Fun and Games Dept

So tomorrow is the big trip that I’ve been planning for a year. Earl is already in Indiana by now. Chuck, his wife Elise and I leave in the Cherokee 180 around 10 a.m. tomorrow morning.

We are flying to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for EAA AirVenture, the big aviation celebration and convention that Earl and I have been going to for the last couple of years.

My first visit to Oshkosh was in 1984 with my dad and grandfather. No one from my family has ever flown an airplane to the event.

That will change tomorrow.

Earl and I are in the midst of packing for our trip to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Earl has been kind enough to drive out alone; he will be leaving tomorrow afternoon. I will be flying the Cherokee 180 out along with our friends Chuck and Elise. I’m wicked excited about this trip. It’s going to be an awesome adventure.

Tonight we setup the tent to make sure we knew how to do it. It’s a big tent, and we are using it for only one night as we have a hotel room in nearby Appleton, Wis. I’ve always wanted to camp with the airplane at Oshkosh, so we are bringing the tent along.

It’s a big tent.

So today I completed my 47th ride around the sun on this big blue marble. I’m feeling pretty great for 47 years old; I’m in good health, I’m where I want to be in most aspects of my life and I’m enjoying each day. I might get cranky about something once in a while but that’s usually a passing fad. My life is good, I can’t complain.

Here’s to going on the 48th ride!

I am back on my game this morning for the first time in a long while. I’m recovered for my surgery with my follow up appointment scheduled for this afternoon. My plumbing is working the absolute best it has ever worked in my lifetime and quite frankly I feel amazing. 

I just stumbled upon this for the first time today. Apparently, during the fourth season of Charlie’s Angels there was a backdoor pilot for a spin off with male Angels, and it would have been called “Toni’s Boys”. 

A fan made the opening credits as shown in the YouTube link. 

The pilot was never picked up for a series, crushing the hearts of the gay men of the times. 

I love to see little examples of common sense. As found at Red Robin. 

So I’m a flight from Raleigh-Durham to Detroit. After a three hour layover in Detroit I will be headed home. Flight plans for the coming week all involve me as pilot; no commercial flights in the next few weeks.

This is my eleventh commercial flight in the past ten days, and I’m kind of happy about that because with today’s flight I become a Delta Silver Medallion customer for 2016. It’s a little thing but it makes me feel good. I’ve been quite happy with Delta Airlines, save for that incident when we went to Vancouver and the flight attendant was hurt after not putting her seat belt on for takeoff.

I’m finally catching my breath after a whirlwind of travel and adjusting to the new job. This coming week will be the third week of the new job but my first week of working from home, which is now my official office. The team I belong to is based in Greenville, S.C. but my employee profile pegs me as an employee of Central New York. This is quite comforting to me.

The new job is going splendidly. Last week I was part of a meeting for the management team of the group and it was during that meeting that I felt like I had made the absolute right decision for my career to move to this new opportunity.

The only drawback thus far is being away from Earl and Jamie as much as I have been over the past two weeks. This weekend I visited our friends Jeff and Mark in the Raleigh-Durham area; this trip was planned prior to the new gig. It was a great weekend.

I’m looking forward to the upcoming layover in Detroit. I’ll enjoy a little dinner, do some people watching and live the life of a jet setter. Earl and I just made flight plans for the holidays in December because we wanted to get a really good rate.

So much life to look forward to.

We are home from our Alaskan Cruise as of lunchtime today. It’s been a long while since I’ve gone over 24 hours without sleep, so I’m feeling a little wonky this afternoon. I woke up feeling a little confused. Hopefully everything will reset tomorrow with a good night’s sleep tonight.

I’m going through all of the photos taken during this magnificent journey and this one that Jamie took is one of my favorites.

DCIM100GOPROGOPR0159.

Now if I could just get all of my photos on my iPad to magically update the Photos.app on my Mac like it’s suppose to do.

So Earl, Jamie and I are back on the North American mainland, as we arrived in Vancouver, B.C. this morning. Faced with a 14 hour wait for our flight home, which leaves at 11:00 p.m. this evening, and the fact that we couldn’t even check our bags, pass through security or customs or get to the “good side” of the airport near the gates, I decided to get us a room for day use at the attached Fairmont Hotel.

The money was well spent.

We have been able to nap, relax, surf the Internet and the like in the comfort of this lovely hotel room. We have to be out by 8:00 p.m.; at that time we’ll be able to check in, grab a bite to eat and then relax before boarding the red-eye back home.

The rooms at the Fairmont Hotel are very high-tech in that all of the lights, climate controls, television remote and such are all wired together to this nightstand console.

  
Naturally this has given me some ideas on how to upgrade our bedroom accoutrement at home. Earl just smiled but I think on the inside he rolled his eyes a little bit.

Our hotel room also affords us a most excellent view. It’s an aviation enthusiast’s paradise.