I think I will give a quick overview on what has happened in the last couple of days and then I'll go back and talk about the people. (but I never stick to the plan so we'll see)
I mentioned briefly the guys at Rocky Mountain Sport Jets, these guys and gal were great to me. Steve, Chris, Alan, Kandi, and Matt this was the crew. Steve was a former captain for US airlines, although he flew for Air Tran as well. He flew everything from helicopters to jets, he is one of those guys that just has every rating. He is a very likable guy with a real enthusiastic personality, he would make funny accents and crack a joke here and there, the kind of guy people tend to gravitate to. But all that aside, he is a very generous man. It is because of him that I am now in Florida. Chris was an interesting guy. He and I didn't have that much time to talk, but he is the very first member of the group that I met knocking at their neighbors door, he invited me in, showed me around, and introduced me to the rest of the crew. Chris also plays a mean guitar, I can vouch for him. He is also a very generous man. Kandi is his daughter, she was a very dedicated worker, when I was there she was arranging everything for Steve's next flight out. Alan is 21 and already has his CFI rating, he is totally and utterly obsessed with the aviation world, books include. Aside from all that, Alan made excellent company, and drove me all over the place. Matt is a bit of a free spirit. He offered me the T hanger to sleep in one night it had two futons a pool table a moped, some workout stuff, a big truck, this place was perfect. Matt is currently working on his private license, but I think he is probably ready. I went with Matt to Starbucks to meet one of his old friends. It turns out the two of them had taken a road trip at my age hitting all the edges of the country. Incidentally one of the pictures on my last post is the two of them at the Starbucks.
After hanging around long enough, Steve had a flight he had to do down to St. Maarten's with a pit stop in Florida, he said he could drop me off in Florida. Not having had to much luck in Ohio, and Florida being kind of the mecca of general aviation in the winter, it was a pretty appealing offer. Tuesday afternoon at about four o'clock a Citation Mustang pulls up outside the hanger. A beautiful plane. The owner gets out comes in for about ten fifteen minutes to chat and then it begins. Mark the owner learned to fly early on and then flew in the air force. He is very successful at what he does, but he still flies his own jet. He flew down to Florida, we had a pretty decent headwind and stopped once to get a little extra fuel just north of Ft. Lauderdale. Steve was planning to leave at four in the morning and so Mark had rented a car so he could make a quick getaway. Steve said I could crash in his hotel room since we arrived so late in the evening, and I would find a way to make it North to my family the next day. The hotel was absolutely gorgeous. I woke up had a fantastic omelette and walked across the street to lie of the beach. It turns out forty degrees is cold with or without snow, but as long as the sun is out and the sand is there it's fine.
It's very convenient when you find yourself in a place where you have family. I was picked up that day and had about one more day of enjoying Florida before I discovered all these moments of extreme fatigue I'd been having were because I has coming down with some kind of bug. I went to a walk in clinic because I was not sure what I had, and it turned out I had quite a high temperature, so they wanted to do blood work and such, anyway I'm stuck in Florida until at the very least this fever goes away.....
Anywho. this is another post into Ari's adventure.
Hang in there, Ari! It may be lonely at times and a little tough, but I know you can handle it! We're all pulling for you! Best, Dennis.
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