Today, I had an adventure.

Yet another one of my colleagues is retiring, and today was his last day. Besides his job with us, he is a licensed pilot and flight instructor. To celebrate the end of his career, he said he'd take up anyone who wanted to go. Of course, I was in. What fun!

We all met at the airport. Tiny little thing, full of recreational fliers, a helicopter pad, some other stuff that I have no idea about. In spite of growing up around here and driving by any number of times, it was my first time actually on the grounds of this airport. Our Cessna would hold 4 at a time (including the pilot), so we waited our turns in the sunshine and thought about how much better this was than work. All I needed was a hammock.

Then it was my turn. I got to sit in the co-pilot seat up front, so I got a headset. How interesting! I got to listen to the control tower talk to us and give instructions to all the other little airplanes up around us. How they keep everything straight is just amazing, and this is a small airport.

And what there was in front of me! Bells and whistles and dials and knobs and pedals and steering bars. I kept my hands in my lap and feet close to my seat - no need to risk bumping who knows what by accident and bringing down the plane and all of us with it. *grin* Again, how on earth do you keep all of that straight? How the jet pilots do it, especially the international ones, I will never know.

Soon, we were cleared for takeoff. We taxied around to the front of our runway and with a last stop to check to make sure everything was working, we took a run for it and flung ourselves into the air.

We first buzzed our workplace - how little, yet how sprawling all at the same time. We then followed the river to downtown. The railroad yard looked like it contained a Lionel set, while it was fun to see from above how the river snakes through the trees. Downtown looked pretty awesome from up there with the few buildings growing up from the rest, the stadium a clear reference point, albeit an ugly one. One of the most interesting things to me was seeing all the water towers in the communities surrounding us; from our viewpoint just so many blue obelisks rising from the forest floor. We traveled back, naming lakes, seeing the hospital campus, with a few last bumps in the turbulence over the trees at the edge of the airfield.

It's been a good day.

Tomorrow may be more adventures - there's a couple of local bands I want to go see, and a local Italian institution will be closing soon and I'd like to eat there once before they go. In any case, it's almost Saturday. Huzzah!