Today was the first day of flying that I haven’t been in the cockpit
in such a long time! I had completely forgotten how fast these big
jets move compared to my little Beechcraft Skipper. Right now we are
cruising at a mild 32,000 feet somewhere over desert and mountains.
We’ve been flying for just over two hors of our three and a half hour
scheduled time.

The flight from Dayton to Detroit was rather uneventful, lasting only
30 minutes and all. I met this really interesting character next to
me though. He didn’t say anything to me until we were already landed
in Detroit, but when we did start talking it was a bit of fun.

I never caught his name, but I do know that he was originally from
Indonesia and eventually found himself with a family in Dayton. He
has a son who got a bachelors and maters degree from University of
Cincinnati and now “invents” things for a company out in Seattle. He
also has a daughter who does aministrative work for Sinclair Community
College up in Dayton. He also has a daughter who has a mental
dissability, which he is very frustrated about.

This guy was flying out to Seattle to visit his son and his three
month old Grandson. He was extremely proud of his son as he kept
saying “my son invents things!”

He was a rather bright cookie himself, knowing three languages. In
his quiet and broken english he told me about meeting his wife in
Holland and how they just came back from visiting there. He was
reading a book that was written in deutch that the author (who he made
sure to point out her picture on the back of the book) had personally
given him while in Holland. It was written about a countries fight
for freedom… Which of course got us soon talking about politics…
Yeah… It was pretty funny.

Detroit is a huge hub for NWA so they have two extremely long
terminals. I had a five hour layover before my current flight so I
decided to walk.

I have found a new intense interest in going for walks. It is just a
nice and relaxing thing to do.

They have a beautifil tunnel under the runways with soothing music and
a light show that I walked through three times while there.

I first decided to check and see if I could hitch a ride on an earlier
flight, so I left security and went to the ticket counter only to get
a negative. After a moment spent outside, I went back theough
security. There was a really short line to go through the metal
detectors on the far end so I went down there. Apparently its where
they randomly select people for the ‘special’ security test. I had
read about it but had never actually seen one. You stand in a box
thing and little puffs of air blow on you. I think they then sample
the air for materials that could be linked to explosives… I was
safe.

While cruising the terminal, I saw a really nice looking girl sit down
with a book. I figured why not practice my female communication
skills, so I went over while she was on the phone. She was talking
about being stuck at airports and so when she hung up I commented. We
then sat there for the next 45 minutes and pretty much told each other
our abridged life stories. It was great fun.

Her name is Kari and she just graduated from college in Rochester, NY
with a degree in something counseling related. She is going to San
Antonio in the fall to start getting her masters in marriage/family
counseling… She was a blast to talk to. There are of coure many
details I am leaving out, but not only am I typing all this on my
phone, I just really don’t think you’d care… Hah

After a while she went back to her book and I continued my rounds of
the never ending terminals. Not too much exciting, just watching
people and such. I did start making a list of funny/strange things I
heard people say while just being around. I’ll post all of them after
the trip so I can include my trip back.

About six, I made my way back to see if Kari was still around and if
she wanted to grab a bite to eat before we each went our separate
ways. She was happy to see me again, I think, but she had the bad
news that her flight was in Jeopardy of not happening… Again for the
third day. I felt bad for her. She had also just eaten some wings…
So no more dinner for her. She was travelling home to Syracuse from
San Antonio for a friends wedding this upcoming week and just really
wanted to get home.

We said our good-byes and I went to get some pizza before taking the
super cool tram to my gate which was (literally) at least a mile away.
So here I am now. Not too far out of Vegas and feeling pretty
cofident with my people skills today… Hah… Its the little things
right?

Well this probably won’t be posted until I can find some free internet
connection, but I’ll timestamp it back to 10 pm on Sat July 21st.

Thanks for reading!