andyjohnston

His name was José. That was about all my limited Spanish could make out, and to be honest, I was pretty impressed with myself that I could figure out even that much. He listened to Lisa try to talk to him for a minute or two before turning with a shrug towards the interior. Another voice spoke, and he waved us in. Inside the small room were four people, all of them smoking and the room was thick cigar smoke. I felt like I was going to be sick. The bunch of them spoke for a while, I held back and had no idea what they were saying; they could have been plotting the end of the world or trading recipes for cookies. They continued for a long time. I needed air and stepped outside, leaving the door open. The air in Mexico City is pretty horrible, but even it was better than the smoke that permeated the room. After a while I heard movement behind and as I looked, they were rising from the table. Lisa looked between each of them before joining me. The door slammed behind her. Without a word, she had her phone out, tapping away, and Lisa didn't speak another word to me for a while, as an Uber pulled up. The car swung into traffic, as we made the long, slow trip back to the airport. She was still silent, staring out the window. "Tell me something," I said. She looked slowly in my direction. "They gave me some bad news." "What?" "There's a thing going on between the cartels, and it's getting bad. They said it'll probably come to a head any day now, and when it does, it won't be pretty."

Thanks to Lisa's people skills, and I assume her good credit, we rented a plane to get us back to Denver, a King Air which had lots of power to get us over the mountains. I admit that I got a little turned around at Denver, and wasn't as close to the airport as I thought. But then I got it down and we parked. Lisa arranged for tickets for another flight, and stopped for coffee (seriously, this woman has a problem,) before joining me as we waited. We ended up on an Orbit flight to Mexico City. It's really something, as much as a city like Los Angeles was spread out and hard to find the way around, Mexico City was a whole other level. We caught a taxi at the airport; it was pink and white. Then it pulled away from the airport, and we started the long drive. The congestion was incredible, and the progress was so slow. But eventually the car pulled to the side of the road next to a one story, brown house. As I reached for the door, Lisa grabbed my arm and whispered to me. "Be careful, this isn't a good area." Not the type of thing I wanted to hear. We got out and waited for a chance to cross the road. Lisa knocked on the door and a heavy set man with grey hair opened it, a cigar dangled from his lips. "Si?" he said. Lisa spoke in broken Spanish. I don't speak more than a few words, and even I knew that she was doing pretty terrible.

Looks good!

What happened next came in bits and flashes. My next recollection was that I was checking into a bed and breakfast. I stirred and my eyes opened. "There you are," came voice. In front of me appeared a nurse. She was black with glasses and wearing blue scrubs. She put two fingers against my wrist. "Do you know where you are?" "I'm at a b-n-b," I said. then the fog lifted from my brain a little. "No...I'm at the hospital." "That's right," she said with a nod. "And do you remember why you're here?" "The plane...it crashed." I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. "That's right..." she began, but I never heard the rest. I opened my eyes again to find Lisa sitting near the foot of the bed, thumbing through a magazine, coffee on the table next to her. I tried to speak but my mouth was dry. I guess she noticed because she looked up. "You gave me a bit of a scare." She walked over to the bed and looked down. "How long?" I finally croaked. "It's been about three days." I tried to sit up but my head was still swimming. Lisa waited until a nurse came, though it wasn't the one I had seen previously, who helped me. They wouldn't let me stand on my own, instead insisting that I use a walker to get around, which I did for the better part of the day until I felt strong enough to try on my own. I took a few ginger steps, and kept one hand on the wall to stop myself from falling. Pretty soon I was able to get around without help. Lisa was waiting when I went to check myself out. "So when do we go to look in on...whoever?" I asked. Lisa laughed. "You've been laid up here, I've been busy getting things done. I looked in on things the day after we got here. I don't know how much was going on when Joan still lived here, but there's nothing left but a few street level players." "Coming here was a waste of time?" "Not completely," Lisa shook her head. "When the police got involved, they told us where they got their supply. I've been in touch with the agency, and I think we've got a few solid leads. I'm still going to need your help." "In for a penny..." I said. "Glad to hear it, we've got some work ahead of us."

Who is reading? Enjoying? Feedback?

