Since the end of last month, Nicole has been working for the show
Homeland. It is filming its seventh season in Richmond, Virginia. Needless to say, it's a long way from L.A. and there are no direct flights. It was a bit of a stressful day trying to get there. The first Delta gate agent ran down to the plane (to check on pax counts I assumed). Except I looked out to see the bridge being pulled away and the plane being pushed back without her ever following up with me about the jumpseat. That's TWICE now, Delta. TWICE. I caught one 90 mins later and got a seat in the back. I was not completely free of the jumpseat, though as I ended up in an MD-88 from Atlanta to Richmond. It was my first time in the infamous "Mad Dog" as we do not see them much on the west coast. The FO jokingly commented, "Those engine start/stop switches on your plane must be nice," and then proceeded to do a 30-step process to start an engine on the mighty MD-88. After enough coal was fed into the boiler, we were on our way.
Richmond seems like a nice enough city. It feels like a small town. No traffic. Easy parking. Old architecture. In other words, nothing like Los Angeles. It has a nice network of pedestrian bridges and pathways criss-crossing a place called Belle Isle near downtown. One of them is actually hanging from an overpass. It was about 85 degrees and quite humid, which I was not expecting for this time of year. It felt like the middle of summer. We spent the rest of the day driving around places like Monument Avenue, a long street with various statues.
Being the capital of the Confederacy at one point, I suppose it was unsurprising that this avenue was full of confederate statues. Whether or not they deserve to be prominently displayed out in public is a whole different debate and I've made enough of such political rantings lately, so I'll let this one be. Robert E. Lee was our first sighting, followed by Jefferson Davis. I guessed (correctly I might add) that the next statue would be Stonewall Jackson. After that was Arthur Ashe . . . a black tennis player, who won numerous grand slams in the 60s/70s. And now he shares a street with Jefferson Davis. Only in America. We walked by the Museum of the Confederacy and the Confederate White House. It was $10 for the museum, so we didn't go in. The "White House" didn't look like anything special either. I saw much nicer homes in Richmond in an area known as "The Fan." Later in the evening, we returned to the river by downtown.
We enjoyed a nice sunset and then had dinner outside at a French restaurant in Carytown, another trendy neighborhood in Richmond. Although it was brief, I enjoyed my time in Richmond. It seems like a friendly and relaxed town that has tried to establish a new identity for itself. The next day I found myself in the jumpseat again and dodging tropical storm Nate as it moved through the Southeast. Maybe I'll be back some day when I can spend more time there.
Since the end of last month, Nicole has been working for the show Homeland. It is filming its seventh season in Richmond, Virginia. Needless to say, it's a long way from L.A. and there are no direct flights. It was a bit of a stressful day trying to get there. The first Delta gate agent ran down to the plane (to check on pax counts I assumed). Except I looked out to see the bridge being pulled away and the plane being pushed back without her ever following up with me about the jumpseat. That's TWICE now, Delta. TWICE. I caught one 90 mins later and got a seat in the back. I was not completely free of the jumpseat, though as I ended up in an MD-88 from Atlanta to Richmond. It was my first time in the infamous "Mad Dog" as we do not see them much on the west coast. The FO jokingly commented, "Those engine start/stop switches on your plane must be nice," and then proceeded to do a 30-step process to start an engine on the mighty MD-88. After enough coal was fed into the boiler, we were on our way.
