On My Way Home From Los Angeles This Friday Afternoon

So, I'm flying home from Los Angeles today.  At this moment the plane is 35,000 feet or so above Missouri, as far as I can tell.  Flight was delayed at LAX for an hour this morning (after boarding) due to an electrical problem on plane.  Apparently it was one of those "non-essential" lighting issues.  After doing a "CTRL-ALT-DELETE" on the 77 on-board computer systems this Airbus 320 has, everything was okay for a minute but not for good.  We had to wait for paperwork saying the plane isn't functioning perfectly but good enough to get us to Cincinnati.  Seems as though all is well so far!

Interesting that this Airbus has 77 computers but no entertainment system of any kind on it.  Suppose there are music channels (I'm listening to the shuffle of Dave Shaut's iPod) but no video, no movie, no live, satellite TV, nada, zip, nothing!  Clearly it is a plane designed for long hauls.  Amazing, 2010, I want my live TV when I fly coast-to-coast (actually anywhere).

Got me a 1st class (free upgrade) window seat.  Love the window seat flying out of LA, or any West Coast city.  Scenery is beautiful, first out over the Pacific Ocean--and it was pacific today--very calm, then as we take the left hand turn, Southern California is before and below.  The coast line, then Palm Springs, then the huge expanse of the desert.  About an hour into the flight, Las Vegas, Arizona, The Grand Canyon--all very nice.  Saw the snow-capped mountain near Flagstaff today.  The southern desert of Nevada and Utah is adorned in red rocks and canyons--very pretty, spectacular actually.  This flight crosses southern Colorado/Northern New Mexico.  There was some snow on the mountains but not as much as normal. 

Once you leave Colorado, the Great Plains extend almost all the way to Ohio!  Flatland, dotted with green fields, some of them round due to the circular irrigation systems.  Not as dramatic as the far West, but amazing for the scale.  It is where we all get a lot of our food from, so there is that!

Have flown this route many times, hundreds in the last twenty plus years.  Still enjoy a window seat to take in our great country.  If you haven't had a chance, do it sometime, fly coast-to-coast in a window seat on a sunny day.  Worth the price of admission!

Hope y'all have a good weekend! 

Dave