After takeoff, I tuned in the VOR at JFK, and followed it in. I have to admit it, I was way too high when I got to the airport and had to circle around to get low enough to land. We parked and found our way into the terminal. After a quick stop at Starbucks so Lisa could get some coffee, we checked for available flights. There were two seats open on an Orbit flight to Denver, and we had to run to get to the gate in time. We got to the gate just as they were getting ready to close the door. Lisa flashed her boarding pass and I did the same before we ran the last bit to waiting 747. The seats were close, but not right together, which was fine with me. I fastened my belt and then closed my eyes for a little nap. The flight was smooth, and the landing in Denver was flawless. We made a stop at another Smashburger for dinner and Lisa made us detour to Dazbog for coffee before we headed for a hotel. My room was on the 12th floor, I'm not sure where Lisa was. I couldn't help but remember how there was a time when if she had left me alone, I'd have darted to get away. I'd really changed over the course of our time working together. Morning came far too early, and I had just gotten out of the shower and dressed when a knock came at my door. Surprise, surprise, it was Lisa, cup of coffee in hand. I think she's developing a caffeine addiction. "Morning, sunshine," she said. I faked a laugh and waved her in. "So what's the plan today?" "We've got another trip to make." "Great." We headed for the elevator and down to the ground level, then back to the airport where we rented a Diamond twin engine. I'd flown that model before and always enjoyed it. We had to climb to a pretty good altitude, and the weather was bad. I used my glass display to get me around the mountains, and I couldn't remember what it was like to do without one. We finally arrived at our destination of Telluride. The weather had partially cleared up, only to have gotten bad again. I swung the plane wide to make the approach. Full flaps, landing gear down. We were too low, I could see it. I pulled the gear back up and shoved the throttle levers forward; it wasn't enough. The underbelly of the plane scraped the ground. We bounced once and hit the ground hard. The plane spun around and I blacked out.

In my travels over the years, I'm sure I've come across places as peaceful as Block Island. Off the top of my head, I couldn't think of any. It's quite possibly the most idyllic little place you could find. So calm and carefree you can feel your troubles melt away as you stroll through the place. But don't take your car, the roads are wide enough. The birds were out and singing as Lisa led the way along the trails that wound between houses . I tried to imagine what sort of significance this place might have to a drug ring. Finally, we came to a single story grey house with a green roof, and a chimney at the side. Lisa went to the door and knocked gently. At first no one answered, and I didn't mind. I listened to the birds, and smelled the ocean, which was never far away. Then a woman opened the door. She was in her 60s, or maybe 70s. Her short hair was not completely grey, but was no longer its former colour either. She wore glasses along with a beige sweater. She smiled at both of us before stepping aside so we could enter. Like the outside, the interior of the house was simple. A living room in front of us with a wide, comfortable-looking couch and a big tv in front of it, along with a small kitchen off to the left. To the right an open doorway revealed a bedroom. The woman led us to the kitchen where we sat at the table as she poured three glasses from a plastic Coke bottle, before sitting with us. "Joan," Lisa said. "It's so good to see you." Joan smiled. "It's good to see you too, dear." "I'd like you to meet a friend of mine," she said, nodding in my direction. "Well you're a friend to me if you know..." Lisa cut her off, and I was disappointed as I felt maybe I was about to learn her real name. "You once told me that you knew someone." "Well," Joan began, "It wasn't really me. It was when I was still married to Stan." She turned to me. "My Stanley passed away many years ago." She cleared her throat before continuing. "We used to live in Colorado back in the days when our health could withstand the weather. He got involved with a few seedy types." "Go on," Lisa prompted. "I'm not sure how much I should say, but they used the airport there for moving their 'product' around. That's what Stanley always called it, their product." "And it's still like that?" Lisa asked. "Yes, in fact I was e-mailing Marianne just the other day, and she said just that. There's still things going on in that area." Lisa sat back. "Thanks so much, Joan" "Anything for you, dear." With that, Lisa rose from her chair and headed back to the door. I finished my drink in one gulp before following her. Joan spoke one last time before we left. "Please dear, be careful, and be safe." "Always." Lisa reached out and squeezed Joan's hand and we were off again. We retraced our route to the small airfield and again climbed into the tiny plane. The engine started with a sputter when I turned the key, then we pulled onto the runway and took to the air back to New York

