The Crazy Holiday Travels...

I finally managed to get some semblance of time off for the holidays, as senority starts to allow over the course of time, and decided to try to do a little pseudo-Christmas with the family. I still have to be at work on Christmas morning...so, I bought a ticket on US Airways back to Vegas on the 24th and decided to non-rev/jumpseat to DFW.

Since I'm planning on flying back to LAS on the 24th, I needed to start my trip out of there so my car would be waiting when I got back. My grand plan was to cut work early, make the drive to LAS, and fly to DFW via Denver from there.

Well, as with anything in my life...things didn't quite go to plan. Work was crazy busy thanks to broken airplanes and weather issues...not to mention several sick calls. I originally was trying to cut out by 11am...but, I volunteered to cover a dispatch desk on top of my coordinating duties. Talk about non-stop stress and phonecalls.

One of my friends from work, Jenn, was trying to cut out early, too...but, as with me, the sick calls prevented her from getting out of there and she stuck it out. Because of this, she wasn't able to catch her 9am flight home from St. George to Salt Lake and continuing on to Gunnison/Crested Butte, Colorado. Knowing each other's situation, we decided to ride to Vegas together...then over to Denver. Both of our connecting flights in Denver were later in the evening...so we figured we could just hang in the airport bar 'til it was time for us to catch our flights home.

We hit the road at 1pm Utah time...and, with traffic, construction, parking, security, etc...we made it to the gate at 2:39pm for a 2:59pm flight to Denver. Nice timing, eh? We immediately checked in to request the jumpseat and, for once, we had a great UA gate agent who gave us E-Plus seats together on a Ted A320 with a new regular United Airlines paintjob...with no one in the between. So far, so good. We decided we deserved a Bloody Mary after the day we'd had...so we killed one apiece while making fun of pilots on Channel 9 (a favorite pastime of mine on the LAS-DEN run).

Touched down in Denver...where the temp. was a lovely, comfortable 7 degrees F out there. Sweet Raptor Jesus.. Jenn claims the flight attendants made some kind of announcement on approach to 35L about "in event of impact, please take crash position"...I just think that Bloody went straight to her head.

Pulled in at gate B-16...and had to make the one mile trek to the B-80's gates. Thaaaaat was fun. LOL. But, the payoff was some Fat Tire beers and a pretty excellent sandwich & salad. OK, fine...we had quite a few Fat Tires...LOL. I was supposed to get on a 7pm flight...but it went out full. That gave us 2 more hours of drinking time...and that was awesome.

In the midst of our beer drinking and scattershooting (and me screaming at the Cowboys on the TV)...Jenn got a text message from a colleague that said "just got report that CO 737 crashed on DEN 34R". We both looked at each other like so as to say "What the hell?". We had a great view of the approach end of the 35's and we noticed that all approaching traffic had broken off and the runway lights had been dimmed. At this point, we both knew something was up. We decided to keep quiet about I...until an hour later when the word trickled to that side of the airport. (Turns out, the report was true...a Continental Airlines 737 did a rejected/aborted take off and, somehow, found themselves in a snowy ditch when it was all said and done. The aircraft did catch fire...but, apparently, a full evacuation was completed with mostly minor injuries. Kudos to the crew.)

Jenn and I parted ways after a couple too many beers to head over to our flights. Because of the aircraft incident, the airport was pandemonium with misconnecting passengers, etc. My flight was delayed another hour...allowing for some folks that were trying to get to Austin and OKC to be moved to the DFW flight. Tack on the fact that there was already a pilot requesting the jumpseat (which was beside the point since, after sip number one of that glorious Two Below, I was no longer legally eligible to ride up there). About the time I realized all of this, I got a text from Jenn saying "MY FLIGHT IS CANCELED!!! DAMMIT!!!".

