Atlanta-Bound

This is going to be fun…heading to a city that I haven’t been in a while. We do lots of west coast flying in this job. I don’t make it back east very often.

So when I heard that we were headed to Atlanta for three days, I was excited!

I was back at the airport by 8:30 AM this morning after arriving home around 1:15 AM just a few hours before from our quick trip to Tucson. I was tired but was happily anticipating the four-hour flight to Hot-lanta.

Have I mentioned how gorgeous the weather is right now in Phoenix? October is the best. I enjoyed some shade while waiting for my passengers to arrive. We have two people on-board today for our trip to the south.

Once again, waiting by the gate provides me many opportunities to watch beautiful airplanes in the traffic pattern. I don’t think looking at airplanes could ever get old for me.

NERD ALERT!

Gladys was clean and ready to go. In fact, I even had time to scrub-a-dub some bugs from the leading edges of the wings and nose.

She tends to attract every bug within a five-mile radius when we are flying…but they stand no chance against her. Can you imagine playing chicken with this girl?

We were soon loaded up and taxiing to Runway 21 for takeoff. We always pass this busy FBO, which always has some enjoyable eye candy for me. I'm OK with that.

Zooooooooooom!

Here is our home airport from the sky. As you can see, we are already super high just a few moments after taking off. Gladys is a little rocket. And it’s nice to have the cooler weather in Phoenix for the better climb performance, that’s for dang sure.

I love living here! (In October).

The moving map trucked along today, and we were eventually cleared “Direct Destination.” We were given an arrival as we got closer to Atlanta, but I sweet-talked some shortcuts on that one, too.

I didn’t catch a picture of the distance from the very beginning of our flight today, but I think we did about 1,300 nautical miles to Atlanta. How fun! I’m glad that my seat has sheepskin covering and is oh-so-comfy!

We had to pass through some docile clouds on our descent into the south today. No thunderstorms, no icing. Just smooth cirrus clouds. I like shots of Gladys “in the soup,” as they call it.

On our descent into Peachtree-Dekalb (pronounced duh-cab…don’t make the mistake that I did by saying it improperly to a local), we passed a huge power plant. I love the pretty colors of the fields surrounding it, too.

You can see the clouds that we just came through above and beautiful fall-colored fields below. Thanks to it not being summer, I know that these few days in Atlanta are going to be wonderful!

It gets pretty awful hot and humid here in the summer time. Our timing is perfect for this trip. As if I have any say in the timing…

I’ve landed many a time at this airport, Cobb County McCollum Field on the northwest side of town. Look at that giant mining hole just to the side of the runway! I always hated landing here at night because of that hole…

We flew just north of downtown Atlanta as we made our left turn base-to-final for landing. I love all of the trees and greenery. I sometimes forget that trees can exist in cities!

We had a great landing and were soon taxiing to the ramp at Epps Aviation. One of the runways was closed to park airplanes while the ramp was getting resurfaced with asphalt this week. See how all of these guys are lined up on the runway?

This was not the runway that we landed on, just so you know.

A pretty King Air pulled up to park right behind us. In fact, after their passengers were gone, the two pilots came over to take a peek at Gladys.

Everyone loves my airplane! I promise that it’s not just me!

It was about seventy degrees when we landed. And, thanks to that blessed temperature, the humidity wasn’t even noticeable. This is pure heaven!

You can see the new asphalt going in behind Gladys. By the time that we left two days later, they were finished with the entire project.

Have I mentioned that we can bring kids on trips if there is room? Of course, I don’t have any kids to bring. But I got to bring Hubby along a few months ago for a wonderful time in Seattle!

El Capitan brought his youngest son on this trip so they could go see the aquarium. Fall Break is a good thing for all of us this week!

They have already moved Gladys to parking on the closed runway to make room for incoming airplanes. Doesn’t she look good out there?

She looks good everywhere, by the way.

For some unknown reason, it took the hotel shuttle over an hour to come get us. Even though the hotel was only four miles away. I found a bench outside and watched airplanes land while my luggage waited next to me.

You can see my memento from my perfect trip to Disneyland with my Mama (scroll down  to the bottom of the linked post to read all about our two-day visit to Disneyland). The memento is on the pocket.

One of my favorite rides was Soarin’ Over California, and I found this Mickey Mouse pilot wings pin in the gift shop next to Soarin’. How could I resist? I don’t usually buy mementos, but I had to make a special exception for such a wonderful time.

Now it’s on my flight bag, and I see it everywhere I go. It makes me happy.

The hotel shuttle finally arrived, and we were soon at the Hilton Garden Inn near Perimeter Mall. It’s by a mall. I will be juuuuuuust fine for the next few days.

The room was beautiful.

With a great view. Look at the changing fall leaves! We certainly don’t get that at home!

After checking in and dropping off my things in the hotel room, I went to the lounge to order some dinner. I don’t know what came over me, but I didn’t do healthy at all. Like, not even a tiny bit.

After I ordered my artery-clogging meal, I played a few rounds of Words with my sister, Charloe. She is probably beating me in this game. She’s like that, you know. Good with Words.

Soon, my mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese dishes arrived. And I wouldn’t have changed a thing! Except perhaps the calorie count, but I guess that I didn’t keep track today!

The hotel was absolutely beautiful. I loved how modern and sophisticated the lobby was. And you know that I love these colors, too!

Do you think that those chairs will fit in the airplane for the flight home? Do you think that the hotel personnel would notice if these chairs go missing in the next few days?

The Chinese lanterns in the entryway were gorgeous. I don’t think that I could hack such a look in my home, but it really worked in a giant lobby of a hotel in Atlanta.

And who wouldn’t want to grab a cup of hot chocolate and plop down next to this beautiful fireplace? I love how wide it is…taking up an entire wall in the lobby. This isn’t too shabby of a view as guests check into the hotel, huh?

Today was a great day. And now I get to work on some computer projects and enjoy a down day while on the road. How fun!