We begin as of yesterday, June 2nd, with my departure from Idaho to Los Angeles for a few days. The purpose of this adventure is to attend this years E3 (Entertainment Electronics Expo) at the LA convention center as well as, it turns out, to visit with some old friends/former co-workers. And so the trip began with a mostly uneventful albeit (effing) freezing plane trip. There was a minor scare at the airport prior to departure from Boise as Rachel and I arrived so late to the terminal that the attendant was sure my bag would be lost in transit. Surprisingly, and pleasantly so, the bag arrived with owner. Jubilation was heard world-round.
Jeremy (Bishop) picked me up from the Ontario (CA) airport and the adventures thusly begun. I had the pleasure of checking out his house, where I will be staying the next few days, before being whisked away to have dinner with another friend that hasn't been seen in quite some time- Eric (Laun).
From lunch, Jeremy and I departed for the time being and I spent the afternoon with Eric in his garage-attic office which I have begun calling the inner sanctum. This room, clearly, is untouched by anybody in his family save for himself. It's fantastically littered with computer parts, programming books, dirty dishes and adorned with an old busted couch, perfect for napping, or in Eric's case, sleeping on nightly. Love it. Eric had a family function to attend later in the evening so after a few rousing rounds of Punch Out for the Wii, I was whisked away in the Laun-mobile to a Sears parking lot where Jeremy and I met back up for yet another adventure. We were going flying.
Jeremy has a Cherokee single-engine plane. This thing is an absolute beauty- I love this aircraft. I have, for a long time, been bugging Jeremy to take me up in his airplane sometime and he had the wonderful idea to go up for an evening ride around the LA area. I was, to say the least, more than enthusiastic to go. Prior to actual take-off, I joked that I would encourage Jeremy to put us in a barrel-roll. I did not.
Bishop guided me through the pre-flight checklist and explained what he was doing, as he was doing it, a minor fact that I truly appreciate being the inquisitive person I am- more appropriately, though, I think it was to impart on me the importance of each switch and that flicking things on and off was probably a bad idea. I got to wear a super-cool headset and sound like a real pilot which supplied a lot of hushed internal entertainment for me- unknown fact: those things muffle a substantial amount of noise. While in the air, Bishop performed some neat maneuvers for me like a steep turn or clearing turn even a stall explaining how each was performed and why. The steep turn was exciting- you can actually feel the g-forces increase as you make your turn. Stalling was quite an experience- the aircraft literally feels like it's about to fall out of the sky when in reality you are traveling at about 50 mph, only moments before certain doom, Jeremy would increase the throttle and bring us out of the stall. Cool.
The scenery from the sky was breathtaking and the already picturesque hills and mountains looked even more Bob Ross-ian. There was a light haze settling in the valleys of the hills as the evening went on- I could almost hear him saying, "Happy little mountains with happy trees on them."
With about an hour or so left in the trip, Bishop decided he trusted me enough to take the helm. I have no idea what he was thinking- I didn't crash us and I didn't attempt anything crazy, but I did fly the plane and for quite some time.
I have thereby decided, in light of recent events, to rectify the missing title on my resume- I shall henceforth be known as: Casey Hunt, Aviator. Possibly more accurately: Casey Hunt, Dude who flew a plane straight for almost an hour. Yes. Stoic and noble. Knightly, even.
Jeremy, of course, landed the plane but by the time we arrived it was full-on night and landing in the dark was a lot more exciting than I had anticipated. I was not aware of the existence of the "two red lights" landing beacon that becomes "one red, one white" when you are on final approach and on the correct approach angle. Apparently there is a flap inside the light-box that shows a white light from the correct angle- how ingenious. Once on the ground, we gassed the bird back up, parked her in the hangar and returned to Jeremy's house for some conversation, bratwurst and inevitable (for me, at least) loss of consciousness.
The start of my day was at 5:30 AM and by 11:30 PM I was ready for sleep, regardless of what my mind wanted to do, my body would have its way. I no sooner hit the sheets and contemplated sleeping than I was waking up after eight hours of coma.
So far- the trip to E3 has yielded me Zero hours at the convention and an entire day of fun, new adventures and visiting good friends. I would call this day a win, to be frank. Today (June 3rd) I plan to attend a portion of the convention with Eric. More fun, more adventures, more blog posts, I'm sure. For now, though, I say cheers to you Bishop for showing me a great time and for a true adventure.
Me and Jeremy
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