Apr 23 2010

The LONG return trip home

Friday,   

   

I had a chance this morning to kill a few hours before the flight back to Charleston at 3 PM, so I drove up the coast on highway 1 from Long Beach to the LAX airport.   What amazed me is how beautiful this area is!  Scenic over looks of the beach, unspoiled rolling hills.  Just incredible!    

The amazing thing is this is just west of the BOQ a few miles.  In LA!!

When we took off it was interesting to see the beaches and hills I had driven past this morning from the air.     

   

In the center of the picture is where the BOQ was located.   

   

These are some louse pictures from my cell phone which had to be used since my camera was packed away.  All the more reason to buy a “smart phone” which has a decent camera/internet/ text capability.  I bet it can even be used to talk human to human.   

After extensive research I have settled on the purchase of a HTC EVO on the Sprint Network.   

HTC EVO on the Sprint Network

 Soon, I’ll be able to consolidate all my carry around stuff (phone, camera and iTouch into one piece of equipment.  That’s the great new, the bad news is Sprint has not released the phone yet, nor is there a price on it.  It will be coming out sometime (hopefully) in May at a cost of (hopefully) $200 with a 2 year contract.   Sprint also has a great $69 plan which gives you unlimited everything with 450 minutes of talk.  It has unlimited talk for cell to cell call, so if I go, watch with the EVO watch out because I’ll be calling your cells whenever I can!   

A few more hours were spent just tooling aound LA with my trusty Garmin GPS and then it off to the airport for a quick trip home…   

WEATHER DELAY……….    

The trip home was indeed the longest one I have ever had.   The flight was weather delayed from LA to Atlanta and we missed our 10:45 pm Charleston connection by 10 minutes.    I was treated to a not so pleasant room at the Comfort Inn (at my own expense) for the night.   This is the first hotel I have ever stayed at that I checked the bed for “critters” before retiring.   Maybe thats why they assigned me a KING sized bed….for unexpected guests.     

Saturday morning, I arrived bright and early at ATL and found the flight was delayed again by an hour.   Bottom line, the flight was 12 hrs longer than planned.        

Years ago I remembered an art exhibition at the Atlanta airport.  The art deco strobe lighting is now gone but the African art is still on display.  Beautiful rock carving from Zimbabwe.    

 

Surprisingly, at the gate waiting for my plane, I ran into an old friend from the Aero Club who was heading back to Charleston for reserve duty.  John Nevitt.  He flew at the Aero Club an worked his way up the experience chain and is now a first officer for an airline.  Loves flying, but it doesn’t pay the bills, so he is also a reserves and has a small business on back in Louisville, KY where he now lives.   Times in the airlines are tight!   John and his wife Peggy, who out ranks him in the reserves (he is enlisted, she is an officer).  I wonder who gives the orders in John’s house?

   

Here is a Nick Nugget for you.   The hardest part of any trip is the first mile down the road, the best part of a trip is walking in your front door.  

Sure is nice to be home.