Two Pilots & an LSW: Louisiana

Monday, February 09, 2026

Louisiana

I kind of missed something last night about Kid Rock. It started out with him screaming "MY NAME IS KIIIID" for his first hit/famous song when he was a sleezy rocker. Transitions to classical music, and then he comes out without the glam, under his real name, I didn't even recognize him at first, and sang a song about forgiveness and redemption, interspersed with clips of him publicly proclaiming his faith. With a good voice, for the record. So I had to give a little nod to that. Mostly I couldn't care less about this year's Superbowl, or this year's half time show(s) for that matter, and I think people must be bored or on edge to get so completely bent out of shape over it. Like...who cares, man? Does this negatively affect your quality of life in any way? Live and let live, enjoy what you enjoy, ignore what you don't enjoy.

I went to bed before the Superbowl was over so that I could wake up at 4:50 a.m. Only got about 5.3 hours of sleep last night, which isn't quite enough, but I did the best I could. Met up with Instructor Ethan at Frankfort at 6:30 am and pulled out the Conquest in the frigid air, and we were on our way to Louisiana. Where it was completely fogged over. I spent the entire flight trying to see if I could get in, what the weather was doing, seeing where I could go, changing the plan about 6 times. I found a place to get into that was a 2 hour drive away from their project. Then right as I needed to start coming down for that, one of the airports down there went "up" to almost minimums. I started calling AWOS on my phone with the internet. I had to make a call, and the airport I could probably get into was next to the airport we were supposed to go into, but was still reporting fogged over. But the reports were old and there was a chance. But...I went with my gut. I bypassed our alternate and kept going, and instead of going to the original I went to the one next to it, which ended up being just fine to get into. That was a long 2.5 hours of effort. It was good for Ethan though, as he hasn't experienced anything like that. I let him do the flying. That's why I don't like taking some people on trips, *I* like to fly too. ;)

It was a long day to hang out next to someone I don't know that well, as we didn't get home until 8 pm. So 14 hours worth of small talk is hard for me. He's a good kid, two years younger than Kaylee, headed off to be an airline pilot in April, needs 7 more hours of multi time to meet his minimum hours. No real world experience, just instructing and now off to fly the airline skies. Fortunately I don't mind his company, but it's still too much time to be "on". I'm taking him with me Wednesday to Illinois, too, in the 340. He did a nice job with the flying, just a couple of glitches that you'd expect when flying a new-to-you airplane.

They're doing Mardi Gras stuff all over down there, and it was quite festive and pretty. We went out to eat breakfast, then waited there for the guys to come back, which didn't happen until mid-afternoon.

I don't know what else today. I'm really tired and as soon as this show is over (Rookie) I'm going to bed and staying there until I feel like it tomorrow!