Yup...good times. Seeing that we were stuck...we quickly found a cheap room with 2 beds at a hotel near the airport before all others figured out THEY were stuck. One teeny-weeny problem...Jenn green-tagged* her bag when she boarded her Gunnison flight...and never got it back when it was canceled (* - tag that indicates that this bag is a carry-on that won't fit on a smaller regional jet...the passenger is supposed to get this bag back at the gate when they get to their destination.). We spent the next two hours using every bit of pull, clout, and people we know to find that bag. It didn't surface before we decided to find a hotel shuttle, get checked in, and snag some sleep.

We were both awake by 0600...damn the nature of our normal sleep patterns...so I called and convinced Brian and Chuck to pick us up for breakfast. Flying J truckstop breakfast buffet is actually pretty good...but I hear the coffee is awful...LOL.

Jenn picked up some toothpaste, etc. at the truckstop and we scored ride to the airport from B&C...

Lucky for Jenn, we found her bag almost immediately.when we got to DEN and she managed to score the jumpseat to GUC. I got a seat in the exit row on a 757...should have been 1st class...but the gate agent used my jumpseat priority instead of my non-rev priority...grrr.

All in all...a pretty funny story all around...especially drunken texting by both of us....
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Home...

There's just something about home that, no matter who's couch I'm crashing on, feels just right. From landing at DFW and crossing the bridge to Terminal E...to the drive up I-35...to taking exit 496 and down California Street...its always a bit heart-warming to visit home, see old friends and family, and enjoy an area you know like the back of your hand.

I got home Sunday night on a Delta/SkyWest flt. from Salt Lake. I picked up a rental from Enterprise (who had the cutest girl working for them...I wanted to take her with me...LOL) and made the trek home to Gainesville. Enroute, I made the traditional stop at the QuikTrip on 121 Business and picked up the usual Sugar-Free Red Bull. I've not made the trek from DFW to G'Ville without that stop...or without that Red Bull. I'm not sure I could make it without.

On the way home, I called Cody and we decided I would stop in and visit (he was at the sheriff's house, and I hadn't seen Cody's parents in a long time either). the sheriff was super excited to see me and we determined that his buddy from one of his tours of Vietnam lives down the road from me. Small world, right?

From there, I went to Shaun's house to crash on his couch. It was too late to bother my parents and I was about to pass out...so that couch was a welsome sight. I don't remember falling asleep. Got up next morning and drove around to make the rounds. I went and saw mom at school, my aunts, Barry & Laura, and numerous others. Part of me loves to stop in here and there just to remind people I'm still alive.

I only got the rental for one day...because the next day was going to be more than triple what I payed the previous day...so I came up with a pretty solid plan to get rid of it and get home. I conned Shaun into going with me...and it turned out to be kinda fun.

We took the car back, caught a shuttle to the Trinity Rail station, then the train to Ft. Worth. From there we caught Amtrak from Ft. Worth to Gainesville. It was actually kinda fun...Amtrak turned out to be a pretty solid, inexpensive option for getting to Gainesville in the future.

Got to see my grandparents after we got back to G'ville...it had been a couple of months since I had seen them. We got caught up on the post-election stuff and everything going on with them and trhe family. Of course, we respectfully disagreed with one another on most of it but we always do.

My plan was to catch Amtrak back to FTW and backtrack the way I came up the day before...but I discovered at the last minute that the Gainesville Depot doesn't have ticketing capabilities and I couldn't even buy a ticket from the conductor...thus screwing the plan. I wound up catching up with Ben Smith (yes, THE Ben Smith) and we grabbed a pretty excellent lunch at Smokehouse in Lindsay. I was a good boy and got a pretty farkin' awesome salad...I was also a really bad boy and had a chopped BBQ beef sandwich & Shiner Bock draft. Oh well, one outta 3 ain't bad, right? I mean, how often do I have an opportunity to get Smokehouse?

We talked at length about Ben's music career and both agreed that we had figured he would be further along than he is. I've been feeling a draw to get back into the Texas music scene...and am thinking perhaps I should lend my promotions talents to getting Ben on track again. He's a solid artist and deserves to be promoted to the point of a good launching point. We shall see.

