Exhausted
Had a very busy day. A had been asking all week if he could drive to a desert camp with his friends but as it is about 120miles to the campsite we had decided it was a bit too far for a first long drive. A had a flying lesson and his friend P had a lab. So it was decided that we should let him drive our van with us as passengers, so that we would drive home and he and P would come back with the others on the camping trip.
But I've got ahead of myself as lots happened before we even left!
One idea put forward was that he might fly to the landing strip near the campsite for his lesson but that still left P without a ride. So S took A for his flying lesson at 9:00am and I went with J to the Zoo to study monkeys for her anthropology class. Great fun to not feel obliged to try and see every animal in the zoo and we spent a very enjoyable 2 hours watching how the monkeys interacted. At one we started for home and I phoned to see if S A were still waiting for me as I was a bit late. No reply so I thought I'd missed the run to the desert but a few moments later S called and said they'd just got home as A had had an "adventure'. I said I'd prefer to hear his story when we got home.
A had an exciting lesson, he had taken off and they were flying ove the mountains to the SE of SD, M was just explaining a new maneuver when suddenly oil stared to spray all over the windscreen of the airplane. Oil pressure did not drop but visabilty was bad so Mike called for an emergency landing at the closest airport, answering no to the question of whether fire engines would be required, they were given the all clear and landed safely on the runway. An adventure indeed, A's first emergency landing, I think he learned a lot!! Anyway they taxied the plane over to maintenance where the chief machanic had a quick look at the engine and then as M & A needed to get back to SD the machanic offered them his car to get them back! They phoned the airport to let them know the situation and to ask them to let S (no cellphone) know they would be late!!
About 2:30 we set off for the desert and had a good ride through the beautiful area. A did a good job driving and safely got us down the steep winding grade to the desert, I think he was surprised at how far the campground was and was quiet tired by the time we got there. As we were dithering about at the entrance to ask the Ranger where A's friends were camping, along they came, as they were setting off to the mudcaves, fed up of waiting for A & P (we were about 2 hours late)Quickly we loaded all the camping gear onto their truck and waved goodbye!!
As Simon got into the drivers seat we both suddenly noticed that the KEYS were gone. A had gone off with them in his pocket!! So there we were stuck at the entrance to the campground in the desert. The Ranger was very helpful and found the phone number of the father (I suddenly realised what a bad mother I was I did not even know the name of the people that I was leaving my son with!) We called but there is no reception in the desert so our only option was to just sit and wait for them to return, the Ranger said they would likely be about 3 hours!! Luckily we were soon in the shade as the sun set very quickly behind the mountains although it stayed light until 7 which just happened to be the time that the campers returned!! They were so suprised to see us. JM kindly offered us dinner before setting back and we had a very enjoyable campfire dinner. We left about 9:15pm and got home just before midnight. Exhausted!
But I've got ahead of myself as lots happened before we even left!
One idea put forward was that he might fly to the landing strip near the campsite for his lesson but that still left P without a ride. So S took A for his flying lesson at 9:00am and I went with J to the Zoo to study monkeys for her anthropology class. Great fun to not feel obliged to try and see every animal in the zoo and we spent a very enjoyable 2 hours watching how the monkeys interacted. At one we started for home and I phoned to see if S A were still waiting for me as I was a bit late. No reply so I thought I'd missed the run to the desert but a few moments later S called and said they'd just got home as A had had an "adventure'. I said I'd prefer to hear his story when we got home.
A had an exciting lesson, he had taken off and they were flying ove the mountains to the SE of SD, M was just explaining a new maneuver when suddenly oil stared to spray all over the windscreen of the airplane. Oil pressure did not drop but visabilty was bad so Mike called for an emergency landing at the closest airport, answering no to the question of whether fire engines would be required, they were given the all clear and landed safely on the runway. An adventure indeed, A's first emergency landing, I think he learned a lot!! Anyway they taxied the plane over to maintenance where the chief machanic had a quick look at the engine and then as M & A needed to get back to SD the machanic offered them his car to get them back! They phoned the airport to let them know the situation and to ask them to let S (no cellphone) know they would be late!!
About 2:30 we set off for the desert and had a good ride through the beautiful area. A did a good job driving and safely got us down the steep winding grade to the desert, I think he was surprised at how far the campground was and was quiet tired by the time we got there. As we were dithering about at the entrance to ask the Ranger where A's friends were camping, along they came, as they were setting off to the mudcaves, fed up of waiting for A & P (we were about 2 hours late)Quickly we loaded all the camping gear onto their truck and waved goodbye!!
As Simon got into the drivers seat we both suddenly noticed that the KEYS were gone. A had gone off with them in his pocket!! So there we were stuck at the entrance to the campground in the desert. The Ranger was very helpful and found the phone number of the father (I suddenly realised what a bad mother I was I did not even know the name of the people that I was leaving my son with!) We called but there is no reception in the desert so our only option was to just sit and wait for them to return, the Ranger said they would likely be about 3 hours!! Luckily we were soon in the shade as the sun set very quickly behind the mountains although it stayed light until 7 which just happened to be the time that the campers returned!! They were so suprised to see us. JM kindly offered us dinner before setting back and we had a very enjoyable campfire dinner. We left about 9:15pm and got home just before midnight. Exhausted!
posted by silver horde @ 9:33 PM
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