Las Vegas...New Mexico!

Since John actually had 3 days off, and my mom is here (so she can watch the animals) we decided to do a one day trip to Las Vegas...New Mexico!


We had driven by Las Vegas a lot on the way to Denver, but never stopped, besides to get gas. So off we went! After exploring a while I decided I LOVE this town. There is tons of history and these pics are from the train station, which I love and (if you couldn't tell) was recently renovated.


This is the La Castaneda Hotel. It was built in 1898, and is next to the train station as it used to be a stop over hotel for the train passengers. This was by FAR my FAVORITE place in Las Vegas. If you look closely in the window you can see a Bud Light sign that is lit up.


This is what La Castaneda looks like from the train tracks.


This is another view of the hotel from the back.


This is the bar inside the La Castaneda. Remember there was a neon Bud Light sign in the window? The rest of the hotel is closed and the bar is only open from 3pm-8pm. The lady who owns it has owned it for 40 years! She used to have a restaurant open and the ballroom but said that the bar was the only thing that made money. It's now for sale so I felt lucky to be able to go in at all and chat with her, it was fascinating. I hope to get up there again before she sells and see if she will let wander me around the place it is 25,000 sq feet!


This is the hotel we actually stayed in the Plaza Hotel. It was built in 1882 and was very interesting as well, but I think the La Castaneda was much more of a unique looking building.

Overall we had a great time and actually may be going back this Saturday, of course who knows if John will have Saturday off. Such is the life of a pilots wife, especially a pilot on reserve!

A Tail or Two..................

Two Allegiant Tails!

So this was John's first day flying the actually 80 and not the sim! His first trip was LAS-PIA (Peoria IL)...his old stomping grounds. PIA was actually where he got his commercial ratings so he figures he has come full circle. His CA was nice to take the picture then send it to his email so I could snag it out and embarrass him by putting it on here :) Over all according to John his first day was fine and he was glad he didn't bounce the plane like he did the first time he landed the RJ. He did say it was nice to only fly 2 legs and be done for the day, at XJT it was more like 4 or 5 legs a day! He has 4 more days of flying before he has a day off....welcome to reserve I guess!

Flying High..and Never Left the Ground; My ride in the Simulator!

After we were done in the sim. John made sure to point out the MD-88/87 on the side!

So I have been in LAS for the last few days, because I got to sit in on John's LOFT (line oriented flight training) which is a real time flight in the sim. A big thanks to the super nice people at the training center for allowing me to sit in on their LAX-LAS round trip! It was really interesting to get to see what John actually does, so many times as the wife of a pilot you NEVER get the chance to see your husband in action, because well..TSA..FAA..and all won't allow you in the jumpseat. There are special circumstances where they will, but they are few and far between.

So we started the trip with paper work; which takes a shockingly (is that a word?) long time. Then there were a few minor problems before take off, cargo doors being left open stuff like that. Once in the air (it was John's leg to fly) there was a "medical emergency." So I got to learn who they call, they actually have a Dr. they can talk to in flight! Then an uneventful landing, other than having the paramedics meet the airplane.

Then we had a brief break while John and his sim partner switched places, also bathroom break, and water break.

Back in the box with John was non-flying pilot and ran the checklists and switches while John's sim partner got pounded a little more though, loss of oil pressure, engine failure, had to divert, and do a single engine land!

I feel so lucky to have gotten to sit in on this "sim ride." I will have more photo's soon as John's sim partner took some but has yet to email them to us!