First flight of 2010

Our Frasier Fir tree picked by Ronnie and Kat at Ashes Nursery.

Ronnie and I.

My flag pole- A Christmas present-purchased in Las Vegas at the National Rodeo Finals. They had a display at the National Rodeo Finals: http://www.uncommonflagpoles.com/

For no good reason I didn't get to Blog over the last 6 weeks. Maybe it was the thought of being overwhelmed trying to reduce to several paragraphs the wonderful time I've had, or the idea of limiting the pictures of the trip to Disney and the events since. Regardless, here I am and here are the events of the end of 2009.

In reverse chronological order from today.

Clicking on the blog title will take you to the Restaurant in Nassau, Bahama which will be the first flight of 2010. The airplane is at Opa Locka, Fl . I'm catching an 8:05 Southwest from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale on Sat morning Jan 2. From there a rental car to Opa Locka (about 20 miles) for a 1700 (5PM) flight to Nassau-&pm dinner reservations for my passengers. I've been home since the 27th of Dec after taking one of the bosses (there are 2) and his family from Trenton to Miami for a week of warmer weather.

Had a week off prior to this flight and enjoyed Christmas with the family.

Dec 26 Ronnie's brothers and Sister and their families visited.

Chicago trip 18-20/21 Dec, Had an opportunity to visit my twin brother's son Rory during this trip. Left Trenton on Friday for Chicago with a blizzard forecast for NJ on Saturday. Yeah right how often are the forecast correct? This was one time, when they guessed right.

Chicago is a great downtown city. Stayed at the Marriott-Magnificent Mile. They had a gingerbread house made with 1000 pounds of gingerbread. Other sites- Tree on Michigan Av., and the horse carriage at the Water Tower.

Came back to NJ on Sunday-originally planned a 9 Am departure from Chicago, but with TTN closed we delayed the departure til 3PM hoping the airport would open by our arrival 1 1/2 hours later. Trenton stayed closed until Monday morning,and I had to land in North Phil airport and rent a car to get home. Returned to Philly on Monday with my daughter Meg and Cate as passengers for the 7 min flight back to Trenton.
I completed my annual Flight Safety Hawker Recurrent training in Wilmington, De the week of the 14th of December. I'm not quite sure why, but this Welcome gift and note were on my dresser when I checked into my room. Maybe they found out I spent 50+ nights in Marriotts this year.

On Thursday evening of the week I went to a farewell/good luck dinner for my former National Guard unit(Det 19 OSACOM). They are being deployed for the second time since I retired in 2005. This time to Djibouti, the capital city of the country Djibouti on the NE coast of Africa.

It's considered an Imminent Danger area but I think the flying will be fun and I would enjoy it. I wish them the Best.

The week preceding the above I was in Vegas for 5 days. Vegas is begging for tourist and the hotels and businesses are hurting. I've never seen it so dead. It is also the first time in the 8 years I've been flying to Vegas that there was significant rain during my stay. It totalled over a 1/4 inch(Not much by NJ standards). The Rodeo Finals were in town and we stayed on the Strip. Had a suite in the Monte Carlo for under a hundred a night. The City Center(7 billion dollar property adjacent to Monte Carlo opened. It has two high rise buildings that lean 5 degrees away from each other. There's a story about that but I don't think I should share it on the net.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!

The other new attraction in town is a tethered balloon ride. It's across from Mandalay Bay. I don't think there is anyone up in it in this picture because the temps were in the high 30's.
Continuing back through the past 6 weeks, I had a 3 day trip to Miami 2-4 December
I was beachfront Miami Beach-Full moon Sheraton Beachfront.Pennington was getting their first snow the next day-my garage from the living room window.
This was a picture of Belmar Beach on Dec 1. , the day beach badges went on sale for summer 2010. We had several Nor Easters during the fall and many Jersey beaches lost a significant amount of their beach. Belmar seemed to fair well-lots of shifting but still plenty of beach

This brings me to the end of November - A late day flight to Miami on the Tues before ThanksgivingA pretty flight between layers with a setting sun on the way south.The airplane stayed in Miami til Sunday after Thanksgiving. I flew Southwest home on Tuesday night and returned on Sat to bring the airplane and passengers back to Jersey on Sunday.

The week prior to that was a Vegas, Stockton, CA trip.A view of the Front Range of the Rockies, Just west of Colorado Springs. Always a a mountain wave to contend with-even at 40,000 feet.

To Be Continued: