Inside the ping pong ball

Valentines day unexpectedly turned into quite the adventure for me this year. My plan had been to do some moping and possibly post here about how I dislike Valentines day since it mostly serves to entice people in relationships to spend money and make those outside them feel like crap. Still stinging from the abrupt end of my last one I am firmly in the latter category. None of that changed, but I didn't do any moping about it.

First a brief bit of background. WereGirl recently started dating a guy whom we shall be calling PilotBoy. Now, as you may have guessed, he earned this moniker due to the fact that he actually is a pilot. Thus earning big points right away with me. PilotBoy is also an American and lives just a little outside Detroit.

For Valentines Day PilotBoy planned on taking WereGirl out to dinner. Not overly exceptional in an of itself. The interesting part was that he planned on taking her somewhere out of town. Way out of town. Flying was to be involved in getting there. Because I have a bit of a thing for airplanes and had been agitating to be brought flying, they both agreed that inviting me along would be a nice thing to do, too. This was going to be lots of fun.

I think the plan was originally to go somewhere in Cleveland. (He was going to surprise us) But the weather was kind of bad, it was raining and cold, so we decided we'd take a shorter trip and have a more modest meal.

We had a pleasant flight there and PilotBoy had me help out with the checklist and let me fly for a bit. I thought this was great. Dinner was at a small restaurant at the airport and wasn't bad at all. Things got a little interesting after dinner.

The weather had changed and the rain had begun freezing. Freezing rain and small planes with no deicing equipment do not get along. We had no choice but to wait this out.

First, we walked to a nearby bowling alley and bowled a couple games. I discovered that I still suck at bowling. The weather was no better by the time we had had enough bowling.

Next we took a cab to the local movie theatre. We saw Million Dollar Baby, which was okay, but really a chick flick and very, very long. (or at least seemed that way). It was, however, not long enough for the weather to clear. By this time it was after midnight, so we decided that we'd best find a hotel and spend the night.

PilotBoy called the cab company and was advised that the soonest they could get a cab to us was forty minutes from then. He negotiated them down to twenty, but that still wasn't great. So, we interrogated the staff and the few other patrons there about hotels that might be within walking distance of the theatre. We didn't get any very promising leads, but a couple we'd asked came back and found us once they'd ventured outside. The weather was nasty enough that they didn't think anyone should try walking in it, so they offered us a ride. PilotBoy cancelled the cab and we thanked them profusely.

We arrived at the hotel and went to check in. The lady behind the desk advised us that she was in the middle of doing an audit and thus would be unable to give us a room for about twenty minutes. We negotiated, but she wouldn't budge. We decided to try the hotel next door instead. This one was also doing their nightly audit, but the man behind the desk was either less lazy or more competent, as he agreed to take our information down give us a room and put it all in the computer once the audit finished.

We ordered a wake up call for quarter after five and retired to our beds.

Morning came way to early. The hotel had a nicer than usual complimentary breakfast so we dug into that and then took a cab back to the airport. WereGirl had a class at 8:30 that morning and we were well on track to get her back in time for it.

The weather looked better and the threat of ice had passed, so we broke ground and headed home.

The sky was still overcast and we entered the clouds almost immediately after takeoff. Most of the flight was like flying inside a ping pong ball. The wings and wheels of the plane were visible out the window, but everything beyond them was pure white. The only times we broke out or the clouds was to briefly skirt their tops. PilotBoy is qualified to fly by instruments (IFR) and had filed the proper papers for that prior to taking off, so this was fine. He navigated us to our home airport and tried to line us up to land.

The weather was uncooperative again, though. There was a massive crosswind, a lot of turbulence and the bottom of the clouds eluded us. PilotBoy aborted the landing and we went back into the pattern. The air traffic controllers directed us around, and we went to try again. As we were climbing out WereGirl declared her own little in flight emergency - she had to pee. Badly. Having warned her to visit the washroom before we left, and because I'm mean, I found her discomfort to be pretty funny. The second attempt was not a lot different than the first. As WereGirl squirmed in her sear we tried one more time, and again were foiled.

PilotBoy decided that we might have better luck at an alternate airport. One was found nearby with a higher cloud ceiling and less wind. Our decent into it was less bumpy and we popped out of the clouds with the runaway just a little ahead of us and to our right. PilotBoy gently set the plane down, and the tower directed us towards the general aviation terminal. On the way there we had to cross an active runway and the tower instructed us to hold for a while before crossing it as there was other incoming traffic. WereGirl was about ready to explode by this time. She joked about the possibility of just getting out and squatting. PilotBoy took a quick look around and told her to go for it.

So, PilotBoy opened his door and WereGirl stepped out of the plane using the open door to shield herself from any onlookers and the wind. PilotBoy and and I intently studied a B-52 bomber parked at the museum in the opposite direction on the airport grounds while WereGirl made a new puddle on the already damp runway.

We taxied the rest of the way to the terminal and disembarked. We would have to try to wait out the weather again. We wandered around the terminal, snacked on popcorn from a popcorn machine, sat around and chatted. By lunchtime things had not improved. PilotBoy rented a car and we went into town for some lunch.

The weather was no better when we finished. So, we waited around for a while longer and then PilotBoy decided that further waiting was likely to be futile and drove us back to Canada in the car, deciding to go back for the plane later.

WereGirl made her last class of the day and I went home and played airplane games on the computer.

With any luck I'll get to go flying again sometime soon. I can't wait.