In August, after backpacking with Sidney, the whole family went back to the Idaho mountains for a Cluff family reunion (we camped between Crouch and Silver Creek Plunge). Two days after returning home we left again on a two week family vacation. Needless to say, no bathroom tiling was done in July and August looks no better.
For our vacation we drove to Fort Bragg, California to visit my sister and here family. They live almost, right on the beach. We had beautiful weather and a great time. Then we drove down to San Francisco for three days in the City by the Bay. On the way home, we stopped by Yosemite.
Jackson on the Pacific
Kids around a Redwood(classic family photo)
Kris and I - Fort Bragg Sunset
Benson watches the ocean
Jordan and I with Half Dome
Sidney on a beach walkNow I'm back at work. I started out in Chicago, flying for Lufthansa Cargo to Frankfurt. After a short layover, I was to commercial on Egypt Air to Sharjah (UAE) through Cairo.
When the counter agent for Egypt Air would not let me keep my carry-on, it was over the 8kg limit, I knew this was the start of another long day. The bus out to the parking stand loaded at departure time (aircraft departure time), so Egypt Air missed its slot time. In Europe and some other parts of the world aircraft are filed for slot times. This is the time at which the plane must be airborne. If you miss your slot time you have to go to the back of the line, which usually means a delay of 45 to 90 minutes. This was not good news, because I only had 1 hour and 15 minutes on the ground in Cairo. I landed in Cairo with just enough time to run to one end of the terminal and watch the plane taxi out. After a long discussion with an Egypt Air service manager, I had just enough time to run to the opposite end of the terminal and get on a flight bound for Dubai (good news) with out my luggage (bad news). Checking your bag in is like betting on the Cubs to win, you really want it to happen but your not too surprised when they don't show up.
So, I spent a couple of days in Sharjah waiting for my luggage to find me, which was fine, because there isn't much to do in Sharjah during Ramadan.
Tuesday morning we started what would become a marathon 25 + hour duty day, flying down to Lagos, Nigeria and back to Sharjah for Etihad Airways cargo. It is never simple flying to Lagos, and thinking that there will not be some kind of delay is like betting that the Cubs will win in the post season. In theory, it could happen, but then again statistics don't always tell the whole story.
World MD11 takes off from Lagos Nigeria.
After a day of sleeping I commercialed to Budapest, Hungary (two cities for the price of one - Buda and Pest). A beautiful city especially at night, but you have to remember the reason all those women are talking to you; you are not that good looking. - Not running into a "night flower" in even the nicest areas of Budapest is like betting the Cubs will win the World Series - it hasn't happened for 100 years and no goat is going to change that. .
