Moving On to Christmas, FL

Monday was my last day in the Orlando area. But before moving on, I gotta a couple of "in betweens". They just keep happening. I have a campground directory that I used to find an Orlando area campground. There were two listed. The one I called from Cypress Gardens was full. The kind lady gave me the name of the other one in the book, which was right next door to her. Then she added, "And here's another smaller one that's really nice." I called the second one and they didn't answer their phone. So I called the one that I never would have found without her help. It had space, was the same price and was 6 miles closer to the convention.

Monday evening, I was feeling a little lonely. The convention and my friends had left town. It was the first time I was "alone" since I'd left. I walked around the campground for about an hour. Nobody very friendly. Not like Airstreamers. Then I saw a man and his son outside their motorhome - and it had VA plates. "Hi, where in VA?" "We're from Williamsburg. My son is down here getting his pilot's licenses and I flew down to visit him." "Really, I had an aviation insurance agency in Salem for 30 years." "Oh, we have always done business with the Hargrove Agency." "With Ray Tyson?" "Yeah, he's been a good friend for 20 + years." And we talked for about an hour about mutual friends and whether I'm going to be down here for the Sun & Fun Fly-in next month. Then on my way to Christmas, FL, I got a phone call from Stuart Boblett, a long time pilot friend and insurance client from Roanoke. He said, "Where are you?" I told him and asked where he was. He said, "I'm standing in the lobby of the Kissimmee Airport and I just met a fellow that says he saw you last night." Stuart is flying back down here next week and we may get together for lunch. SMALL world. And I guess I can't be "alone" even if I tried to hide !

Here's a picture taken out my Airstream window.

Yes, those are ripe oranges !

Map - from Kissimmee to Christmas, FL (yes, that IS a real town.)

Whirly Girls

The convention ended today. My main work with the WG's is to help set up their booth, sell for 3 days, take down and pack their booth and schlep it the full length of the Convention Center to FedEx. Talk about a busman's holiday. Well, and keep three or four of them company each evening at the banquets and parties so they don't constantly have male helicopter pilots hitting on them. Tough duty, but someone's got to do it.

One of my friends is the first female NAVY helicopter pilot. Her husband is an astronaut, but not a helicopter pilot. At a huge gathering of friends, someone asked their young son what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said, "I don't know. Mommy, can boys be helicopter pilots, too?"

I made it through Wed, Thur, and Fri nights with 4 hrs sleep each night. Some of the younger WG's called me a weanie because THEY slept four hrs TOTAL for the three nights.

I SHOULD have some pictures, but they're all on WG's cameras. They promised to email them to me but I suspect they're still recovering.

One more "in between" I got there Wed afternoon. I knew the girls were setting up the booth but I didn't have the Booth Coordinator's cell phone number. And I needed an "Exhibitor's Pass" to get in early. The only phone number I had was the President's. The booth isn't her responsibility and I knew she was slammed with everything she had to get done. I agonized. "I know I could be a big help." "Pres. is so busy, I hate to bother her." Back and forth for 10 or 15 minutes. I finally decided I wouldn't bother the Pres. and put my phone back in my pocket. Just as I did, I heard, "Tom, why aren't you in the booth?" It was the President running from one meeting to another. Every Day, maybe little, maybe big. But every day.