Lifetimes

Ok! I'm back after my trip to Indiana and the subsequent resting needed after my late arrival in Denver Monday morning (read on).

The trip was a lot of fun. Last Wednesday, Hamm took me to Denver International Airport via Sonic for my flight to Indianapolis. Most of you know how much I love airplanes so any trip to the airport is the highlight of my week no matter if I'm flying myself or just picking someone up.

I flew on United Airlines for the first time in about 3 years. I needed to use miles to take this trip and United came through for me. I was lucky to get a non-stop flight from Denver to Indianapolis on a 737-500. The picture you see is N927UA--the actual plane I boarded! This is an older picture so the aircraft no longer has the "Shuttle by United" titles on the side. As soon as I got on board I plugged into channel 9 on the audio system which allows you to listen to all the communications between the cockpit and ATC.

As we taxied out we were behind two UA Boeing 777-200s. The aircraft you see here is N794UA (777-200/ER) that was in line in front of us for takeoff. This aircraft was operating as UA289 and the voice from the cockpit was female. I was wondering if it could have been the famous Meryl Getline, who writes a column in the USA Today travel section, "Ask the Captain".

The flight to IND was pretty uneventful until the end. There was some severe weather just west of Indianapolis which caused us to fly around a bit. I heard ATC clear us to land on runway 23R at IND and I was mad because it was cloudy and I wasn't going to be able to see the visual details of our arrival. But, just as I heard that, the clouds parted and I saw the pyramids. We turned right just over the Keystone area, zoomed over downtown Indy, then were cleared for an ILS approach to 23R.

Once I arrived, Brian picked me up and we did some running around. I hadn't been in downtown Indianapolis in years and I could definitely tell I was in the midwest. I'm not used to seeing huge entrances to elevated freeways in the middle of old neighborhoods. The number of trees also blew me away. From here we drove down to Elletsville to my sister's house and my weekend began.

My friends Craig and Marly got married and I was an usher in their ceremony. Specifically, I was given the title "Captian of the Ushers." I had 4 other ushers on my team and we definitely had our work cut out for us. Not only did we have a bride with a meticulous eye for detail on our hands, we also had to seat 200 guests in the Oak Room of the Caynon Inn at McCormick's Creek state park. The ceremony went off without a hitch and reception was fantastic. I got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in a long time, including some guys that were my floor mates on Curry 4 my freshman year at IU. Wow!!

After everything was over on Sunday, I had to fly back here to Denver via O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. The return trip was a total mess due to weather in Chicago and I didn't end up getting home to my apt until 3am Monday. Ugh. I apologize for not having all the fun aircraft details I collected from my outbound trip, but the conditions didn't allow me to get them. I can tell you I had the privilege of flying on a 757-200 from ORD to DEN which pretty much made the trip worthwhile. The 757 is definitely my favorite civil aircraft and I don't get to fly on one very often. Its true what they say though...high thrust. Really good sex is the only other thing that can compare to riding on this rocket ship.



Some high level highlights of the trip:

• Economy plus on the way to IND
• Being picked up and driving to Bloomington with Brian
• Spending time with one of my best friends
• Seeing my sister and brother in law
• Upland Oktoberfest
• Listening to Sheryl Crow's wildflower
• Celebrating Craig and Marly's love
• Realizing that I'm not alone and I have some of the best friends and family anyone could ask for
• Learning a lot about love and what it means to be good to yourself.
• Realizing that you should never settle for second best and the true reward in life is to have relationships filled with unconditional love and laughter at all times.
• The 757 on the way home

We could live lifetimes in a single day

No matter what you do, I'll love you anyway