I’ve gotten through the long, arduous trip from LAX to my home town. This day has been pretty much a flash before my eyes – not entirely sure I remember much of it, but here’s what I do remember about the trip:
- I got to climb around inside a B52 bomber. What a sardine can!
- I got to see SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy) – which is basically a 747 with the aft end cut out so it can open up at 45,000 feet and view the heavens with an infared telescope. Cool stuff. We not only got to see SOFIA fly in to Dryden with fighter escorts, we got to go on board and take a tour and meet the crew.
- I got to see F-18’s!
- I got to see chaser aircraft for the space shuttle!
- I got to land an F-18 in the simulator… oh yeah, and I flew it around a while too. Neat stuff.
Next list… of other activities:
- Got to eat at a wonderful place on Manhattan Beach by the name of Cafe Pierre… ate a silky smooth filet mignon and drank far too much.
- Was hung over on morning telecon from the Hilton LAX.
- Goddess bless my GPS for saving my bacon – it found the Avis rental car return!
- The TSA agents at LAX are far, far too concerned with the “not my job” concept and going on break than serving customers. I waited in line for my baggage to get checked in while the agents squabbled about who was relieving someone so he could go on break. The agent’s name is Art. Art, thank you for wasting 45 minutes of my precious fucking time so I barely made it to my flight. I hope your break was useless.
- Other elements of LAX are a nightmare as well. I’ve flown into it once… never again if I can help it. If I go back to DFRC, I will fly into Bakersfield!
- Rebecca, who works on the NWA ground crew at my local airport, was there on the jet bridge for my aircraft when we unloaded. I said hi to her, we spoke briefly. She said her mom had been thinking about me. Weird. Not sure why on that one.
- I didn’t get to listen to many podcasts because we were so busy – but this week’s TWiT and Macbreak Weekly were hilarious as usual… but the Scott Bourne/Merlin Mann rivalry just started getting nasty this week.
Okie, that’s a brain dump of the trip… woo! Home for a week, then it’s back off to California for WWDC. Now THAT one will be fun!