Ben and I continued our conversation while I caught a ride with him to Denton. Enroute, keeping with the theme of the day ("Go Wherever The Winds Take Me"), Lorenzo texted and I had Ben drop me off on the UNT campus where Lo works.

It was cool to catch up with Lo...even cooler was the added perk of Lo randomly giving me a new pair of Doc's boots that didn't fit him. Score! I love a good freebie. Lo had to get back to work...so, I waited for Cody to get out of his Psych final. We grabbed some beers at Riprock's...then back to his place where we both passed out (and his dog proceeded to eat one of my Justin Boots...little bastard).

I woke up just moments before my phone rang...I was surprised to see it was SJ. We hadn't really had a chance to talk since we went to dinner last week...for a bit there, I was stressing that I had run her off after sending her flowers. Luckily, I guess I hadn't... ;). We talked for a bit...and decided we'd try to get together Wed. night or.next week. Either way...it was great to hear her voice. She's got to be the sweetest girl on the planet...a total keeper...I guess we'll see where it goes. No rushing anything....

I'm hanging out in SLC 'til I hear from her...we might grab dinner or coffee before I head back to St. George. I'm killing time by hanging in the gate for the SLC-Paris flight. Few things in life are more entertaining that watching passengers....especially for international flights. So far, I've seen "Elitist Frenchman" (typically an older man in clothes that you find only in the first 45 pages of GQ and a really douche-y scarf, and speaks loudly in French. This one in particular looks a lot like Fidel Castro), "First-time International Traveler" (also usually older...they check in with the gate agent 47 times prior to scheduled boarding time to ask a million questions that have obvious answers like 'is this the right gate?' and 'do I need my passport out right now?'), and "Backpacker Couple" that appear like they stepped out of a North Face ad. I wasn't banking on "Asian Girl in Catholic Schoolgirl Uniform", but she's here, too.

I could sit in aiports for hours and just document the funny things I see...perhaps I should. TMiller and I have toyed with the idea of a blog about the funny things that happen on our day to day in this business...maybe we should get on that. Anyway...that's enough from me. Gonna go wander for a bit.

Down the road...

I'm flying...so that must mean I'm blogging....

Decided to try to go home to Dallas last minute...so here I am, seat 2C on my beloved Brozilla, headed to SLC to attempt to catch our brand new CRJ-900 (N822SK) to DFW. Its gonna be tricky since the back is oversold and there are ton of people on the list. Should be interesting. Equally interesting is the fact that this Bro flight comes with a bit of a twist.

The twist is...the flight attendant on this one is...the ex. Mauricea. Yes, Penny Lane. Haven't seen or really talked to her in months...definitely for the best...but even being on the same 30-seat blender is feeling a little awkward. Awkward "hello's", awkward smirk from me while she did her safety demo. She's just as attractive as she was the day we made the trek to Paris...which, as most of the people who read this known turned into a momentous disaster...and, as much as I don't want to (like the overly-emotional little bitch that I am), I can't help but look.

I suppose part of me wonders "what if"...what if we hadn't been so alike in certain ways? What if I had been more assertive and stood my ground instead of taking her shit and coming back like a domestic abuse victim? What if she wasn't batshit insane? Alas, "what if" gets us nowhere...and has no bearing on the fact what happened between us...specifically, the way it ended...was likely the best thing. We would have killed each other...believe me, there are times where I wish I had killed her (kidding, kinda). I'm sure she probably had the knife ready and waiting for the right time to take me out...

Anyway...I'm definitely glad that part of my life is over...but there's always that little part of you that sees an ex-significant other and can't help but have a certain level of care for them still. Or maybe that's just me and my god-forsaken heart of gold.

So, I have no plan for this trip...I have no idea why or where I'm going, either. If I don't make the DFW flight...I dunno if I'm gonna try something else, or just go back to SGU. It would feel like a bit of a waste to get all the way to a hub and turn around. I guess we'll see.

Gonna shut down the Glorious Crackberry to conserve battery...I forgot the charger. Oops.

Down the road....