One case of Pistachos, to go

...Or the Seagull and the Eagle try an find Lucky Lindy at the Ghost airport.
Monday, my trip back , started out gray and gloomy. I borrowed the Mom-mobile and went down to Jackson City Park
This used to be the old swimming pool:

and then there's the rock garden:


and Hubble Creek:

I visited the city lake before dropping by Maple Dr


I filled it up with gas and we headed out to Cape. We had lunch at Logan's and the proceed over to Cape Rock Park. This is a Rock that juts out into The Mississippi(until the Railroad demolished part of it), It's where the "Cape" in Cape Girardeau comes from(the other part from Jean Girardot, the first European settler):


This ,allegedly, is Mr. Louis Lorimer. No ankle length ponytail, and no half Shawnee - half European mode of dress. He also doesn't look Half Native American:

We then went to the mall and looked at luggage. My old Olympia carry-on was falling apart, and we looked at some replacements before beading for the Airport.
Once we got to CGI, it was raining cats and dogs. The Plane that was to perform the 2:00 Flight was sitting at the terminal(CGI only has one gate.) It was grounded due to low visibility.
Mom was concerned that she would have to take me to Saint Louis. She started having me call her friends, one of whom called the shuttle service. I talked to the Gate Agent ,who was busying rebook several other folk with tighter connections than mine. He nodded that would be flying, and I understood he had other things to do. I bid the shuttle driver adieu
Finally, at 4, it was clear enough to get started. My flight was supposed to leave at 4:50, and since I was there, Cape Air gave me a boarding pass for the 2:00 flight. With the weather, I decided to leave my camera in the stowed position. We were in Saint Louis in about 40 minutes, safe and sound.
Arriving in Saint Louis can be like visiting a movie set. The airport has two Terminals, Main and East (or 1 and 2). Terminal 1 has four concourses: A,B,C, and D.
In the old days Southwest had the east Terminal, TWA had Concourses B, C, and D, and everyone else was crammed into A. Today Southwest still has the East Terminal all to itself, American, AirTran, Frontier, and Cape air have about half of C, and everyone else is in A. B and D sit vacant, waiting for tenants. I was reminded of this as we pulled in and rounded the end of C. Several air bridges there were meant to service TWA's "Heavy Metal" (747's and L-1011's), but now aren't being used.
Once I got inside, I started to take a tour. I remembered to turn on my cell phone. There was a message from our unit secretary. The billing company had screwed up my timesheet. Was I where I could get on the net and have a look?
I sat down about C19, and got out my netbook. I didn't have any luck with the Wifi, so I wondered back down to the Cape Air Gates and got the timesheet un-mangled. Hooray!
So , I set off on my tour again. I doesn't look too bad here:

at the end is another story:


A sad sight , and I'm not sure what to say. Part of it has been the consolidation of the US Airline industry into 5 Majors (United/Continental, Delta, Southwest/AirTran, American, and US Airways) have left several other Airports with similar gate excess (Pittsburgh and Cincinnati come to mind) The Saint Louis airport has tried to get Both the "New" United and Delta and the other tenants in A to move to C and D (this would get everyone behind a common security perimeter , as A has its own portal) as they have started to increase their flights in response to TWA's demise and American's de-hubbing.
I passed my time by having some Tamales from the Jose Curevo Tequileria and reading some local history books. No Tequila, as I have been accused of getting drunk on root beer.
The flight back was good. We pulled back about 9:00 PM CST. My seatmate and I chatted away most of the night. She promised to send me a case of pistachios from her ranch in Terra Bella, CA.
It was a clear night, so the approach to LAX was breathtakingly stunning. Let's go with a Musical Interlude

LAX was still The busy International airport. I had made another reservation at the Hacienda. It was 11:45 when I got to bed
Tuesday Morning: Yes this is los Angeles:

Went down to the desks, checked out, picked up my car, and headed out to await the Crisis of the day.
Thanks for coming along

"The best $50 I ever spent"

I went to work the day before my flight. Thankfully, I asked my co-worked for directions and managed to get to my hotel, The Hacienda Inn at LAX, a Half hour before I had planned. Unfortunately, There was a line at the desk. When the clerk handed me my key. he said “you're going to really like your room.” he was right. it was a suite:

I then headed out to dinner. While there was a Sizzler and El Pollo loco across the street, The street was Sepulveda Boulevard. I decided to patronize the in house coffee shop. I ordered some Pork Tacos, But when I got my dish, it was a pork chop. After a bit, I had my tacos. Not bad.

