Gettin' There

I was ready not only for a vacation, but for an adventure as well, so I decided to try to find a ferry flight going empty to somewhere near Boston, where my niece Gail swore she'd pick me up. Bebe and Sam definitely weren't up for any adventure beyond the cruise itself. They wanted confirmed reservations on a scheduled airline. I told them I'd meet them at the boat Tuesday evening. Gail and I were just glad we'd been able to talk them out of driving from Ohio to Maine.

Bebe and Sam were married about a year after I was born. They've been my friends, my champions, and my surrogate parents forever. Their daughter Gail and I are less than 3 years apart in age. Except for a lapse a year or two ago (during which time we weren't even acknowledging each other's existence! Talk about family feuds!) we really have a good sibling relationship.

I work in the air travel business - business jets, specifically. Employees are allowed to catch rides on planes that are flying empty to pick up customers. It's a bit chance-y: first, you have to be able to find a flight that's going somewhere near where you want to be. Then you have to be sure to have a backup plan. Schedules have a way of changing at the last minute.

Gail and I tried to convince Bebe and Sam to fly out with me for free on a sexy little business jet. They were uncomfortable with the uncertainty of it, but did let us convince them that driving would not be a really great idea. They scheduled a commercial flight.

I had done all my packing the previous weekend when I packed for a quick business trip. Friday, I got ready for work, put the last minute stuff in my suitcase, and toted everything to the office with me, just in case there was a flight I could jump on sometime on Friday afternoon.

It didn't look like there would be anything available until Sunday. Too bad. I'd miss some time visiting with Gail, but it would be a lot cheaper to wait than to pay more than $500 to go commercial. The Sunday flight was an early one on a 'rocket ship' (a Cessna Citation X, the fastest business jet yet, flies at something like .92 mach), so it would be worth waiting for. I hadn't had a chance to fly on the 'ten' yet, and was anxious to check it out.

Friday evening, I logged in to the computer at work to see if anything had popped. Sure enough, there was an Cessna S/II going empty to Nantucket early Saturday morning. I immediately called the dispatch supervisor and asked to be put on the flight. "07:30 show for an 08:30 go!"

From my journal:

6/13/98 07:52E

Gail's on alert: call dispatch before you leave to pick me up. The weather's crummy and we might have to divert or might even get cancelled. The captain tells me I can call her on the airphone if we have a change of plans. Cool!

And... we're on our way. Gear up at 08:29E Cruisin' at 29K. The first officer just flew us around a tremendous building thunderstorm. It was a little bumpy for a while but now, above absolutely spectacular clouds, smooth as... well, you know.

Drinkin' coffee, writing on the nice big burled oak-finish fold-out table, reclining in an exceedingly comfortable, moveable, adjustable leather seat close to the refreshment center ("just help yourself to whatever you'd like," the captain told me when we boarded)... This is the life!

I'm glad I read the chapter in the Private Pilot Manual on aircraft stability before the flight. It's nice to understand (and have it confirmed by pilots) that the airplane, first of all, 'wants to fly' and after a bump will seek equilibrium and return to its pre-bump altitude and attitude, if you just allow it to do its own thing. The more I learn about flying, the more of a miracle it becomes. No amount of knowledge about aerodynamics or the physics of flight can spoil the magic.

We landed in Nantucket at about 10:20E. The people in Ops asked why I wanted to do a 2-1/2 hour ferry boat trip when, for a couple of bucks more, I could hop on an Island Airlines Cessna 402 and be in Hyannis in 15 minutes. Good question! (Though I'm glad I flew, the ferry boat crossing would have been fine, since it would be at least 2-1/2 hours until Gail arrived at Hyannis to pick me up!) But the flight was good - bumpy with strong winds, and a cross-wind landing that was beautiful to behold - now that I understood what I was beholding!)

At the Hyannis airport, I called Gail on her car phone - she was on her way. She found me at the airport at about 13:30, then we found her favorite seaside restaurant and gorged ourselves on a quart of fried clams and a very large order of fries. Ummmmmm! Splendiferous!

As we were leaving, the skies opened up and we drove a good part of the way through a real deluge. Low-lying portions of the highway were flooded; traffic was backed up in both directions. We couldn't find the cutoff for the place to get wholesale worms for the frogs (I was navigating - it might have been deliberate. I had some problems with the idea of finishing the trip with 100 pounds of earthworms in the car.) We finally made it home, despite all of Mother Nature's attempts to drown us.

There were some changes to Gail's house since my last visit; for instance, the greenhouse off the living room. It has a nice pond on one side, filled with lots of huge plants and 5 or so bullfrogs. Only Gail would have bullfrogs! She now has 3 cats; 2 dogs; 3 birds, (a very noisy parrot named Howie and two somewhat quieter love birds); a South American toad of some kind - interesting to look at but basically boring - named Homey - who eats live mice; 3 fish tanks, one of which is salt water; and in her son Josh's room, his snake and the rats he feeds it.

The rats, the snake, and the saltwater aquarium are supposed to go with Josh when he returns to school in July to start his graduate studies. Gail is looking for a new home for Howie, who she seems to dislike intensely. The dogs and at least one cat drink out of the toilet (Remember to leave the seat up when you're through!). The floor is usually wet due to Natoma's sloppy drinking habits. Natoma, a large puppy, is still chewing on forbidden things, so the sofa cushions are stored in a closet unless someone is actually sitting on the sofa.

This is never a boring place to visit!

I was disappointed that the weather continued to be so crummy. The plan was to spend all my time in Framingham lolling in and around the pool. But I had fun spending my time visiting, meeting Gail's friends, and running around Boston in the rain with my great niece and a friend of hers, who both (God bless 'em) thought it would be a hoot to show Auntie Sunny all the cool places to shop and hang out. Took about 20 years off my age!

On Tuesday, Gail and her husband Mike both left work early to drive me to Maine and the boat - definitely way beyond the call of duty, considering it's about a 5 hour drive each way. The weather was marginal most of the way. Not too cool, but overcast and increasingly foggy. By the time we got to Rockland, it was real pea soup. We stopped and ate before trying to find the Victory Chimes. It's a lucky thing we did. We needed our strength! It was not an easy thing to do, finding that boat, especially in a very heavy fog. And we even had directions from about 4 different people! (Of course, everyone we asked gave us an entirely different set of directions. Do you suppose that added to the problem?)

At times, we could see her through the fog, but usually from someplace 'over there'. We'd backtrack and try to figure out how to get to her, with no luck on the first few tries. Finally... we found her, grabbed my luggage, and boarded.

We arrived late, and the tide was partly out so the descent down the gangplank was a little steep and - because of the rain - a little slippery.

Bebe and Sam were supposed to arrive in Rockland at 16:35 Tuesday on a connecting flight from Boston. Josh called while we were on our way to Maine to tell us that the flight had been cancelled due to the fog. Rockland Airport had been completely shut down. (So much for the certainly of scheduled flights on commercial airlines!) They finally got away at 19:45, flew into Augusta, Maine, and were eventually transported to Rockland in a van provided by the airline. Arrival time: 22:30!

By the time they arrived, the tide was all the way out, it was raining, and the gangplank was probably at an angle of 45 degrees. They both made it down okay (with a little help from me and a few deckhands) and eventually, we all got settled in for the night.