Isaiah’s Blog!

Saturday morning was super cool! We got up early, although not as early as we had all planned, and headed out to St. Louis Regional Airport in Bethalto, IL for their annual Fly-In and Car Show. Our main reason for going was for me to finally get to participate in the Young Eagle program that the Experimental Aircraft Association sponsors. A friend of my Dad’s from work is a member of the EAA and had told us that it was going to be this past weekend.

Young Eagles is a program that gives free flights to kids ages 8 to 17. I am now 8 1/2 years old, so we waited in the registration line for about a half hour. Mom filled out the paperwork and had to sign the back of it agreeing that they wouldn’t sue anyone if the plane I got to fly in crashed with me in it.

After registration we went to “pre-flight” which was kind of hard to understand because of the room that we were in and the man who was trying to explain some basic stuff to us, too. Once that was over we made our way outside and I got in the long line to wait for my turn to fly. My Dad said that we waited about an hour or so before I got to go for my flight.

Our pilot’s name was Jack, he was pretty nice. Two other guys went with me in the plane with Jack. They were putting several kids per flight so that they could get through the huge line faster. Our flight lasted about 20 minutes and was a lot of fun. I will have my Dad post some pictures that he took of me getting into the plane and with Pilot Jack, too. I sat in the backseat directly behind the pilot and on our flight we got to fly over Heritage Days at Lewis and Clark Community College, too.

After we were all done at the Fly-In, we all loaded back in the van and headed out to Heritage Days. My Aunt Rupie, is still on the board and we get to help with set-up for the big living history festival every year. We ate lunch out there on Saturday– I had my favorite, a buffalo burger! The kettle-cooked potato chips were great and I love the lemonade they have at one of the booths, too. Aunt Rupie was in the Children’s Area again this year, so Gideon and I had a blast hanging out and doing the games in there. We went back again on Sunday afternoon, too and it was a lot of fun.

By the end of the weekend, we were all exhausted from all the good times and fresh air that we shared together as a family. It would be hard to top this weekend!