I started early in the morning, since my flight's departure time was 6:55 am. There were several other folks in the shuttle bus. The driver took a round about route through the terminal, which mainly consisted of dropping off the Air crews first.
He finally made to Terminal 4, which was my stop. I got off , checked in my bags, and proceed to the security line, which took the majority of the morning.
They weren't using the “Nude-o-scopes”, or full body scanners, but they only had one of the traditional scanners working. Once I made it past, I went to gate, and bought a Copy of the L.A. Times, a Coke Zero, and model of an Airbus A380, which was priced at $7.67 (some one has a sense of irony! Maybe the 777 is on sale for $3.30)

We all got on the flight in an orderly fashion, and the crew was able to push off early.

Despite sitting in coach, I had some good legroom, until the lady in Front of me reclined her seat (Maybe American could buy some of those non-reclining seat that some of those low cost airlines (Spirit, Ryanair, China Spring)use).
I left my Camera in my purse, and I regretted it, as I could have gotten some good shots of the Theme Building and a couple planes.
The “Mad Dog(a McDonnell Douglas MD80)” made the Turn, and howled off the runway, We were soon over the Pacific and made a 180 to head back over the LA area. I managed to get my camera out for a shot over the San Gabriels:

And the Desert:

The Captain announced that we were flying over the Grand Canyon. I didn't think I could get a good pic, so I kept the camera in the seat pocket.
We were flying over the plains of Kansas:

And the Ozarks:

And before we were knew it we were at Saint Louis. We flew past Lambert Airport and made what I call the “Arch Approach” Fly to the Gateway Arch and turn until you line up with the runway.
We were at the Gate a full 40 minutes early! Good Job, AA! I proceed to what I thought was the new Cape Air Gate C6. When I got there, there was an American MD-80 parked there. Oops!
I started down to the where the Gate used to be on the D Concourse. They had the D Concourse completely blocked off. Hmm.
Well, when all else fails, read directions! The Cape Air Gate was C7. I sheepishly made my way back. The Terminal was busy, a reminder of its old glory days with TWA. One of the Shots I missed at LAX was a plane at the Delta terminal next to us, a 757 with the Tail number N727TW, an old Trans World bird ( I was not able to get the Number of the MD-80 I Flew in on. Let's Pretend it was another TWA Bird, as the Flight crew was based in Saint Louis)
some shots in STL:


I asked the Gate agent if could get on the early flight to Cape Girardeau If my bag made it on time. She said they would see if they could. I took some pics and signed up for a day's internet pass, which was about the time the Gate Agent told me they had my bag, and would be able to get me on the 12:45 flight instead of the 3:20.
Flying in the 402 is quite different than your typical airliner:




The Captain made the typical pre flight announcements by turning his shoulder, instead of using a PA. This turned into a Q&A session “We're doing great (They had one unused seat, and most EAS planes fly empty)” “We Just got the contract for Ft Lenard Wood, and will be getting more planes, and upping our frequencies, know any pilots who need a job?”
The weather was clear , so my fellow passengers and I turned it into Sightseeing expedition. We had a very discussion on the History and Geography of Kaskasia Island.


Before we knew it, we were at CGI.


The greatest endorsement of Cape Air by my fellow passengers “They best $50 I ever spent”
We made another 180 and landed. I was not able to get a hold of either my mother or my brother to let them know I had made the earlier flight. I sat down at Sandy's place - the restaurant inside the airport - and waited. My mom arrived at the same time as my entree. Life is good!