I passed my King Air checkride!

Well Atlanta is in our rearview mirror now.  It was nice while we were there though I guess. The nice part was that Kristen was able to be there with me.  We hung out everyday.

We found some rather large dryers to do our laundry

It was so different there in a civilian program.  I was used to the military approach to training pilots and..., I don't want to get anyone mad..., but the civilians have it easier!  Ha.  My checkride was almost a joke.  I studied and was prepared for it to be a normal military checkride and there I was during the checkride cracking jokes and wondering when it was going to get difficult.  Oh well.  That was nice but it makes me wonder about those pilots flying passengers around with no military experience.... just a thought.

One day in Hotlanta we were hungry and went driving around for a restaurant.  We saw a Chick-fil-A and decided to eat there.  It looked a little different than other Chick-fil-A's on the outside and it had tables inside with a servers....?  I had to ask the server at the counter what this was all about.  It was the first Chick-fil-A!  Ha!  How cool is that.  They must hire the NICEST employees at that one because we had a pleasant time.  Just a heads up, if you're ever in Atlanta close to the airport and hungry for some chicken.....that's the place to go.

I'm on 6 days of leave right now in between my Atlanta and Meridian training.  We came back to New Orleans to relax.  It just so happened that my mom came in town also so we got to hang out one day.  We went to see my cousin play basketball and then race his derby car with the boy scouts.  It was cute.  I should have been a boy scout....

The "famous" Pat O's picture that you get when you go

Pat O's fountain

Mike carrying Toria to the car

Our friends from Laughlin were close to New Orleans and they knew that we were in town so they called us and asked us to meet them for dinner.  We picked one of our favorite places on St.Charles Ave.  During the dinner we found out that they hadn't made reservations yet for a hotel.  So we called Kristens mom and asked her to blow up the air mattress so that they can stay over for the night.  Haha.  After dinner we asked if they want to see more of New Orleans.  They did so we brought them to Bourbon Street.  It was a Wednesday night so I didn't know what to expect.  But it turned out to have a small crowd.  We walked up and down Bourbon.  Bought HUGE ASS BEERS.  And went into a few clubs to listen and dance to music.  We finally settled in at Pat O's.  We drank a few Hurricanes and talked.  It was a lot of fun.

Above ground graves

Marie Lavou's grave

Kristen and Toria with some French Quarter locals

What a beautiful day

Mike and Toria

Good ole' Cafe du' Monde

I was jammin to the band

The next day we all woke up and decided to see more of New Orleans.  We showed them the above ground graves (which is unique to New Orleans) including marie Lavou's grave (queen of VooDoo).  Then we walked around the French Quarter.  We saw the St. Louis Cathedral, French Market, Cafe du' Monde for beignets and basically just walked around the rest of the day.  At night time we were walking down Decatur street and all of the sudden a band stared playing.  It was McDonough 35 (a local high school).  It was like our own personal parade.  It was freakin' awesome!

I'll be heading up to meridian, MS this Tuesday to start MC-12 training.  It seems like a lot of fun!

Atlanta still.....

360 picture that my phone can take....pretty cool huh?

It snowed over here...and the whole city shut down for 5 days.  Seriously.  At least my sim building is in walking distance.  Atlanta has NO snow removal equipment......so it all just melted a little in tne daytime and then froze into ice.  You can go ice skating on the interstates here.  It makes you appreciate city's public works/streets department.

Congrats Auburn..., next year is LSU's year

Auburn won the National Championship.  GO SEC!!!  But Cam Newton is looking more and more like a criminal.  Shame on you Auburn!

A cutout of one of our engines

All of last week I was going to work (death by Power Point) from 8am till 5pm.  It was awesome!  I felt like corporate America or something...Haha.

Kristen got here on Thursday.  Its really nice that she was close enough to be able to drive over here and hang out for a while.  Some of the dudes that are here with me are from Japan or California and to bring their wives here would be a HUGE task.  So I'm excited that I have Kristen here with me.

We were safe because we were wearing black (no gang colors)

Saturday when I got off of work we went to a laudromat.  It was so funny.  There is no public use machines in my hotel so it was necessary.  We ended up in the ghetto washing clothes.  Haha.  I love life's stories.

