• Current Location: Seat 11C, US Airways 396, Boeing 737-300, FL360, Over New Mexico
• Current Music: O.A.R. - Lay Down

After a fun weekend of friends visiting in St. George and a friend's wedding in Vegas, I had three more days off, so I decided to fly to Texas. My grandmother is having surgery next week, so I wanted to visit with her. I hitched a jumpseat from SLC to DFW on one of our CRJ-900's (N822SK for those of you keeping score at home...that's her center console above). I was due for yearly observation time, so killing two birds with one stone was nice. It was a good ride down to DFW and, hopefully, we learned a little for each other while we were up there.
I got to spend about 40 hours in Gainesville. I managed to get to visit Sammy & Tambra, Paige, Laura Otts (missed Barry, once again), my parents, and, of course, Nanny & Papa.
Nanny has always been the one person in the family that I turned to when I was on trouble. I get my stubborn nature and my love of current events and politics. As much as a tend to credit my Aunt Kim for it, I sometimes think I to get my wicked (and, at times, sinister) sense of humour from her, as well. Throughout my life, when the going gets tough, I head to Nanny and Papa's. So, you can maybe imagine that, as much as I hold it together when I'm with her, I'm scared to death of this latest surgery she's about to have. I have no doubts in the abilities of the doctors and the plan...I guess I just worry about the normalcy of life afterward for her and Papa. Despite my concerns, I know they're gonna be just fine.
As I type this, I'm sitting by myself in the exit row of a three-quarters empty B733 to LAS. We've been bobbing and weaving around the tops around FL360, but the ride has been smooth. I just tossed back an Arnold Palmer and a snack box. I figure buying the snack box is the least I can do for the free rise home. I booked a seat on the SGU Executive Shuttle and I'll get home to my lovely bride around 2215L.
It really has been a fun day of Trains, Planes, and Automobiles to get home to St. George from Gainesville. My itinerary has looked like this (all times local):
• Amtrak 821 GLE-FTW (1130CST - 1315 CDT)
• Trinity Rail FTW-DFW Airport Station (1347CDT - 1410CDT)
• DFW Airport Shuttle (1415CDT - 1445CDT)
• US Airways 396 DFW-LAS (1715CDT-1755PDT)
• St. George Executive Shuttle (1915 PDT-2215 MDT)
Three time zones and roughly 12 hours of travel...but, I love and live it. Travel, to me, is just as much in the getting there as it is the destination. Yeah, I know, I'm weird.

One of those nice clouds we deviated around.

White Sands, NM
Anyhow, I'm comin' home honey! Speaking of...here's one of me and the little lady. Our engagement pics turned out quite nicely...

Yeah, I don't know what she's doing with a schmuck like me, either...
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