Still in Denver...

Logbook: It's Day 25. The others are starting to show signs of fatigue. As someone already working for the company, I did not have to attend the first two weeks of class like the majority of my class, so I have a slight edge in endurance, but barely. Over a week ago, we lost half of our class to cholera Cincinnati. Now there are but 8 of us. Provisions are low. I have been fashioning makeshift dinners out of vending machines and 7/11. Any time I have a day off, I immediately leave. After a brief stint in Orlando for a dentist appointment, I returned to Denver with Nicole along for the ride.

For our first excursion, we drove to a wilderness preserve. I had previously run through the area only to be harassed by small insects that would follow me for miles as I tried to outrun them. We didn't fare much better in the car. It was like an endless expanse if nothing. Finally, as we were about to exit the park, we spotted a bison. It eventually walked right in front of our car and I was briefly concerned about declining the rental insurance. We then went to a shopping center nearby before returning to do simulator training.

As it was Nicole's birthday a couple days later, I had to combat four different schedule changes in an attempt to make her day enjoyable. First we went to the zoo near downtown. She got free entry, a free ride on the carousel, a free ice cream, and a button announcing to the world that it was her birthday. She took advantage of all the perks with the exception of the carousel. There were lots of children who were like heat-seeking missiles going straight for my knees, but fortunately the zoo was fairly expansive so it was relatively easy to get away from the crowds.

Highlights included a tiger on a catwalk (ha!) who tinkled a little on an unsuspecting passerby below. A nearby elephant played with an empty keg (no doubt evidence of a wild night of trunking and peanut-binging). On the other side of the zoo, penguins queued up to get some fish from a worker. It was a fairly well-done zoo. I just get confused by zoos in cold climates. Like I'm sure the cheetahs are fine now, but what happens in December when there are like 3 feet of snow?

Due to my discombobulated schedule, we had to leave around noon. We got there at rope drop you see. I had to go to a briefing for two hours, then was supposed to have about 5-6 hours gap before the sim, but someone's checkride got rescheduled because they didn't have logbooks or something. And just like that, we were summoned in to do our sim session, 5 hours ahead of schedule. I had plans to take Nicole out to a nice birthday dinner, but I didn't get out until almost 9, had to return the rental car, and by then the food options were limited.

Ruby Tuesday's in the hotel parking lot was about the only thing still open. Hopefully Nicole enjoyed her large brownie fudge sundae served in a large goblet.


The following day before she left, we had a chance to try an Italian restaurant next to Ruby Tuesday's. It had a very interesting vibe. It was windowless, had three different levels of seating and was projecting Celine Dion music videos from the 90's onto the wall. Why? Who knows. It was entertaining. Evidently for dinner, it's hard to get a seat.

For another few sim sessions, my partner and I fought off engine fires, engine separations, stalls, flap failures, cabin smoke, windshear, and single engine missed approaches. We've done so many of them that I feel like flying a plane with two working engines is going to seem unusual at this point.


Now car-less again, meal options are severely limited. If I have a day off, I leave. I went to LA for 24 hours just to get out. Then, coming back, I chose an early afternoon flight on a 777 that was projecting 30 open seats. Somehow I ended up in the jumpseat. Summer travel is highly unpredictable. It's almost good I've been in training for the thick of it. Once fall rolls around, I can actually go somewhere and not have a family of six show up 10 minutes before the flight and ruin the numbers. Bah. One week left . . .

   

Mile High Boredom

I've now been in Denver for two weeks, though it seems like it has been much longer. You see, contrary to previous training events that were in Salt Lake City, I am now being trained to fly a new jet - the Embraer 175. If you are familiar with the Denver airport, you will know that it's kind of in the middle of nowhere. This picture was taken across the street from my hotel to give you some idea. There's nothing to do in the area and even less to eat. One of my classmates is a habitual visitor to Ruby Tuesday's whereas I have been buying cheap burritos from 7-11. Things are rough.

Having just completed my systems validation test (160 questions on things like ACMPs, PTUs, EDPs, and even a RAT), I was ready to unwind without hitting the books for once. My ol' buddy Greg was able to fly out to Denver for the weekend to explore downtown Denver with me. There is now a train that connects downtown to the airport, which is a relatively new thing.

35 mins later, we were at Union Station. We didn't have any particular destination so we wandered aimlessly for a bit until we ended up by the capitol. There were some nice gardens and such nearby as well. By now we were already getting hungry, so we commenced our search for lunch. We settled on a place near Coor's Field that had lots of outdoor seating. We, of course, had to find a place in the shade for my unfortunately pale friend whose long time nemesis - the sun - was fairly strong that day.

They had a large field for bean bag toss/cornhole, or whatever you might call it. I wasn't very good. The folks next to me must have been in a league. They looked very serious about the whole thing and were quite good. I was happy if I didn't send a bag sailing toward a fellow restaurant patron. The arrival of our food interrupted our intense matchup, so we retired our game and noshed.

After eating, we went to the Jagged Mountain brewery, one of many microbrews in downtown Denver and split a beer flight. It consisted of an orange ale, a tequila-cask ale, and others. Some were better than others. Then we continued walking to a different part of the city. We walked along the river by a place called Confluence Park. We debated going to an aquarium along the river, but it was both expensive-ish and crowded, so we elected instead to check out the nearby REI, which was massive (and also expensive).

After REI, we wound our way back by the river. Having walked many miles around downtown Denver in just flip flops, my tootsies were a bit dirty. I let the water clean them off a bit before continuing. Then, out of nowhere, the sun went away and the wind got really blustery. We picked up our pace thinking that it was about to storm. We made a right turn directly into the wind, followed by a few more turns - all of them somehow directly into the wind.


For shelter, we sought refuge in the Great Divide Brewing Co. We had a couple beer flights including a rice beer, a hibiscus ale, and their signature Yeti ale. When it appeared to have calmed down outside, we went out to get dinner at a place called Ophelia's. I guess back in the day it was like a tacky Moulin-Rouge-esque peep show/burlesque show or something to that effect. Now it's just an eclectic restaurant that plays obscure foreign films on a screen where the stage was.

I had some sort of South American burger thing with plantains and black beans. Thppbbt. Some sort of Korean western was playing on the screen. Even with the subtitles, it didn't really make much sense. Nevertheless, it was an interesting atmosphere. After that we worked our way back to Union Station to catch a train back toward the airport. When we got to our stop, the sun was setting and the temperature was dropping quickly. We briskly walked back to the hotel, having covered over 11 miles throughout the day. Regardless of the footwork, it was a welcome diversion from the four-block radius that is currently my life.