Lizzy McFly

Soooo…..I decided to do my second Gold Cup Air Rally.  This decision was probably much tougher than it appears.  My main issue is my health.  My average week is a mix of good days and bad.  The thing is, I never know which the next day is going to be.  What happens if I wake up the next morning in another city, having a bad symptom day?  I would initially have no way home or onward other than to fly.  I would just have to stay until I had my next good day and then head home.  There are other factors such as having one of my days where I’m able to function as normal, but “just” feeling very blah the whole day.  Picture the last time you had a really bad flu.  Think of experiencing all of those symptoms but still have the strength and endurance to function normally.  That’s what it’s like for me on those types of bad days.  It’s great that I can function but feeling so lousy doesn’t make anything I do pleasurable.  The worst “bad days” are where I can’t function AND feel like caa-caa.  I’d be stuck if that happens.  Here’s the next huge factor I had to consider – I must have another female with me (all planes must carry two or more women).  If I offer my right seat to someone I hardly or don’t know at all, how horrible am I going to feel if I ended up with one of my bad days and make her miss the rally?  So then I came up with the brilliant idea – I’d invite my little mother!  She’s flown with me plenty of times and obviously knows all about what my MS causes me.

As you have guessed by now, I made the decision to attempt the Rally and my mother accepted my invitation!

I must tell you, the last almost two months have been brutal.  Every day, I would flip and flop from “This is going to be awesome!!!” to “What the hell are you thinking, you #*@$!”  At least now, my mother would totally understand my limitations and not be as inconvenienced as someone else would be if I have to quit early.

On Wednesday, Mike took Jan and I to the St. Catharines Airport to load up Vyctor and head into the sort-of sunset in Collingwood.  It was very smooth air, which is perfect for Jan.  While flying through Toronto, the Tower let us know that there was an A380 passing ahead of us.  He mentioned he wasn’t ascending as anticipated, so had us descend a bit.  He said “That must be quite the view!”  It sure was!  I which I grabbed my camera, but only had time to snap a quick one with my iPhone.  This picture does no justice to the double-decker giant:

In a little over an hour, we arrived in Collingwood.  This picture wasn’t taken that day as I was too focused on the landing.  The airport is at the base of the slopes on the left:

We were sure to fuel up before heading into the Terminal Building to meet up with everyone:

In total, I think there were twelve planes and around 25 pilots.  Here are a few of us:

I got Vyctor all ready for his night out with his new buddies:

After meeting up with everyone else who flew in that day, we had a delicious pizza dinner at a nearby hangar:

Jan and I stayed at the Mariner Motor Inn.  Another Rally member, Diane, was kind enough to drive us from the airport to the hotel and back again in the morning.

Needless to say, it was a great day for both my mother and I.  It was wonderful to see so many of the pilots from last year’s Rally.  Stay tuned for more on our adventure!

Today’s symptoms: I’m still recovering from my trip, but things are getting better every day.  I had a bad headache for most of the day and lots of nerve pain on my left side.  Thinking about the last week has helped keep me positive while feeling cruddy.