Our third Indiana adventure actually took place in Ohio. Thursday we packed the boys up and drove to Chillicothe, Ohio, where my brother now works. Uncle Greg just started as a life flight pilot for Air Evac a few months ago in Portsmouth, Ohio. He recently transferred to their Chillicothe base because it is closer to his home. In fact, the day we arrived for a visit was his first day at the new base.
It was a long car ride for the boys, but they did pretty well. We were excited to finally get to our destination. We called Greg, and he suggested we have a barbeque, so we went to the grocery store, got some fixings, and headed to the base.
It looks like a really great place to work, and Greg seems happy so it was all a big sister could ask for.
As we were fixing dinner, Greg got a call. He left to go start up the helicopter. I was disappointed that it cut our time together short, but I was excited to watch him take off. It turned out that the people at the scene called him off. They were close enough to Columbus that they could make it by ambulance. So Greg sat back down and ate dinner with us.
After dinner, Greg took us on a tour of the helicopter. Elias was too nervous to climb inside, but Simon got to sit in the pilot’s seat! We all had fun exploring the helicopter.
Friday morning we had plans to see Greg at his base again. He called us just as we were leaving our hotel to say that he was about to take off from a nearby hospital to transfer a patient. We hurried over, and got to see him take off. He was gone for about an hour, which gave us time to procure some lunch, and meet him back at the base to see him land. It was pretty much perfect timing!
Greg waiting for his patient/passenger
Greg taking off
Elias and Daddy watching Greg approach the helipad
Greg landing
We got to eat lunch together, and then explore the helicopter again before we had to leave for the next phase of our trip. This time, Elias climbed in the pilot seat, and into the back of the helicopter. He had a lot of fun.
I was so happy that we got to see Greg as much as we did, but it was harder to say goodbye this time because we don’t know when we’ll see him next. It is nice to have a place to picture when I think of him. Hopefully we’ll get to see him again soon!