There was so much traffic it took us all day to get to the airport. Alright, yes, all day is an exaggeration, but I'm the one telling this story, what are you going to do, stop reading? Fine, go ahead. Are you still there? Oh good you didn't really stop. Ok, it wasn't all day, but it was a good while. We made our way to La Guardia and found our way out back. I've heard people complain about this airport, but I don't mind it. It's nice and close to the city, with an incredible view as you fly that approach to runway 4. Anyways, Lisa managed to rent us a plane, if you'd call it that. It was a tiny little thing with barely room for the two of us. But it had a glass cockpit with an autopilot and everything. How odd. It was easy to taxi though, and I got us to the end of the runway with no trouble, and despite its small size, it had more than enough power to get us lifted off fairly quickly. A flight plan was already entered, and I set the autopilot to follow it. If nothing else, at least it made things easier on me. I set an altitude of 3000 feet and from there we could get what I figured would be a good look around. We weren't too low, and weren't so high so that we couldn't see anything. 3000 feet doesn't sound like a lot, but in that tiny little plane I wasn't going to try for more. But visibility wasn't great, so there wasn't a lot too see. The flight plan led us all the way past Long Island, out over the water and then put us down at another place I'd been to countless times before: Block Island, not far south of Providence.

The views were unlike anything I'd seen before, but there was no time for sight-seeing. I remembered the directions I had been given and made my way inside to the elevator. I really had to squeeze to get in, but somehow I did it. I couldn't reach the buttons, so I called out my destination hoping someone would respond. "Can someone hit 23?" I saw the button light up. We stopped several times on the way as the crowd thinned, and by the time we reached my floor, I could breathe again. I stepped to the hall and turned right. I counted the doors as I passed them. Six, seven, eight; I stopped when I got to the number I'd been given, and knocked three times. It only took a few seconds for the door to open, with Lisa inside. She stepped aside. "Come on in." From the window, I could see an impressive view of the city. "So," I said. "What's the situation?" "More of the same, I'm afraid," Lisa said. "We got some of the cartel in Columbia, but not everyone." "So you need to get the rest," I said with nod. "Exactly."

I had only been home a few hours. The tv was on, it was a rerun of Seinfeld, the one where George... I kind of drifted off. I was having a dream where I was deep in conversation. With George Costanza, of all people. The dream was interrupted by the sound of the phone ringing. I fumbled for it. "Hello?" I recognized the voice on the other end immediately. "Glad I got you at home." It was none other than "Lisa" Samson (and honestly, until this very moment I never even noticed the similarity between her name and a certain cartoon character.) "What do you want?" I asked. "Well," she said, "It turns out there's more to that drug ring than we had originally thought. They started singing as soon as we arrested them." Lisa laughed. "They told us everything they knew, and we aren't done yet." "Maybe you aren't, but I am." I hung up the phone. The End You didn't think I'd get off that easily, did you? You did! No such luck. The phone rang again almost immediately; Lisa was not impressed. "You aren't finished, you have more work to do." "Why me?" "Because we don't want to bring in more people than we have to. You've already seen what happens, so you're in." With a sigh, I agreed. "But I want to be paid this time!" Lisa scoffed. "We'll see." With that see started dictating instructions and I had to hurry to take notes. Go to the airport, a ticket would be waiting at the desk, the flight number, headed for New York, then the address to go to one I landed. Okay, I thought I had everything. I arranged for an Uber to take me to the airport, and sure enough, everything had been arranged exactly as I had been told. I found my seat, crammed into coach between a woman who smelled like she had already been drinking and a big guy who was really sweaty. This was not going to be a pleasant trip. I closed my eyes and tried to block them out. Easier said than done, but somehow I managed. I lost myself in my own little world and we were cruising before I knew it. The flight wasn't long enough for food to be served, or anything like that. After a bit we dropped down and made a landing at JFK. Much like Los Angeles the last time, I've been to New York more times than I can count. In fact, it's one of my regular destinations. I love to fly around the area and take in the sights. However, I very seldom see it from the ground. So once again, riding in a taxi I got to see the amazing variety of people and structures that lined the streets. So much variety. The driver seemed to know where he was going, whereas i had no idea. So I didn't try to give him any directions, and watched as we passed over the Brooklyn Bridge. Soon, we were right downtown, and the congestion was pretty severe. Progress was slow but we made it to a hotel where I was let off at the curb.

