Two Pilots & an LSW: The End of Part One

I'm writing this from my living room couch, catching up on "Blacklist" with Steve, after a little frozen pizza dinner. It's brutally cold up here, with icy back roads and frigid temps. We have another 2-3" of snow coming by Sunday afternoon, and February is definitely showing its teeth here in Indiana. I didn't have to wear my coat in Missouri or Atlanta, but then I stepped outside here and went woof, time to zipper up!

Thursday morning I woke early. I went downstairs and had breakfast in the fancy hotel, then wandered my way over to the airport with all my bags, to wait for Melvin the Mechanic to pull off that "spider" or fuel distributor, clean it, put it back on, and let me head out. I was going to stop in Tulsa which is just an hour away, make sure all was well. Then stop in Amarillo, TX and make sure all was well. Then come the first set of mountains, and I'd stop in Winslow, Arizona. And so on. I waited, and I waited. And waited. At any moment I could get a text saying "You're good to go", so I needed to keep up on weather and plans. The later it got, the more I had to change my plans, and then figure out the latest I could leave and still hit at least Tulsa by dark. I texted and asked him about progress, didn't hear back, but at the end of the day he said he couldn't get to it today. Ugh. If I'd have known that, I could have gone out and done something instead of sitting in the FBO all day. So I took the shuttle back to the hotel, checked in again, had a delicious Ahi Tuna salad and some ooey gooey butter cake (and wow that was amazing), and actually went to bed pretty early, worn down and a little discouraged. Every day that passes I'm stuck away from home, I'm canceling students, I'm on edge the whole time about what's happening next.

So I woke up Friday morning early, and it's another beautiful day, and I go downstairs and eat breakfast, and then took the shuttle over to the airport again. I waited until about noon, and then I saw the Bonanza go taxiing by at a high rate of speed. He was going to *start* working on it. So I took a courtesy car and went into town and hit "C Street", or "Commercial" street, a neat little downtown walking around area with lots of shops. I ate lunch at an old pizza joint (excellent), and then stopped at a pastry place (excellent), walked around and looked around and enjoyed myself for awhile, and then got back to the airport. Melvin the Mechanic told me that this thing had a screen in it that he wasn't expecting, the screen had gunk in it, he cleaned it out but he's not familiar with this system and not comfortable that it'll be okay. So. Plans changed again. I called Tim, Steve, the owner Jason, and we got it all lined up. Melvin took the spider and put it in a box and gave it to me to take home so we can send it off to an expert and have it looked at, overhauled, whatever it needs. Jason bought me a Delta airline flight home, right out of Springfield there. No one-way tickets. I had a 1.5 hour layover in Atlanta, and I'd land in Indy at midnight.

The FBO got me over to the airline, and it was easy. It's a small airport, so it wasn't crowded or difficult. I had packed so that I could airline home, so one small bag and my purse, and now a small box with a metal spider looking device in it. It doesn't look good. When security got to it, they stopped it on the scanner and stared, and stared, and changed the angle of the camera, and stared. Called over the Supervisor and repeated all of that. Finally the supervisor turned around and looked at me and put up one questioning eyebrow. I said "I bet you want to know what that is, huh?" He nodded slowly and said "Yeeeah." I laughed, which hopefully was just amusing and not inappropriate. I told him I'm a pilot, I have to airline home because that airplane part in that box had failed. It's a fuel distributor that distributes fuel to the engine. He was okay with it after that.

First flight was in a little CRJ, crammed with people, dark and tight, and you have to wear a mask the whole time you're in the airport and airplane. I listened to music and Jason had put me by a window as I'd requested, so I just tried to not feel the guy next to me man-spreading into my seat too and pressing up against me. When we got off the plane in Atlanta, we were in the farthest north terminal. My connecting gate was in the "T" terminal. Clear on the other side of the airport, which was kind of funny. I took the train over to there, and found my gate: T6. I thought that was amusing and appropriate somehow.

While I waited at 10 pm, I wanted to get dinner. Everything was closed, at Atlanta International, at 10 pm. Shouldn't be, man! People still fly in and out at night too! There was one stand selling pre-packaged burgers and chicken sandwiches, so I got one of those and a bottle of water. Over $14. DOH!

The second flight was great. It was on an Airbus, and I had the whole row of three to myself, plus the row across from me was empty too! I had TWO windows at my seat, not just one, and I had movies available, unlike the puddle jumper. So I watched Mulan on screen, stared out my two windows, and enjoyed myself. I even pulled my facemask down in the dark where nobody could see me. ;)

We landed at midnight. I had a nice long walk to the ground transportation area, and then I called for an Uber to get home. The price isn't bad, either. An Uber pulls up. I ask if he's mine. I see no name or anything. He doesn't speak English really. He waves me in. I, being a tired idiot, get in. We are driving, and I look at my app, and it says my driver will arrive in ten minutes. OOPS. I got in the wrong car. There are 20/20s about stuff like that. So I show him my phone, and he basically gets across that I should cancel that ride and he'd just take me himself and I could pay him cash. Sketchy, but I was already in the car. So I did it. I just want to get home. He hands me his phone so I can plug in my address, which I do, and he goes the appropriate way. Drops me off at my house at 1:30 am, I pay him cash, he thanks me, and I am home. :)