I've been feeling a little under the weather since I arrived home from work on Thursday afternoon. Hubby has been sick with a cold for almost two weeks, and I think I finally felt sorry that he was going through all of that alone. By the time I pulled into the driveway after being up since 3:50 AM, my throat was tickly and I was beat!
Ironically, I had just stopped at Wally World on my way home to purchase some cold medicine for Hubby. I ended up trying them all instead. Not successfully, mind you. Unless you count the child-size dose of Nyquil taken last night that knocked me out for a solid twelve hours...
Work isn't entirely to blame for me getting sick...but I certainly don't wake up at 3:50 AM on my own!
The airplane had finished some maintenance at Willy Gateway Airport and was ready for pick-up. We arrived around 5:15 AM and hitched a ride to the Service Center from the folks at the wonderful FBO. We decided to wait for Tower to open at 6:00 AM to make the clearance-into-Phoenix-airspace a little easier on everyone. So we carefully pre-flighted the airplane (always happens, but even more so after maintenance has been done. No one likes a screwdriver left in the engine intake. Am I right?).
We fueled enough to land at Phoenix and simply take on our three passengers without needing more fuel for the 1.5-hour trip to Reno. We weren't sure how long we would be gone, so Terry and I brought suitcases. It seems that everyone else got the memo that we would only be gone for the day. Would it kill someone to let the pilots know what's going on?!
We landed exactly at 7:30 AM local time in Reno after losing an hour in the time zone change. Exactly on time! Big Boss's ride was there to take them to their meetings. As he left, he said he would be back around late afternoon.
We got some recommendations as to where we could eat a yummy breakfast, and all of the line guys blurted out "Jack's Cafe" at the same time. It was creepy, but it made the decision of where to eat breakfast very easy. I got a scrambled egg, two pancakes, home fries (I love me some home fries), and about a pound of butter. Warm syrup just made everything that much better. I also accidentally washed it all down with some hot chocolate...with sprinkles! Of course, after breakfast, I recalled that I was trying to eat healthy again. Oops!
Once back at the FBO, I had to have them add a little more fuel to the left wing. I always feel bad that they have to go to all that trouble again for just seven more measly gallons. But if we aren't within 100 pounds of fuel per side for takeoff, we can't go. I reaaaaaaally like knowing I have enough rudder authority to override the fuel in case one engine dies in takeoff. It's the little things in life, really.
By the time I fixed the fuel and paid for everything, we got news that Big Boss was on his way back. It was 10:30! Good thing we didn't take his "late afternoon" statement seriously. We were ready for him when he arrived a half-hour later.
It's moments like these that make me appreciate that we just camp at the airport all day waiting for this guy. He would have been furious to find out we were sight-seeing or away from the airport when he wanted to go.
A nice, short flight back to Sky Harbor to unload the passengers. After letting the brakes cool, we hopped back in the empty airplane and took off back to Willy Gateway for some things that still needed to be fixed. We have gremlins living in certain systems on that airplane, and they are still trying to troubleshoot to find out how to get them gone! I hope they can finally find a solution...I really love it when the tail heat works properly in the winter!
Mesa-Gateway - Phoenix - Reno - Phoenix - Mesa-Gateway
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