What do you mean by real world aviation? These are screen shots, are they not?

Here's something many people don't know. They hear guns on tv or in movies, and they make a little pop. The reality: they're loud, I mean really loud. A lot of those people shooting in tiny spaces on tv would damage their hearing. So I hunkered down when I heard shots coming from inside the house, and not just one, but lots. It went on for what seemed like a while, though it was probably really only a few minutes. Eventually the sound of gunfire died away and the door to the house opened. Agents from the DEA pushed several people out, with their hands cuffed behind their backs. I wasn't sure, but their seemed to be a few less agents than had gone in, and I knew what that meant. I tried not to think about it. Last one out was "Lisa" Samson. She looked in my direction and nodded without an expression on her face, then she came aroun to the plane. "One last thing, if you're willing." "Sure," I said. "I've come this far." "Why don't you help fly the jet back to Bogota. They need a co-pilot." "Where's the...never mind. I don't want to know." I boarded the jet and could see the bunch who had been handcuffed, along with the agents, some of whom were tending wounds. I climbed into the cockpit and took the right seat. The pilot did most of the work, I just made a few radio calls as we got back to the city. From Bogota I caught an overnight flight to Miami, and then from there headed home. I wasn't crucial to the actual job, but I would've just gotten in the way. It did give me a chance to fly all over the world. It kind of reminds me of the time...well, that's another story. The End

So it was back to this. Lisa went inside while I waited. And waited. The sky darkened and it started to rain pretty hard, with thunder and lightning. Finally Lisa came back out and ran through the downpour until she ducked under the wing. Once she was in, we taxied back to the runway and took off again. Lisa said we were going about sixty miles, and around the halfway mark the weather cleared. We flew until we found a strip with a dirt runway where we landed and pulled up next to the house at the west end. It was so much easier to get in, the elevation was only around a thousand feet. Once again, Lisa ducked in while I waited, and by the time she came back, the rain was falling pretty heavily again. We turned to the southeast and were treated to the site of a great double rainbow. I'm not sure how far we travelled, but it wasn't a great distance. We landed in the field of a farm and pulled up to the house. Lisa pulled out her phone. "Yeah," she said. We're there. Are you tracking me? Okay, I'm going for a look." She turned to me. "You're going to want to keep your head down." With that, she pulled a gun from her jacket and climbed from the plane, ducking down low as she skirted the walls. Keeping my head down wasn't easy, and especially more so when I heard the roar of engines behind me. A small jet landed and several people piled out. As I looked, I recognized one or two from our time in Washington. All of them ducked low as they made their way across the field. How the occupants of the house didn't hear us coming, I still don't know.

If I were to ask you what country in the world most of the cocaine comes from, what would you say. Columbia? Ding ding ding, we have a winner. And so we set out for Columbia in a 747. It's a long trip from Washington, and if you think the landing is easy, you're dead wrong. We landed in Bogota, Columbia's capital city. The thing about landing in Bogota is, the airport is at an elevation of over 8000 feet. So I was literally flying the approach at 10,000 feet, trying to slow down and get set up for landing. The aircraft was not too pleased to be doing that. But I managed to get past the mountains and down to the runway, where with full flaps, spoilers, thrust reversers, and some braking, I managed to get the aircraft to stop before we ran out of runway, in the dead of night, too. And since I was being watched not only by Lisa (whose last name I now knew to be Samson) but also by a bunch of others at the top of the DEA. I was put up in a hotel over night where I shared a room with a gentleman who could certainly snore. The next morning, I was back at the airfield with Lisa and the GPS on her phone. We were sitting in a little Cessna, and I had my doubts about what it could do. Would it even take off at this altitude? When I gave it power, it started moving quite slowly, enough so that I was worried my suspicions had been justified . By the time we were half way down the runway, we were finally picking up a little speed, and I eased back the controls. We lifted off, but just. I gave the little plane enough time to climb a bit before retracting the flaps. By that time we were going enough that I was able to stop worrying and remember why I was there. I love to fly. And getting the aerial view of Bogota was something I'd never done before, and would probably never do again. We passed over a number of buildings of various sizes while Lisa guided me. It took only a few minutes to come across another airport, to which Lia yelled "There it is, there it is!." She was like a kid before Christmas. It would have been nice if she had given me some advance warning so I could set up to land, but instead we were right over the field. I made a turn to the right, flew few a few minutes, then turned 180o to line up. Despite tha altitude, the Cessna settled nicely on the runway and was able to taxi off with no real issues.

