Prisoner of Best Western

I awakened to an alarm clock and stretched my arms high above my head. I was in a nice, quiet bedroom, an extension to my hotel suite in Best Western in Addison, Dallas, Texas. Another beautiful day of flying ahead of me. I was going to shower and then meet Bruce for breakfast before we went exploring town for the day prior to our evening departure. I hopped out of bed and walked the two steps to the bedroom door and turned the handle. Nothing. I turned a little harder on the door handle and tugged on the door. Still no movement. I leaned over to watch the door jam as I turned the handle several times, and the bolt wasn't moving at all! I was stuck in my room!

My only tools to aid me were a pen lid and a several wonderfully soft pillows. I didn't think they would help me much, so I finally gave in and called the front desk. I had to explain the situation several times. "Yes, I am locked IN my room. HELP!" He called a maintenance guy but then tried to come to my rescue himself. However, being the safety maniac that I am on the road, I had dead-bolted and iron-armed the entrance door to my hotel room. They had three things against them in trying to get through to the bedroom door to save me! I was positive my oxygen level was sinking lower each second...

I pressed my ear against the bedroom door and could hear the front desk guy trying to get in. Apparently, you can do wonders with a screwdriver and an electronic key. However, he couldn't get past the iron arm that swings over the door frame to keep intruders out. Another twenty minutes of waiting, and I heard a light tapping on the hotel door. Gonzolo, who apparently speaks "un poquito Ingles" was knocking at the hotel door for me to let him in. As I continued to wait on the bed, trying to decide how best to look decent when they finally barged in to rescue me from my delinquent door, I heard a sawing noise at the room entrance. They were hand-sawing through the iron arm!

Hesitantly wrapping myself in the bedspread, being careful to only let the inside touch my skin, I waited for the inevitable. Finally, I heard the last sawing motion and a "klink" sound as the iron arm hit the floor. I heard the door open and then my own bedroom door also opened. I WAS SAVED!

Total time of imprisonment: 52 minutes. Rather than waiting to fix the bedroom door handle after I checked out, Gonzolo proceeded to fix it right there on the spot. This prevented me from showering and making up for loss time. Twenty minutes later, he mumbled something that I think was supposed to be English and left. What an adventurous way to start my morning! I will always check door handles on both sides before I disappear for the night. Turns out the oxygen level didn't change at all.

Captain Day

This is it! The biggest day of my career thus far! On Monday, June 9, 2008, I flew my first trip as Captain with Bruce, my boss, as my co-pilot. I was in charge of everything from flight planning to fueling to weather-checking. It was a BLAST! Things went well on the 7:00 PM departure to Centennial Airport in Denver from Phoenix Sky Harbor, my home airport. The flight lasted 1.8 hours and ended with a smooth night landing on the 10,000-foot runway at KAPA. Weather was gorgeous! The airplane performed perfectly! I didn't forget anything! In fact, my calmness rather surprised me. I just relaxed and enjoyed everything, knowing that I had done everything I could possibly think of to prepare and make the flight a success. It was that! The only difficult thing was trying to sleep after the flight because I was so excited! I love my job. I am 25 years old with 1056 total hours of flight time, and I am a Beechjet Captain. Sheesh.

San Antonio

It has been over four weeks since I arrived in San Antonio. We had some setbacks in maintenance on my Beechjet, but I am hoping to fly the airplane home tomorrow, June 8th. The team here has been awesome, and I feel really good about the work that has been done. That is always a good thing...since it is my life on the line with their work! I will only have one night home before I head out next week...my first week as Captain without Terry on board! I am looking forward to it and will probably run on adrenaline each day. I am so blessed to be in the position I am with so few hours and piloting a Beechjet as Captain. Lucky, lucky me. All the hard work paid off!

I did a session here on Thursday evening, and I cannot even begin to describe how happy it made me. It is surely heaven on earth, and I would rather be no where else. When I had called the temple a few days earlier, she said they had sessions at 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM. So after work on Thursday, I headed to the temple with my camera, knowing I was too late to catch a session. I show up and the parking lot is packed! Turns out, Thursday is a late night that has sessions at 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM. I raced back to the hotel to get dressed and grab my temple bag, then made it back in time to do the 8:00 PM session. I was on the waiting list, but luckily there was room for me to fit in. This was my first time to a small temple. The list of temples I have been able to do a session in are: Toronto, Ontario; Denver, Colorado; Manhattan, New York; and now San Antonio, Texas. I also frequently attend my hometown temple in Mesa, Arizona. It was just announced that we are getting three more temples in the valley, that that will make five in the state!

I still really like John and would probably talk about him all day, every day if I could. He is simply wonderful. I wish I had more time with him this weekend before I head on the road again for another five days. It is the nature of my job and I love it, but it is nice to be in the arms of my big, strong, handsome man, too! I am not biased at all...