What day is it?

On paper my schedule didn't look that bad; just a quick 5 day trip with one working leg. Scheduling called about 10am and asked if I could be on the 4:30pm USAir flight bound for Atlanta. Easy money- plus I love to fly and who wouldn't want to visit Bishkek for 3 hours and bring Marines home?
I had enough time to pack (I always pack the same stuff, whether the trip is 5 days or 2 months, doesn't matter winter or summer), cut my hair (I cut my hair myself - that's the reason it looks the way it does), and pick the boys up from school so I could say good bye (Benson saw me in my uniform and started to cry - some of my passengers have the same reaction when they see me).
After three days being a passenger I flew a Bishkek rotation out of Leipzig - Marines in and Marines out. But instead of going home - two more days on Lufthansa to Abu Dhabi - I flew a Tianjin, China turn.
Tianjin is pretty close to Beijing, and it was my first time there. The flight into China was during the night, but the way out was all daylight. We were able to see the Great Wall, I didn't take any pictures (yes, sometimes we have to work). Our route took us across northern China, over the Gobi desert (I have never seen sand dunes that big, some of the biggest in the world), across the Karakoram mountains into Pakistan then we clipped the corner of Iran and flew up the north east coast of Oman into the UAE. The weather was very good and we got a great view of K2. Even on a good day K2 still looks like it would kill you. We crossed the Karakoram range at 32 thousand feet, the MSA (minimum safe altitude) for our area was 30 thousand feet. It reminded me of flying a seneca in the Rockies. It would have been cool to fly a DC-3 over the hump!
I woke up this morning and I couldn't remember what day it was - at least I knew what city I was in (sometimes it's a challenge to remember what hotel room I'm in). Too many days with minimum rest (12 or 14 hours depending on what type of flying I'm doing). One more flight tonight and I will start making my way home. I will be home for Thanksgiving!








What is that mountain doing at 32,000 feet?

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K2 and friends.