Monday afternoon found me traveling to Wichita, KS, for my DER interview with the FAA. The wisdom that is American Airlines decided that the best way for me to get from Cedar Rapids to Wichita was via Dallas-Fort Worth. Hey, at least it gave me lots of time to cram on the plane. None the less, I made it to Wichita around 7 PM, got my rental car, and found my way around.

The interview was Tuesday morning, and wasn’t nearly as brutal as I had feared and been warned. It lasted a whole 30 minutes. It went very well. Then I had a couple of hours to kill before my flight back to CR. Fortunately, I was able to locate a Borders bookstore which allowed me to easily kill my time, and at the same time pick up a couple things for Becky and Laura. OK, so I picked up something for me, too - Johnny Cash’s The Man Comes Around CD. Good stuff.

I was scheduled to have a 4-hour layover at Chicago O’Hare on my trip back. Happily, though, I was able to catch a standby seat on a flight 3 hours early, which got me home closer to 4 PM than 7 PM. It was also a nice suprise to walk up to my departure gate and see my friend Steve sitting there waiting for the same flight! He had been in Vegas on business for a week, and just happened to be booked on that flight. We didn’t get adjoining seats on the flight, but it was fun to be able to chat at O’Hare and then when we got back to CID.

My only gripe of the trip was the little bitty regional jets that we flew in on each leg of the flight; one of those little Embraer jobs that has 3 seats across. Too small. You have to duck just to get in. One of these days I’ll fly somewhere in something big enough that I can stand up straight in the aisle. :-)