The scenery in MSFS is insane!

I hope I'm keeping everyone entertained, and as always, I'd love to hear any feedback.

Another cab ride, another plane ride. Lisa called for a taxi at the airport which took us back to LAX. The size of the city still amazed me, but I was too tired to pay much attention. And when she arranged for us to catch a flight back to Washington, it was all I could do to keep my eyes open in the terminal while we waited. I would've liked to have gotten better seats, and I'm sure Lisa could've done it considering what she'd pulled off to that point, but I was happy just to rest. One my belt was fastened I felt us roar down the runway and lift off, that was it. Next thing I knew we were cruising, I have no idea ow long I'd been out. It wasn't a short trip, crossing the continent, and by the time we landed, night had fallen. So how many days would that make? I'd long since lost track. We landed at DCA, which is a little small for such a big plane. So we really felt it when the brakes dragged us to a halt. A few minutes later and we were at the gate. Neither of us had brought any luggage along so we went to eat at the Smashburger instead, then caught another taxi at Smith Boulevard. It took us to the Crowne-Plaza only a short distance away, and when I went inside I discovered a room had already been reserved in my name. Lisa didn't come in, so I went directly up. Having slept on the plane, I wasn't tired, and I spent most of the night watching some stupid movie on tv. But eventually even I was sleepy enough that my eyes closed. I woke to the phone ringing, the sun already streaming through the window. "Hello," I mumbled into the receiver. I recognized the voice as Lisa on the other end and my still foggy brain grasped the basics of what she was telling me. She was waiting downstairs, or would be waiting, or something like that. Okay, fine, I hung up on her and flopped back down onto the bed. No, no, I thought. I have to get up. So I dragged myself to the elevator and hoped that by the time I got to the lobby I'd look convincingly alert. I only ended up waiting a few minutes for Lisa to meet me. She looked better than I felt. "Glad to see you're up," she said. "After last night I didn't know if you'd be okay." "Yeah," I said. "I'm here." "Come on," Lisa said as she led the way to the door. A dark SUV waited at the curb and we climbed in the back. We spent a little while going down what the signs identified as the I-395, though I didn't catch the name of the road where we exited. We trundled along until stopping in front of a large office complex. Lisa brought me inside and checked me through security. I had to leave my driver's license in exchange for a red visitor's pass. Then we headed for the elevator, and Lisa pressed the button for the top floor. The doors opened to a wide lobby with a floor of what appeared to be marble, a desk ran the width of the lobby at the far end. Lisa took me to a conference room off to the left. A long table was surrounded by a dozen chairs, with several more around the walls of the room. An illuminated map filled one wall. I sat for a few minutes and then the room started to fill. A man with grey hair stood in front of the map and the murmur of conversation died away. "Good morning everyone," he began. "We've made significant progress in the operation thanks to agent Samson." Lisa half stood and waved around the room to a smattering of applause. "And we're ready to move on to the next phase. Agent Samson, why don't you take the floor." Lisa stood and walked to the front of the room. She cleared her throat before speaking. "We made the first contact the other day, that was the easy part. Next we get into the real work."

