As a child, I often dreamt of being able to fly...without a plane...I thought surly if I believed hard enough I would someday be blessed with the wonder of being able to just jump up and I'd take off to sore through the sky above everyone and everything. Looking back, I think I watched too much Flying Nun as a kid.
As I got older, reality set in and I had to come to terms with the fact that the only way I was going to get to fly was in a plane so that dream started to fade away. It was reborn one day when I was driving an RV through northern Iowa trying to avoid hitting the thousands of bike riders that were everywhere...that's it's own story...and I saw a sign advertising rides in a by-plane.
As soon as I had gotten "camp" set up for my team of bike riders, I started asking around to see who was willing to take this trip to a new level and go flying with me. I finally found one brave soul and several not so brave souls that were going to come along and watch. We jumped in the fan and took off for the airfield.
Standing in line for my turn, you would have thought I was a five-year-old kid that was about to pee their pants they were so excited! I didn't pee my pants, but I was super excited and couldn't hardly stand still or stop grinning from ear to ear.
When our turn finally came, I tried as hard as I could to act like an adult and climbed into the plane. Now if you're not sure what a by-plane is, it's one of those old open cockpit, red barren type planes.
We put our goggles on and tightened our seatbelts. As we started to roll down the grass runway, my stomach was doing flips and my eyes couldn't take in enough! Quickly we were in the air, circling the small Midwest town. I snapped a few photos but mostly just kept whipping my head around trying to see as much as I could. It felt amazing to feel the wind in my hair while I looked down at the fields, town, and people below. I never wanted it to end, but sadly it did way too soon.
Once on the ground again, I was still buzzing with excitement as we all climbed back in the van and head back for dinner. The trip was short, but the experience was amazing!
The next summer, my desire to fly struck again...
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