195 parking. Everyone was glad to be there! It was a long flight from Texas. We were ready for some FUN!