It wasn't until Jimmy closed the door that I noticed there were other voices in the house. The Boss went ahead and lisa followed without hesitation. I didn't want to stick out, so I went behind. Jimmy peeked out the window for a few seconds before coming as well. Lisa sat at the kitchen table while I stood a few feet away. "It's all here, everything you asked for," said the Boss. With that one of the men who was new to our 'group" lifted a box and placed it on the table. He lifted the lid, and it was filled with packets of white powder, and I was pretty sure it wasn't icing sugar. I tried to hide my surprise, I wasn't sure if i succeeded. Lisa nodded. "Okay," she said. "And we agree on the price?" "Yes," the Boss said. Again Lisa nodded. "I don't have it with me, I'll go to the bank." Jimmy shook his head but the Boss raised a hand, silencing him before he could speak. "That is acceptable." Lisa stood turned to the door and he spoke again. "Why doesn't my associate take you." She was looking away from the others and I caught the briefest glimpse of a grimace cross her face before her cool returned. "Sure, whatever you want." The Boss snapped his fingers with a nod to Jimmy, then pointed at the door. Jimmy was on his feet immediately and within seconds Lisa and I were in the back seat of the town car, Jimmy at the wheel. "This is all so you can buy drugs?" I whispered. Lisa waved me away , making a "shh" face. I wanted to say more, but she looked out the window before I could say anything. Jimmy stared at the road ahead, so I sat back, wondering what to do next. It didn't take long to pull up next to the bank. In the morning light, they were just opening as the three of us went in. Jimmy and i stood back as Lisa went to the teller, who typed on the computer before looking at Lisa with raised eyebrows. She disappeared into the back, then came out again followed by a man in a dark suit. They spoke with Lisa for a few minutes, then began counting bills, before placing them into a small bag and handing them over. Lisa returned to us, and Jimmy ushered us all into the car. We returned to the house. In the daylight, it looked a lot cheerier, painted pale blue with white trim. Again, into the kitchen we went. Lisa dropped the bag on the table. "Here you go, every last dollar." "You won't mind if it's counted?" the Boss said. "Do whatever you want." Lisa turned and walked to the door and I hurried after. She sat on the front step and I joined her. "Drugs? You pulled me into this whole thing over your drugs?" I spoke in a low voice. I wasn't sure why, the group inside obviously knew that was the situation. Lisa shushed me again, then pulled out an ID card. She placed her thumb strategically so it covered her name, but I could see her picture along with the name of the Drug Enforcement Agency. "We're here to catch them in the act, but hopefully they'll lead to even bigger fish." Shortly, Jimmy opened the door and motioned us back inside. In the kitchen, the Boss smiled at us from his seat. "Looks good," he said, "You can take it." Lisa lifted the box and followed Jimmy back out to the car, where she put it in the trunk before we climbed inside. Once again, Jimmy drove at speeds higher than I was comfortable with until we arrived at a small airfield. He opened the trunk without getting out of the car, Lisa and I went around back and pulled the box out. As soon as we closed the trunk, the town car sped away with a squeal of the tires. Lisa left me alone as she went inside the little building in front of us, only to come back a few minutes later and led me around the back where there were a few small planes. She led me to one and we shoved the box in behind the seat before I got behind the controls. Pretty soon we were back in the air as Lisa guided me back toward Los Angeles. Lisa had her phone out right away, though I couldn't hear what she was saying. We didn't land at LAX though, instead going to a smaller airport a few miles away. She guided me to taxi to a remote corner where a car was waiting. She bound from the plane. "They bought it," she said. "Hook, line and sinker."

