Every time I fly to Charlotte I think to myself, “I could live here”. Mind you, all I’ve ever experienced of Charlotte is the Charlotte airport, our short Charlotte airport layover hotel and our long airport layover hotel. Still, for some reason Charlotte speaks to my soul. When I got my October schedule I saw I had two Charlotte airport layovers. I was perfectly fine with the trips. However, something inside of me longed to have more time in Charlotte. Of course, you all know the saying, “Be careful of what you wish for”. I’ll admit. I wasn’t careful what I wished for. Lo and behold, I did get to have more time in Charlotte. Yessiree. For one full day I was a bonafide resident of Charlotte. My mailing address was the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. My home was our Boeing 717. It was a nice home. Unfortunately, it came as is. “As is”,…as in…it came with two mechanics working on a mechanical issue. Egads. This was definitely not how I envisioned living in Charlotte.

My morning in Charlotte started off pretty decently. My shower water was hot….and I made it down to the lobby on-time for our scheduled pickup. Sadly, we didn’t have enough time for me to get a chai tea latte from Starbucks at the airport. But, I consoled myself with the fact we had a 3-hour sit in Atlanta after we arrived. I could get my tea there and have plenty of time to savor it. The Captain was standing in the first-class cabin when I stepped into the aircraft. I realized he was standing there because two mechanics were sitting in the cockpit. I didn’t think much of the situation. I was trying to get my bags stowed so we could start boarding the aircraft. Heck. I had a chai tea latte waiting for me in Atlanta. Our Skytress In-Charge, Renee, was getting settled in the galley when the Captain told her to tell the agents to hold off boarding. I’ll admit. I still didn’t think much of the situation. Heck. It was day 2 of our 3-day trip. I don’t start to panic about much until day three. Yessiree. Day three is all about getting back to base on time…and me catching my flight home. The Captain and I were talking about our flights for the day when one of the mechanics stepped out of the cockpit. He informed the Captain the program check they ran to clear the cockpit message system, didn’t clear the system. I could tell from the mechanic’s demeanor that we wouldn’t be boarding the aircraft anytime soon. The Captain followed the mechanic into the jetway. Skytress Renee and I sat down in first class and waited for an update. A few minutes later my airline phone pinged. I got a message our 8:40am departure was now going to depart at 10am. I immediately looked at our passenger’s connections. Everyone still had at least on hour to make their connections. So, I felt good about the situation. Since it was only 8am, Skytress Renee, Skytress Barbie and I decided we would go get something to eat. Skytress Renee gave the Captain her phone number. She told him to call her if things changed and we needed to rush back to board the airplane. Of course, we didn’t anticipate getting a call from the Captain.

We all chuckled when I mentioned the passengers were going to panic when we opened the jetway door into the gatehouse. I’ll admit. The passengers DID panic. There were groans and comments about it not being a good sign if we were going to get food. I felt awful. Yessiree. I’ve been in their situation more times than I can count.

The mechanics were in the back of the airplane when we returned with our food. They had opened a ceiling panel near the aft jumpseat. Heck. I’m not an airline mechanic. But, even I knew our mechanical was not an easy fix if the aft panel was dropped to fix an issue in the cockpit. Immediately I started to fear for the passenger’s connections in Atlanta. I had just finished my bowl of grits when my airline phone pinged again. Egads. Our delay had been extended. I decided to walk back into the main cabin to put some utensils in my lunch bag. The cabin was dark because the mechanics had to turn off the ground power. Plus, all the window shades were closed in the back of the airplane. I’ll admit. I’m not a fan of closed window shades. Thus, I felt compelled to open a few of them to let some sunlight shine into the cabin. I could see the mechanic was using his flashlight to see better. So, I decided to walk back to the last row of windows and opened the window shades. The mechanic laughed when I did this. He said he normally works the night shift. Heck. Working in the dark is normal for him. He then explained he and the other mechanic were looking for a wire that was connected to the cockpit message system. He showed me a paper diagram of where the wires stretched throughout the aircraft. He said they had figured out the wire they were looking for went from the aft-ceiling panel to the belly of the aircraft. So, he was closing up the aft-panel and was heading to the belly of the plane to find the wire and troubleshoot. Yessiree. I’m not an airline mechanic. However, my gut was telling me we would be lucky to make our flight to Lexington.