After that we went to a nice mall in Buckhead (a nice area).  It was a really nice mall.  But the weirdest thing.  I think that its a huge meeting spot for gay black men.  Yeah..., there were A LOT of them there.  All just hanging out and hugging each other "hello".  Haha.  That kind of stuff doesn't really bother me but it was still awkward in the mall.  Haha.

The good ole' regulars

This is the room with the free drinks

Cheers Mr. Coke inventor

 Sunday was my only day off here in Atlanta.  So Kristen and I made the most of it.  We went to the Coca-Cola factory first.  Atlanta is where Coke was invented.  It was really neat to see a little of the history.  At the end of the tour we were able to taste all of Coke's products.  There are 160 of them.  Kristen and I drank about 60 of them before we started to get sick of it.  Haha.

We rode the worlds largest free standing escalator!

Next we went to CNN headquarters.  It was neat to see that.  We didn't know who the "famous" reporters were at the studio but it was pretty cool anyway.

My simulator

Today I started my simulators.  Yaaayyy!!!  At least I feel like I'm doing something over here.  Except that my start time is at 0230hrs....that 2:30am people!!!  Agghh. That is ridiculous.  I had a lot of fun though today.  The King Air 350 is awesome! Its a dream machine.  I have sims everyday this week and weekend.  My checkride is Sunday.  Wish me luck.

Im in Atlanta!

I did a lot of moving around the country in the past week.

View of New Orleans just after takeoff while turning north over Lake Pontchartrain

I started in New Orleans then from there I went to Baltimore, MD, Dover, DE, Washington D.C., Charlotte, NC and now finally Atlanta, GA.

Back in Delaware!!!

Yes..., there is an Amish community close to the base.

I left New Orleans on 6 Jan (Kristen's birthday) and flew back to Baltimore, MD.  From there I drove back to Dover, DE to get a few things from storage and check back in with my unit.  From there I drove to Washington D.C. and spent the night.  I had intentions of visiting a few of the sights in DC the next morning when I woke up..., but..., sleep felt so much better the next morning when I woke up so I just stayed in bed a while longer.

I love Holiday Inn Expresses

View from my seat while watching the Bayou Bengals win.

From there I drove down to Charlotte, NC for the night.  I watched the LSU spank Texas A&M at the hotel bar.....it was awesome!

Atlanta is HUGE!!!

This was my view while watching the Saints choke.

This guy fell asleep at the bar while watching the Saints.  To funny!

 The next morning I drove to Atlanta.  I checked in my hotel and watched the Saints game....... that sucked.  Oh well, we still have the newest shiniest Superbowl rings and no team can take that from us (yet).

I start my King Air 350ER training tomorrow.  TGhe first week is just classroom stuff and then the next week and a half is all simulators.  Needless to say I'm am prepared to be killed by powerpoint this week....ughh

Kristen might be driving up here to visit me next weekend!!! Yay!!!

Oh..., update....., it's snowing here in Atlanta.....the whole city is practically shut down.  Cars are stopped on the roads (and people just leave them there).  Haha.  The freakin' snow just follows me around the country!

New Years 2011!

Kristen met with her cousins at City Park to take some cousin photos.  It was fun.

Happy New Years!!! 2011 is here! And you know what that means..... We'll all be writing the wrong year on our checks for a few weeks or months.

Kristen and I went to her Aunts house again this year.  We had a good time.  It was family, food and fireworks.....what can go wrong with that.  Oh and this year Wii too!

We all played Michael Jackson Wii game for hours.  It was so much fun! Kristen and I were sore the next day. Haha.

At midnight we popped fireworks and launched a lantern (it was dangerous).

Kristen and I filled up on some Carretta's margarita's with a friend before I left.

It's my birthday today (29) and it's Kristen's birthday tomorrow (28).  We celebrated a little last night by going out to a restaurant and today we just went to the all.... Things change as you get older I guess......  Kristen got a new Coach bag and I got a Polo leisure suit (track suit) and now I know why old people wear these things all the time.... they are comfortable!

I leave for Dover tomorrow just to get in my car and drive to Atlanta.  I have 2 1/2 weeks of simulator training over there then it's back to Dover for a few weeks.  I'm a bit worried because I won't be in friendly territory for the LSU bowl game on Friday, or the Saints playoff game on Saturday..., but I'll have to make it work.  Till next week... see ya'.