Traveling to Tucson on Tuesday

This feels all too familiar. Board a plane in Winnipeg. Fly two hours to Denver. Rush through the Denver airport to board another plane to Tucson. Arrive in Tucson 7-8 hours after initial departure. 

Hopefully this is the last I time I have to make this trip for a while. Now that my project is done (well not 100% but close enough) I'm ready to resume a regular, normal work-life balance. Some travel is ok but I'm tired of being say from home over the weekend. Maybe a weekend in Montreal would be ok, see the city again and enjoy it this time as opposed to when I was (essentially) working two jobs. 

I'm definitely looking forward to the summer - camping, cabins, biking, golfing and many other activities I'm sure. That reminds me, I still need to book the days off after may long weekend so that we can go camping (in yurts) with Eric and Jamie. And take the other three days off that week so I can get things done around the house, or just be lazy and have a break. 

Not sure what I feel like for dinner. Had enchiladas last night for supper before a resounding 7-0 win for the garbage goals. Graham scored a beauty. I just looked good out there. Or so I will say, that enchilada definitely was sitting like a brick in my stomach. Maybe just a burrito from chicken Nuevo or a burger. I don't really feel like going somewhere "fancy" at 8 pm for dinner by myself. 

Well, on initial decent into Tucson, should pack up the iPad and my bag. I'll have to see if there are any good deals on iPads, I'm sure Gwen is tired of lending me hers. 

Denver

I don't know why it is so hard to find a restaurant in the Denver airport that serves Denver's. I would really go for one right now but it's nowhere to be found. I guess I'll settle for a beer and a burger at the New Belgium Hub. 

I have already done all the work I wanted to on the first flight. I guess I'll get ahead of the game and do one more thing on the next flight. 

Hockey tonight at 830 (I think). I'm pretty excited, I haven't been on the ice for over 3 weeks. I hope my legs are ready. 

Should be a relatively relaxing weekend with dinner in Warren on Sunday. Saturday has no plans but I should probably try to get a haircut. 

It definitely feels good to be coming home. 3 weeks was much longer than I expected to be away. Gotta love aviation schedules...

C-GURG

That is the registration mark on he airplane I'm working on. It was pushed outside today for engine runs and testing (the one on the left) Glad to see it not in the hangar ;)

Day 19

It's hard to believe I've been down here for 19 days. It definitely doesn't feel that long but looking back I guess that is right. We have accomplished a lot in that time, so much that I should be able to leave on Thursday I'm thinking. 

I've probably already posted that but I guess that just means I'm looking forward to going home. Well, sort of. It will be nice to be back home and back in the office. I won't miss the weather or seeing the plane each day. But after 15 months on the same project, it is time to end. For the better of both of us... Me and the plane. 

Food is already here 5 mins after ordering. WOW. 

Lindy's

This morning and early afternoon was spent at work helping with some quick updates and answering questions. I also was able to finish off some of my manuals by checking some things in the airplane. Almost done!

I'm downtown waiting for my burger to arrive. Eating at Lindys on Fourth. Gwen suggested it so here I am. The menu was pretty impressive. Many burgers and you can have one, two or three patties. I elected for one. And a kilt lifter:

It's pretty good. 

This week will be busy. Transport is coming down and we are finishing off some testing. I'm going to book my return ticket home for Thursday so I can go to the jets game and be home for one of our playoff games for hockey.  The first one is on Tuesday but I won't be there for that one. 

Tonight will be dinner with Jason. Not sure where but I'll meet him at his place at 6. 

As I'm killing time, I found some photos that weren't posted:

I went to Park Place mall yesterday where they were having a sidewalk art expo. Pretty cool. 

I probably should have walked around the entire mall to see whatelse there was but u was expecting a call from Mark to go for dinner yesterday but he never called. 

Instead I went to Mimi's Cafe and had chicken pot pie. It was good. And I saw this sign which made me smile:

Now, I need to find wifi to post this...

Saturday morning

I'm hoping to have a relatively relaxing weeknd. Have some work to do but only a few hours I'm thinking. Other than this bit sure what the plan will be. 

I was invited for dinner tonight with one of the guys from work and tomorrow I'm going to go for dinner with Jason. Other than this, should be relatively quiet. 

It's looking like I should be able to come home Thursday this week. Things should be wrapping up by then and the only remaining activities can be done back in Winnipeg. In fact I probably would have gotten more work done back home than I am here but as long as the customer sees a benefit the I guess I'm doing my job. 

No much else to write about yet. I've only had a sip of coffee and a bagel. Not quite the same as the Montreal bagels but the weather is rather nice here. 

Hiking

This morning, Doug and I decided to play hooky from work. The airplane is not ready, no flight permit and not much we can do about it. I have things to do but have time to do them. 

So, we left our hotels at 7am and went to Catalina state park for a 5.5 mile hike. It was a perfect day for a hike, warm but not hot. Some breeze and pretty cool scenery:

Romero pools

Afterwards, we went back to our hotels, showered and grabbed lunch before going to bombardier. After an hour and a half, I drove Doug to the airport and went back to work until 5. Almost half a day worked, knocking my time bank down to 25 hrs since I've been here...

I'm currently doing laundry in a hotel across the street. My hotel has laundry services but I can wash my own socks and underware for the prices that they were going to charge (3.25 for a shirt, I'm doing all my shirts, socks and underware for $6 which includes the soap). Yes, even though I could charge this to the job, I still feel guilty spending that kind of money on laundry. Instead, I'll charge for incidentals.

I may be looking into going to Phoenix on Tuesday to watch the Jets 1.0 play the Jets 2.0. I'll give my buddy josh a call to see if he can set me up with some good tickets. This josh guy calls every month or two trying to sell me coyotes tickets...

Hope you all are looking forward to the warm weather coming up this weekend.