Sorry About Yesterday.

  I thought I'd set an entry to publish yesterday but in my haste to get it all done, I forgot to hit the publish button.

It was one of those days where I had to finish off everything I had on my desk before getting ready to catch the evening plane.  I had to turn in papers for a meeting next week that was canceled due to people being out of town.

I got all my lesson plans on the desk, every answer on the worksheets so the sub can copy the work on the board.  It is too hard to find a sub who can do the math, so I have to provide all the answer.

Two members of the basketball team and their coach kept getting bumped from the 9 person planes.  Most people are used to checking in at the ticket counter, going through security, waiting at the appropriate gate till boarding happens.

Out where I am, you check in via phone with the agent who tells you, they'll all when the pilot contacts them.  So you hang around at home till you hear the pilot over the VHF.  You then call the agent to make sure this is your flight. If it is, you get a lift up to the airport and wait in or on your vehicle (truck, ATV, or snow machine) until the plane lands.

Once the plane lands, they unload the mail and cargo, let people off, set up additional seats, then load up.  They either head to the next village, or they head back to their home base.  It is really cold if the wind is blowing hard.  The plane is a small Navajo Caravan carrying no more than 9 passengers.

Once you get to the hub and transfer to a larger airline with a larger plane and you have to go through security.  If you are precheck, you get to leave your shoes on.  If its winter, you still have to take off all your winter gear, coats, hoodies, etc. It feels like you are doing a strip tease. Once you get through security, you put it all back on because you have to walk out to the plane, climb the portable stairs much like those movies from the 50's and 60's. 

I'm happy to announce that although the basketball players missed their connecting flight, we were able to get them on the last flight out of the Hub into Anchorage so they would have enough time to get to the games by leaving at 5:30 in the morning.

Have a good day.