Eventually, my crew and I decided to go on an airport adventure to check out our new neighborhood. Not surprisingly, we had grown tired of sitting on the airplane. We all agreed we needed to get the blood flowing in our legs. We amused ourselves by walking up and down the various concourses in the Charlotte airport. Lucky for us, our new neighborhood had a lot of amenities. We sauntered into a few shops and talked to a few friendly airport employees….I mean our new neighbors. Then we stopped in to check out our neighborhood Starbucks. You know every good neighborhood has one. Our’s was centrally located near our Boeing 737 home. I was ecstatic to get my tea. Yessiree. I had given up hope after several phone pings that I would get my chai tea latte in Atlanta. When we got back to the airplane… or rather our Charlotte 737 home…we all received another update. Our flight to Lexington had been removed from our rotation. We would be living in Charlotte a wee bit longer. We were now scheduled to now fly to Atlanta at 1:45pm and then pick up our rotation. Once we arrived in Atlanta we would have plenty of time to work our flight to Omaha.

I tried to pass the time by working on my blog. Not this blog post, though. No siree. I was trying to edit a post I had already written for this week. In between my writing and editing, my phone pinged with several new departure updates. The Captain learned from the mechanics they needed a part to be flown in from Atlanta to fix the message system. Skytress Renee quickly looked up the flights arriving from Atlanta and rattled off their arrival times. We didn’t want to be pessimistic. But, everyone on the crew was now referring to themselves as a resident of Charlotte. I decided to look at my Facebook page to mindlessly pass more time. I saw a post from Father Jim Sichko. Father Jim posted his flight to Lexington was aborted on landing. Good golly. This was the flight we were supposed to be working to Lexington. I no sooner relayed this information to my crew when my phone pinged again. Egads! Our departure to Atlanta was now delayed until 8pm.

Our Skytress In-Charge, Renee, called crew accommodations when our departure moved to 8pm. We were now legally in a position to request a hotel room to wait out our delay. The person in crew accommodations told Renee to hold tight. The person explained crew accommodations needed our rotation to be formally updated so they could book our hotel rooms. A few minutes later our our airline phones pinged again. We all laughed. Our 8pm departure to Atlanta was miraculously changed to a 4pm departure. Seconds later our phones pinged again. Our Omaha layover was gone. We would now have a domicile layover in Atlanta and pick up our rotation the next day. I was giddy our rotation had become ridiculously easy. Yet, I found myself a wee bit sad. What can I say? Charlotte had become my new home. Heck. Our airport neighborhood even had a healthy smoothie shop. I know this because my crew and I stopped there as we took one last walk around the neighborhood. I consoled myself over my impending move with a pineapple mango smoothie. I’ll admit. It did ease the pain.

Finally, at 5pm we pushed back from our gate to head to Atlanta with three passengers onboard. The three passengers were airline employee family members. Thankfully, our Charlotte gate agents were able to accommodate our morning passengers on different flights to their destinations. I’ll admit. The three family members were ecstatic to be sitting in first class…even if it was only for 43 minutes. Heck. Our drive from the Atlanta airport to our layover hotel was twice as long as our flight. Still, you take the first-class seat victories whenever you can!

Leaving my Charlotte Douglas International home for my temporary housing in Atlanta wasn’t too hard of a transition for me. Our hotel in Atlanta was quite swanky. Needless to say, my bed was much more plush and comfortable than my first-class seat I sat in all day. I felt like the ultimate Sky Goddess as I laid in bed and talked on my phone with my friend Shannon for two hours. I’ll admit. I’d love to have another domicile layover at this hotel. I definitely know I will have more layovers in Charlotte. Heck. I have another short layover in Charlotte in a few days. Plus, I’ll be flying in and out of Charlotte five times this month. Heck. I’ll be in and out of Charlotte so many times this month, I may start referring to myself as a long-time Charlotte resident.

