Southern State of Affairs

The TV down here in the hotel room in New Orleans says "Arctic Blast" on it.  It's 44 degrees right now, in the evening.  Yesterday it was 30 degrees warmer.  Of COURSE it was.  ;)  But still, people around here are all complaining about the terrible cold, the line guy at the airport was wearing a full face ski mask, thick gloves and a big winter coat, and I'm walking around in a T-shirt with my arms spread wide like Kate on the bow of the Titanic.  It's still a whole lot warmer than where I come from, so they can complain if they want, but I'll take it.

It is overcast down here.  The trip down was fine, the airplane behaved itself, and the winds were just friendly enough to not make us stop for fuel.  We had to lean it back and monitor it a lot since we were going to have to shoot an instrument approach into Biloxi/Gulfport, Mississippi first, and you need enough fuel to do that, go missed, etc.  But the visibility was 10 miles, all day, so even though it was 500' overcast, I wasn't too worried about having to go somewhere else or not being able to find it.  I still had the extra fuel just in case, but I wasn't too concerned. We ended up shooting two ILS approaches today.  One to 500', and the other to 900'.  Both good visibilities, neither too exciting, other than they were both into pretty busy airports.  Going into New Orleans, we were #2 on the ILS behind a Southwest jet, with another Southwest jet behind us, and all three of us were cleared to land while we were all three on various points of the localizer.  Tower told the guy behind us to slow down to approach speed, and he said "We're almost down there".  Tower said "You've got a twin Cessna in front of you."  "Oh."  Yep.  When we landed, tower came on and said "Hey, twin cessna, no delay taxi to Uniform and turn left, you have a 757 on less than a two mile final right behind you."  Noooo problem.  Then they sent us all over creation on the ground.  Dustin and I started laughing because they doubled us back,had us cross the same runway twice, going different directions, and they were smart enough to just give us a progressive without us asking for it.  It worked.

We went to Biloxi first.  I asked for the crew car, and the lady said "Oh, we only have one car, it's gone, and there is someone ahead of you on the waiting list.  But I can make you a turkey sandwich and chips for $3."  It was already 1 pm and I only had another hour and a half on the ground, so I took the turkey sandwich.  It actually wasn't bad, grilled on panini bread.  Wasn't quite the place I intended on visiting there, but if a big ole place like that only has one car, and you're only there 2.5 hours, what are you to do?  :)  We took on 138 gallons of gas, too, so I made sure to eat a "free" cookie and two cups of "free" coffee while I was there.  ;)

When we left Biloxi, New Orleans isn't far away from there by air.  So I planned on what approach we'd be using and filed right to an "initial approach fix" there.  By the time we left the winds swapped 180 degrees and they were using the opposite approach.  And so it goes.  :D  But we just got vectors for that ILS, and that controller knew his business, too.  He was all over it.  The terminal is smaller at New Orleans than at Biloxi, by a lot, but they have a lot more cars.  ;)  The two guys got a rental car and headed to Thibadeaux (sp), while I took a rental car and headed in to New Orleans to get a room. They've got business to attend to down there, then will come back to N.O. so that one can airline it somewhere else and the other and I can head home to Kokomo late afternoon.   I could have saved money by not having a car, but man, how depressing to sit in N.O. for 24 hours stuck in the hotel room.

I drove around the city a bit, looking at the lights, stopping here and there when there was decent parking. I started to eat at one place, but with an hour wait (standing outside) I decided to try something else, and was directed to a quiet place on a nearby corner that mostly locals eat at. It was one of those places that looks like a dive but has good quality food anyway--and the rest is just ambiance. ;)

When I was good and full, I went to a nearby theater and watched a movie, then drove around a bit at midnight or so, mostly because I was too restless to just go back to the hotel. When I did finally get back to the hotel, you had to use your key card to get in, and guess what wasn't working? A security guard is monitoring the place and he finally let me in. I thought I'd walk on the treadmill in the workout room, but you know what I forgot to pack? Comfy/walking/sleeping/yoga pants. So...I didn't need to walk off that meal anyway, right? ;)

It's late, my time anyway, and I'm tired, so will head off here. Tomorrow I have a few more things to go look at and a place to eat at before it's time to head home, back to the frozen tundra.