Weekly Work, Day Two

After some pizza and supposedly a nice, long night with plenty of sleep, it was time to gather at the airplane once again. Wednesday morning already?!

 

Today was a little more mild. People to see, places to visit. But not six cities.

Landing at Midway is always fun. With Boss #2, I usually have an entire day here to enjoy the city. I have been to the top of the Sears Tower. I want to do the city river tour next time I’m there for long enough to leave the airport.

We left Chicago/Midway Airport around 9:30 AM and were on our way to Port Columbus, Ohio. This is the home of The Ohio State University, not that they’d let you forget it! Yes, they really say it like that. Isn’t that silly?!

  

Lane Aviation is simply the best. They have cute little old men at the door working as greeters upon arrival. They shake your hand and find out your name and then call you by it until you leave. It really made me feel special to have so much attention from their wonderful staff.

Of course, I won’t complain about homemade cookies fresh out of the oven, either.

Soon it was time to leave Columbus behind. Our next stop was Pittsburgh, Allegheny County Airport. Big Boss #3 lives here, so we stopped to pick him up for a day of work.

They spent a few hours in the city, so David and I grabbed a quick dinner just a short drive away. Chili’s was nothing to write home about, but I had their little bites hamburgers. Tiny burgers on tiny buns? I’m in! And they were actually pretty delicious!

 

That evening, we flew a short hop to Allentown, Pennsylvania for the night. I have never been here before but scored a Sheraton Four Points hotel room for $59. I tell you, being nice on the phone can get you anything in life!

It was a nice price after paying almost $180 the night before in Chicago. How they can charge so much for a bed and small containers of shampoo is beyond me.

Chicago/Midway – Port Columbus, Ohio – Pittsburgh/Allegheny County – Allentown

Weekly Work, Day One

I was on the road this week. Big Boss has a million places to go, and he used My Baby to get there. I didn’t mind. It had been a few weeks since I had flown, and I knew the end of this week was going to be something wonderful. So I willingly went for a trip!

 

This week was the first for my new copilot. He replaced Terry and has been in training for the past three weeks. Since he has never flown the Beechjet except for in the simulator (where they simply try to kill you with every emergency imaginable), it was nice to get on the road and teach him how the normal week runs.

I was expecting to leave Monday and waited for the call all day. It finally came that evening, but with surprising news. We were going to leave the following morning instead.

So, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on Tuesday morning, I met David for his first flight as a new Beechjet Captain. We had two passengers on our way up to Reno to pick up a third. Big Boss was actually early, so we left on time and had a nice 1.3-hour flight up to the beautiful city in Nevada.

 

I really like Reno and tend to get there pretty often for work.

     

After getting some fuel and loading his bags, we were on our way to Denver Centennial Airport. We flew just south of my hometown (Hi, Mama!) on our way over the Rocky Mountains.

    

The Landings Restaurant in the FBO at Centennial has some incredible food, and we made it just in time for lunch. Big Boss had a business meeting a few tables down from us, but I didn’t let that stop me from enjoying a lovely sandwich. This was our last landing for the rest of the week with no wind. In fact, by the time we took off, it was gusting 25. That was pretty mild, compared to every single airport we landed for the next four days!

   

Denver Jet Center has such an awesome points program. I have purchased roller blades and more kitchen utensils that I can count using their money. Hey, if I have to buy jet fuel, I might as well get to buy something fun for myself, too, right? If you are looking for a great place to stop in Denver, I highly recommend Denver Jet Center.

 

Next stop? Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I’ve never been here in a Beechjet but think I stopped once on a loooooong cross-country flight from Grand Forks. Other than fuel and wind, not much happened here.

After the Dakotas, we continued our trek east to Madison, Wisconsin. We ended up being here for a few hours, but I didn’t want to spoil anything by going to dinner.

   

I had my hopes up for Chicago for the night, and nothing was going to keep me from a Giordano’s Deep Dish Pizza! It was windy in Sioux Falls, but that was certainly an ongoing theme all week.

Waiting in Madison for just a few hours brought good news…we were skipping a stop in Milwaukee and heading straight to Chicago Midway instead! I ordered a pizza to be ready at 10:30 PM. Don’t judge…waiting forty-five minutes for a pizza when you’re hungry is simply an eternity!

We landed in Chicago at ten and buttoned up the airplane. After getting a ride in the hotel shuttle to the Hampton Inn, we walked the three blocks to Giordano’s and had the best pizza I had eaten all day.

Perhaps the best news was that Big Boss didn’t need to leave super-early the next day. So I got a decent amount of time in the hotel room. I didn’t sleep very well, though, and blame a lack of a warm husband next to me. He is handy for many reasons.

Day One of training the new guy went well. I got to teach him how to have soft landings in a non-trailing-link-gear airplane. It can be difficult to land a Beechjet softly, but I think I passed on that oh-so-prevalent wisdom of mine! 

 

Did I mention it was windy? Sheesh!

Phoenix – Reno – Denver/Centennial – Sioux Falls – Madison – Chicago/Midway

Guacamole Goodness

We’ve been eating an abnormal amount of avocados around here. It isn’t my fault that they are six for a dollar at the local grocery store. We bought twelve of them a few weeks ago and made a delicious bowl of guacamole.

And just the next day, it was all gone. Is that normal?

It didn’t help that they were once again on sale this past week. Hubby came home from work with a grocery bag full of these green little goodies. And I got to work making the best guacamole I’ve ever had…since last week.

The starting recipe came from Two Peas and Their Pod. We had to try it out, though it was touted as a Super Bowl treat. Even though we aren’t huger Super Bowlers in this household, we do try to celebrate the occasion with good food.

I have some of this guacamole in the fridge right now. It’s healthy, fresh, and oh-so-good. If avocados are on sale in your neck of the woods, give this a try.

Because I’m certainly not sharing.