After we'd been driving a while, I began to understand why the driver had been surprised. We had gotten on the freeway and had gone so far, the meter was ticking away. We pass little residential areas, factories belching smoke, and everything in between. Eventually we pulled up to a little building and Lisa told me to get out. She wouldn't let me go in though, and I was left sitting outside watching as she disappeared into the darkness. Evening came, and eventually turned to night. The sky was clear and I could see a few stars above me despite the city lights. But it was cold and at first I did everything I could to keep warm. I was so tired, after a bit i just had to sit down even though I knew I should keep moving. I just couldn't do it. As luck would have it, it was only shortly after that the door opened and Lisa came out. She wasn't alone though, two men came out with her, one who was short and a little pudgy, wearing a dark grey suit, the other was tall with a leather jacket. Both came to a stop when Lisa motioned for me to join them. "Who's this?" asked the short one. I was trying to remember how many times Lisa had had to explain things for me. "He's with me, he's okay." Just the same, the taller man patted me down. "Is he okay Jimmy?" the short man asked. "Yeah Boss." The Boss looked at me for several seconds, then turned and strode around the side of the building. Jimmy took me by the shoulder and shoved me after. A black town car waited and the Boss got in the back with Lisa, while I got in the passenger seat with Jimmy behind the wheel. He put it in gear and we started moving, an soon we were again on the freeway, screaming along a lot faster the other cars as we whizzed past them. After travelling for a good while, Jimmy took one exit, then zigzagged his way between so many streets that once again, I was lost. I once thought I had a pretty good sense of direction, not so much anymore. We stopped in front of a small house. I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to go in this time, but I got out of the car and no one tried to stop me. We stepped to the porch, and Jimmy pulled the door open, it was unlocked. I let the other three go in first, and the door slammed shut behind me.

I said before that you didn't need to know where I'm from, but I will say this much: it's a heck of a lot smaller than Los Angeles. Now I've been here countless times, just flying in and out, but I've never really experienced the city. It's huge! Lisa hailed a cab at LAX and gave the driver a location. I sat back and watched the sites out the window. I watched and watched. The people, the places, the cars. Streets and buildings, shops and restaurants, so many that I didn't know what they were. It was quite a site. Eventually we came to a stop. Lisa led me into the restaurant on the bottom floor of a hotel. We ordered some food, then sat and ate in silence. Every few minutes, she'd look around before returning to her meal. And each time she seemed to become a little more aggravated. Finally she saw something over my shoulder. She wiped her mouth and rose to her feet. I started to get up as well but she pushed me back down. I turned and watched as she strode across the floor to an older man standing next to the door. They embraced briefly before sitting down. A server came to their side and he spoke only a few words to her before she was off again. I remembered how open Lisa had seemed when we first met, only to change her demeanor quickly. Though her back was to me, she was more animated than anything I had seen from her. I turned back to my breakfast. Scrambled eggs, white toast and bacon, with orange juice, in case you were wondering. The restaurant was almost empty, with only a few occupied tables scattered around. I was tempted to turn around to watch Lisa and her companion, but I didn't want to seem too obvious. After a while she returned to the table with a smile on her face. She sat and took a mouthful of her food, then shook her head. "Oh, it's cold." "You could ask them..." "Never mind," Lisa cut me off. "We have too much to do today. Let's get moving." She stood and dropped a few bills on the table, I did the same and followed behind as she led me back to the street. We were in another cab soon, I never had as much luck hailing one as she did. She gave the driver a destination and he turned to look at us with a surprised look on his face. "Are you sure?" he asked. "That's no short trip, it'll cost you." "Go," Lisa said. He turned around and we were off to the streets of southern California.

Ah, well then I apologize to anyone if that has been the case. I do admit sometimes I post a shot and then forget to look again.

Really? I didn't see any others. Am I not getting all the posts to this thread?

From Kathmandu, we were back into a 747, and we flew to Hong Kong, where we refueled and made the long flight to Hawaii. We were in Hawaii again just long enough to refuel before we were off again to Los Angeles.

Landing at a place like Lukla is terrifying. Taking off is no picnic either, especially if it happens to be after dark. When Lisa and I went back to the parking area at the airport, our plane was nowhere to be seen. "No problem," Lisa said, as she led me over to a little blue dual engine nearby. I followed her and we arranged for pushback as I got the engines started. As we taxied over to the runway, I glanced at Lisa. "Good thing no one minds us sharing their plane." Lisa scoffed. "Yeah, about that, we don't exactly have permission to use this. Get us out of hear fast." I gave it full throttle and the lights disappeared almost immediately. I couldn't see the runway and if it wasn't for the display on my instruments, I wouldn't have known when to lift off. Those same instruments allowed me to fly through the mountains without hitting them. For the first while I controlled it manually, then set the autopilot to take over. I have to admit, I was pretty relieved to see the lights of Kathmandu come into view.

At the other site, some people were complaining about them, they lok just fine to me.