Today was the day all three of us were not looking forward to. Today Art's Uncle Les took a shuttle van to Newark Airport to catch a commercial flight back home to Colorado. He had been flying in Art's plane for the last 4 weeks, and as he mentioned to Art last night, this was the longest he has been away from home, and Dolores (his wife of 51 years) since his Navy days, about 20 years ago.
To me, it was a sad time saying good-bye to a new friend, but I assured him that he was definitely invited to the next Mikie's Fun House party in the Spring of '97. He promised that he would be there, and Art promised that he would bring him.
Les took lots of pictures and video footage during the flight and he promised to send copies, and I promised to send him a specially bound copy of all of these emails, as a momento of the trip. (Neither Art nor Les have seen these daily emails, yet. Art's brother Bob showed Les a copy of the one I wrote about him (Les), and he (Les) said it "kinda choked him up a little". Exactly what I had intended!)
It rained all day, from sunup to sunset. It was forecast to be sunny, so that shows you how smart the forecasters are, especially when dealing with coastal weather. The closest we got to flying is when we drove out to the airport to pick up dirty laundry from the baggage compartment of the airplanes.
We spent the day having more fun with Art's relatives, the VanderHooks (Lou and Vicki and their daughters Chris and Shannon). For me it was a chance to get to know some very special people. Let me share with you a great thought which I read in Shannon's high school yearbook: "Dance like nobody is watching. Sing like nobody is listening. Love like you'll never get hurt. Live like it's Heaven on earth." If I never learned anything more than that on this biplane adventure, it would be a great success.
Tomorrow it is supposed to be sunny and hot. So maybe I'll get to see my parents tomorrow. It's been about a year since I've been back "home", and I know that Mom will be pleasantly surprised because this will be the first time in 35 years that I have ever stopped in without several loads of dirty laundry (I did it all today!). I knew that someday I would make her proud!
:)