Summer 2021 Update
July 13, 2021
It’s been almost a year since Sam and I moved to Wichita, and we’re having a great time here! Work occupies most of the week of course, but with the summer weather, city reopening, and experiencing life in a new place with the pandemic easing, has lifted our spirits compared to when we first arrived in August 2020.
The most exciting news is that we got engaged last month! I’d never much liked the idea of having one’s friends photograph the whole engagement “ask,” but I knew it would mean a lot to Sam. She really wanted to have our pictures taken by Shay Shipman again, the same photographer who took our graduation photos last year, so I thought this could be a fun time to surprise her by asking. Sure enough it went great, and she said, “yes!” It was such a special night, certainly the best of my life.
Additionally, we took our first vacation over the 4th of July holiday and flew out West to reconnect with some old friends. I’d never been out that far west to begin with, so seeing the Pacific coast and visiting friends I hadn’t seen in years was truly special. We flew into LA and spent a few days there visiting my friend, Crash, who I’d met during my junior year of high school abroad in Austria, as well as Sam’s father and stepmother, and our college friends Nick and Elise. We saw the Venice Canals, Santa Monica Pier, Space Shuttle Endeavor, visited the Griffith Observatory, and hung out on Manhattan Beach for the 4th of July. I loved visiting LA but the traffic and high cost of living would keep me from ever wanting to live there I think.
After 4 days in LA, we flew to Portland to reconnect with 2 more friends from my exchange year, Kyra and Johnny. I was lucky enough to meet with Kyra in Nashville last summer, but it’d been 8 years since Johnny and I last saw each other. However, with how often we write letters and skype one another, we’ve kept in touch really well.
We got to see Portland and visit Cannon Beach before spending a few days with Johnny and his family in Independence, OR to round out our trip. We spent a day in Corvallis, Johnny and I got to play tennis, and I was super impressed with his parent’s vegetable garden (yeah, it was impressive enough to mention in a blog post).
Throughout the trip I got to watch Wimbledon in the mornings, and we got really lucky with the weather. As we returned home, I felt overwhelmed by how great my friends are, how accommodating they were, and the kindness they showed toward us to making this trip possible for Sam and me.
We returned home late in the evening before the Kloudbuster’s July Fun Fly rocket launch, and while I only had a G40W ready to fly, I was still excited to get back to the Rocket Pasture after the 4 month break for wheat. Sam hung out at home with Kenzie (Kenzie was at puppy day care/boarding during our trip), and I made a short trip out to Argonia. No OSU students were there, and without Sam, it felt a little lonely honestly. However, someone had found the mid-power rocket I lost at the Argonia Cup! Easy on the Wallet was still in great shape, as was the Jolly Logic Altimeter One I flew for the first time and thought I’d lost on its maiden flight. Based on the shredded parachute, it looks like it deployed at high horizontal speed and might explain why the trajectory was hard to follow against the clouds at motor burnout, hence leading to my losing it that weekend.
I was testing out my Eggtimer Quark on a solo flight inside a new Mach 1 kit, and I unfortunately lost sight of this rocket on burnout also. My heart dropped, thinking this was another lost mid-power rocket, but then the LCO spotted it drifting north just past the range.
It all worked great, but I suffered an allergic reaction wading through the waist-high grasses and shrubs to recover, so I ended up leaving a few minutes later. I didn’t have anything else to fly or do all day, so in a way, it was a nice change to be back home before lunch on the day of a rocket launch.
Over the next couple months, I’ll be flying the Quark some more, the Quantum, and a 38mm minimum-diameter bird, so I’m excited for those projects.
That about does it for my short summer update, so I’ll have more to share when I get a few more rockets in the air!