Good week.

So finally after several weeks of not getting much flying done, I seem to be back in the groove. I've flown more hours this week than I have in any week so far this month. The week didn't start out so hot, but its picked up nicely. My week started with a page from dispatch on sunday afternoon saying I was airlining to Moline, IL to meet up with a captain and then we were to drive to Des Moine, IA to pick up a plane. I normally hate when the company does stuff like this in order to save money, but I was in a good mood and didn't let it get me down. I was to be meeting up with a captain I like flying with, so it wasn't all that bad. Besides, they found me a flight that left in the early afternoon on Monday, so I could spend the morning at home with Jack. Anytime I can spend a few more hours at home, I'm happy. So after taking the squirt to the Y to go swimming, I dropped him off at daycare and headed to the airport. Normally I wear my monkey suit (pilots uniform) even if my ticket is paid for so that I don't have to check my bags and the Thousand Standing Around don't steal my shampoo and contact solution. But that day, I just didn't feel like dressing up or shaving so for the first time in a long time I checked my bag. That was my mistake of the day. I got to Moline, waited at the carousel, watched everyone else from my flight get their bags, waited, watched and slowly came to the realization that my bag was not coming. So I walked over the the baggage counter and explained my bag was missing. The girl working the counter was very nice and quickly scanned the bag tag and told me my bag was still sitting in Chicago. Wonderful. I took it in stride, didn't even get mad. I told the girl we were going to DSM and asked what are my options were. She said the bag would be on the next flight that would be arriving in 3 hours. The captain and I talked it over and decided that we were not going to wait for the bag and that we'd drive to DSM and have the airline send it there. I was told that the bag would be in DSM by 9:30am the next day, so I gave the girl my number and we headed off to the rental for the 2.5 hour drive to DSM. True to her word, the bag showed up at 9:30 and I called in to dispatch to say we were now good to go.

About and hour and a half later the pager went off. It was going to be a good trip. We were going from IA to our base in TX then on down to Monterrey Mexico to drop off some freight. I was pretty stoked to be getting a trip out right away. We quickly checked out of the hotel, dropped off the rental and grabbed a taxi to the airport our plane was at. This was supposed to be an a.s.a.p trip which means that we are supposed to hurry our tails off and get airborne as fast as we can. Dispatch could really help the cause if they would do a little of the leg work. We get to the plane and it wasn't fueled nor was the flight plan there. Had they called ahead and ordered fuel we could have been wheels up 45min sooner than we actually were. So after a fueling delay we were finally in the air and I was making some money. Pager is going off, I'll have to finish this later.