Lil' Rock

By noon today, I had gone to Mexico City and back. Every pilot I have ever spoken to has said this is the absolute worst airport for getting in and out of. Issues with GPS losing signal near the airport, abnormal approach procedures, and controllers who use nonstandard communications are on the shortlist of the frustrations. Fortunately, my first experience to Mexico City went (mostly) without issue. We lost GPS about 10 miles from the airport, which wouldn't normally be an issue except for the thick haze permeating the city. I had to request vectors to the airport, which even five miles out was barely visible.

I flew us back to Houston, where we sat for a couple hours for our deadhead to Little Rock, Arkansas. There are only a handful of states left in the country that I have not yet visited. And with this trip to Arkansas, I can now check that off the list. I did not have high expectations for Arkansas, but I was pleasantly surprised as soon as I left the hotel. There is a path along the river as in Boise, but the location of our hotel in Little Rock is much more conducive to actually seeing things.  Initially I was going to walk toward the Bill Clinton Presidential Library,

but it was already closed, and I didn't feel I would get much out of seeing the exterior. I walked across the river on an old bridge that was now strictly for pedestrians. Once on the other side, I hunted for a place to get dinner. Yelp had assisted me in picking out a few options. My initial choice was a place called the Flying Saucer, a brewpub type of joint with lots of beers on tap. I sat down at the bar, and waited . . . 
Five minutes later, I decided to get up and walk out. Normally, I would have been more patient, but I had passed a fried chicken place on my way to the Flying Saucer, and deep down I realized I just wanted to eat fried chicken.

I have no regrets. Unlike the prior establishment, Gus's Fried Chicken was an unpretentious and welcoming environment with solid food and southern hospitality. Healthy? Certainly not. Tasty? Obviously. I very rarely order dessert when I am out. Had the server asked, "Would you like some dessert?" I would have said no, without question. However . . . he said, "Can I interest you in pie?" And my natural response was, "What kind of pie?" He listed about six different kinds including familiar types like pecan, coconut, and apple, but the last one he listed did not sound familiar. Of course, I had to try the unknown kind. It was called chess pie, which is like a custard pie. It is evidently a southern thing, and therefore unhealthy, but it was very very tasty. From Little Rock, I bid you *BURP* good night. And excuse me.

Boise

We arrived into Boise around 6:30pm as the sun was setting. Our hotel was on the river, but not really near anything. Eating options were limited and the hotel did not even have any semblance of a restaurant or food options. I looked on a map and saw Albertson's, the name of the grocery store I would frequent when I lived in Long Beach. I thought this would be a fine way to get some food for dinner and maybe a muffin or baked good for my breakfast before my early morning flight. I walked on a bike path along the river to get there. I'm sure during the day, or in particular when it is warmer, this is a very nice path with scenic views, but as it was nighttime, I couldn't see much.

As I continued my trek along the river trail, I felt that I should have been able to see the Albertson's already, so I checked the map on my phone and I should have indeed been right on top of it. Then the misfortune sunk in. This was not a grocery store, but rather the corporate headquarters of Albertson's. Another half mile down the road was Albertson's Stadium. And despite Boise being the headquarters of this grocery store chain, there wasn't a single location where one could actually buy food anywhere near me. Sadness.

Defeated, I retraced my steps on the path back to the hotel, where I bought a mediocre sweet-and-sour chicken microwave dinner from the limited options at the store in the lobby. Perhaps to be truly fair, I will have to visit Boise during the day, and also outside of this business park area of town. Departing Boise, I embarked on my  longest flight to date from Boise all the way down to Houston.

Mile High Lodging

For the first time in over three weeks, I spent the night in a hotel. Because Denver International Airport is so far from everything, our hotel was also a bit removed from the city. That being said, it was quite possibly the nicest hotel I have stayed at since becoming an airline employee. It was called the Woolley's Classic Suites and has the vibe of an Embassy Suites, but nicer. There were free appetizers and drinks in the lobby which had a fake stream flowing through it. Breakfast was also free and did not disappoint. I cannot tell you how many times I have attempted to use a hotel's waffle maker and ended up with a plate of batter soup with a few waffle indents.

And look at that room! Spacious and comfortable. The bed was like butter. The bathroom was big enough for a pool table or perhaps a baby grand piano. I sound like I'm being paid off by the hotel company, but it's always nice to have a nice place to stay, especially if it's not close to anything. The following day started with a snag. There were two aircraft swaps before we got to an airplane that we could actually fly. I could have had a second waffle or some more pastries, or slept an extra hour. Alas, I had to wait in the airport with the angry passengers.

Eventually we made it from Denver to Portland, which is now my longest distance flight on record. Fortunately the weather was decent and I was able to enjoy the scenery. Unlike flying in the upper midwest, it is not an endless flat field of white. We flew over Jackson Hole, Idaho Falls, and next to Mount Hood before descending into Portland, where it was sunny and clear. I am under the assumption that this is not common. In the forecast, it will rain five of the next seven days. Luckily, I got to see it on an "off" day. We made a quick return to Denver and then headed over the mountains again to Boise.

Exploring the world . . . one airport terminal at a time.

For starters, I did not take this picture, I do not know what it is, nor have I seen it in person. I googled Guadalajara and this came up. You see, I did actually fly last week . . . once. It was a quick turn to Guadalajara, Mexico. I didn't have time to do anything, so there are no pictures and no unique stories to tell other than the randomness of it all. I got a phone call that morning, went to the airport, flew to Mexico and back, and was back at my sister's before she got out of work. While this sounds very exotic and exciting, I experienced nothing in Guadalajara other than a struggle to understand English in Mexican accents while using the radio.

My previous posts about flying out of Minneapolis may have already shed some luster from being a professional airline pilot, but even when the destinations aren't Grand Forks or Iron Mountain, there are about four ways I can fly somewhere and never really "see" it.

1) A quick turn (We land, deplane, board immediately, and jet out to some other destination)
2) A long sit (We are limited to waiting in an airport terminal while we await our next flight)
3) An overnight by the airport (Though in this scenario we leave the airport, we don't get far due to transportation limitations when the airport is very far from the city it serves *cough* Denver.
4) A short overnight (Arrive late at night, leave early morning)




This week I received a three-day assignment that will experience all four of these obstacles. I have just completed the first leg and am now in the middle of a long 3.5 hour sit in the Austin Bergstrom airport. I have been to Austin before, fortunately, so I have at least experienced what the city has to offer. I tried to make good use of my time and had some Texas bbq at a place called Salt Lick, located in the middle of the terminal. It is a well-known bbq place in Austin, but the ambience of an airport food court is not quite the same. Now, I have just one more flight and will be spending the night in "Denver," or more accurately within about 15 minutes of Denver International Airport and an hour from Denver itself.

A Post for Pops

I have been fortunate enough to have parents who liked to travel. In my youth, my father often did the majority of the planning of our various trips. And because he had a keen interest in art history, we found ourselves schlepping for hours to visit some obscure site that embodied an architectural style that interested him or some work of art that nobody else in the family had heard of. This had varied responses amongst other family members. In the picture at right, you see the family marching toward the Einsteinturm, a building in Potsdam, Germany. And you may be interested to know that of all the sites in Potsdam, it is ranked #25 and has been reviewed by a staggering 14 people on TripAdvisor. All of them gave it very high marks, but as you can see, it is just some random tower to those who don't appreciate it on the same level as my father. See below...







When I was a flight instructor in Long Beach, I was dispatched by my dad to take pictures of some buildings that were an example of Art Deco architecture. When they came to visit me one winter, I took my parents on an Art Deco tour of Hollywood and Downtown LA -- no doubt the highlight of anyone's trip to Southern California. Meanwhile back in Houston . . .

It was another week without calls. It almost became an expectation to wake up with a whole day ahead of me, and with newly found access to a Toyota Sienna, or as my sister has christened it, "Ze swagger wagon," I went for a small road trip toward downtown Houston. From there, I forked off toward Hobby airport, or as many have dubbed it, the lesser, more ghetto of the Houston airports. I had a reason to go, however --the  Houston air terminal, which was built in the middle of the Art Deco movement, and I went there on my own accord!

After Hobby was built, the original air terminal was abandoned and was going to be torn down to make space for a hangar, but architecture aficionados stepped in to save it. It's now a museum focusing on air travel in the 1940s with exhibits on how flying used to be in the good ol' days when folks used to smoke on airplanes and security was non-existent. There was an interesting poster showing all the airline mergers throughout the years, but it stopped in 1999, which was interesting in its own right, because airlines like NorthWest, TWA, Continental, US Airways, and America West no longer exist.

It was a small museum, but interesting nonetheless. However, as you can imagine, like the Einsteinturm, it was not particularly crowded. I was the only person in the museum, which made things very exciting for the docents when I walked through the door. My week ended on a holiday weekend, which made travel back to LA a challenge. Luckily, I was able to hitch a ride on a fancy new 787 Dreamliner, which had two spacious jumpseats. I also received a lunch and a chocolate chip cookie, a small reminder of what flying back in the good ol' days might have been like.

First Week in Houston

I've just finished my first week at the Houston base. I would have liked to have flown to new destinations, but the farthest I got from the Houston airport was my sister's house - a 20 minute drive away. Despite there being relatively few reserves (at one point I was the only person on the reserve list), I didn't get called once . . . well almost. I got called on day 3 of 4 to be told that my reserve on day 4 would be changed from 4-4 to 9-9. This is far less than ideal on a day I'm trying to get home. I was not happy with this at all. Day 4 came and no calls.

So what did I do all week? Why I went to the Houston zoo you see. Of all the zoos I've seen this year, it was the best. If you recall, back in October I visited the Fresno Zoo which was a sad display of a lonely ostrich walking around a cell. The Houston Zoo was much more impressive. Not only was there a single lonely elephant like in Fresno, there were several. Now the elephants could play with each other, even though zoo work pays peanuts. My niece was of course accompanying us on this trip. She has become more comfortable with my presence. She now acknowledges me and looks at me when she's speaking as opposed to hiding behind my sister's legs.

Despite the general boredom of sitting alone wondering if a call would come, I appreciated being out of Minneapolis. The day after I left, a snowstorm resulted in hundreds of cancelations and delays. A good time to get out, I thought. But as the days dragged on and no new work, I began to wonder if the Houston transfer was all that beneficial to me. In the evenings, my niece liked to run around outside. She created a game, in which she wanted to be chased. The rules of this game favored the game-maker because anytime I got close, I was instructed to stop.


One day, I purchased a pair of new running shoes.

When my sister told my niece that I got new shoes so I could run faster, this upset her very much. She was now concerned that perhaps I would now be fast enough to catch her. She had to be comforted and told that they would make me faster, but not fast enough. While I enjoyed a slight warmup of temperature, I would much rather be working. If this continues the rest of the month (and into March it would appear), it could really make my move appear wasteful. The only real benefit right now is that I have every weekend in the month off. Hopefully I will have some time to use my travel benefits for something other than trying to catch a full flight home when my original listing had plenty of seats available before the company arbitrarily changed my reserve hours. Grrr.