I was perfectly content knowing I had flown my last Anchorage trip for the season. Then out of habit I looked to see if we had any Anchorage trips for October. I’ll admit. I became instantly giddy when I saw we indeed had a couple Anchorage trips for October. Better yet, there was an Anchorage trip on a Tuesday. I typically fly Tuesday through Thursday. When I saw the trip, I emphatically knew Alaska was calling me to fly back there one more time. Needless to say, I put Anchorage down as my first trip choice. When our October bids came out several days later, I was ecstatic to discover I would be going back to Anchorage. Better yet. I’d be flying with my Skyter friend Wayne.

I flew my first Anchorage trip this summer with Skyter Wayne. We then flew another Anchorage trip together a few weeks later. If we weren’t flying together, we were still flying Anchorage trips every week. Yessiree. Skyter Wayne and I enthusiastically answered Alaska’s weekly call to come back to Anchorage. Fortunately for us, Skytress Lucy and Skytress Kenisha answered the call for this last Anchorage trip, too.

From the moment we met at the gate, I knew we were going to have a marvelous trip. Our excitement for laying over in Anchorage was palpable. When we learned Skytress Kenisha was bringing her boyfriend Ron on our trip to celebrate his birthday, we made him an honorary crew member. The five of us created such an instant bond, numerous passengers asked us if we flew together all the time. They said they never saw a flight crew having such fun flying together. That didn’t surprise us. Our primary objective on this trip was to have fun. Boy, did we have fun!

This trip to Anchorage was slightly different from my previous layovers. First, we were laying over at a different hotel. Yessiree. We were back at our airline’s beloved Anchorage layover hotel. I’ll admit. This hotel outshines the other hotel by the bushels. Plus, this hotel is located closer to the coveted Snow City Cafe. Alleluia and amen for this! The other noticeable differences on this trip were the changes in the weather and in the amount of daylight. The consistent upper 60 degree weather I enjoyed all summer was gone. The temperature now struggled to get above freezing. The sun, also, struggled to shine for 11 hours. This was a drastic change from the 23 hours of sunlight I had become accustomed to this summer. I’ll admit. I didn’t mind these changes in the least. In my mind, the new changes all added another layer to the Anchorage charm.

We all agreed to meet early in the morning to have breakfast at the Snow City Cafe. Out of habit I checked the wait list at the cafe before I left my room. I couldn’t believe there wasn’t a wait time. I, also, couldn’t believe how dark it was outside when we headed to the restaurant at 7:30 am. The sun was still fast asleep. Amazingly, it was well past 8am before the sun started to make her appearance. I was flabbergasted by this fact. Even more amazing was the fact the Snow City Cafe had available seating the entire time we were there. This summer the restaurant was always filled to the gills with lively patrons eating…..and patrons waiting to get a table. We took advantage of the empty restaurant and relaxed atmosphere. We lingered in our booth after we finished eating our breakfast and swapped numerous stories. One flying story led to another….and to another. What can I say? Skytresses and Skyters are known for telling the best flying stories. Our crew bond grew tighter with each story we told. Our laughter grew heartier with each story we told. Heck, yes. It was the perfect way to start the day in Anchorage.

Skytress Kenisha and Ron scheduled a sightseeing trip to see glaciers, the rain forest and the animal conservatory. So, after breakfast we parted our ways. Skytress Lucy, Skyter Wayne and I hung out in the city with the local Anchoragites. The tourists were almost nonexistent. Well, except for the three of us. The three of us happily zig-zagged from one shop to another. I bought a fury winter hat I had been eyeing for weeks. Skytress Lucy bought a sweatshirt for herself and a pooping moose for her nephew. Skyter Wayne bought a vase from Paul Newman’s estate and a unique Iditarod pocket watch. We all bought Samovar tea. Heck. It wouldn’t be a trip to Anchorage if we didn’t. We planned on having baked Alaska ice cream cones from Wild Scoops. Sadly, we discovered they were closed for the season. We, also, discovered the fishermen weren’t fishing in Ship Creek. We consoled ourselves by taking selfies in the middle of the streets with the snow capped mountains in the background. The mountains glistened all around us. I swear the mountains looked even closer than they had all summer long. Even Denali seemed closer. Yessiree. We had a perfect view of Denali on this trip. Thankfully, Mother Nature gave us a crystal clear day to see all the glorious mountains surrounding the city. Everywhere I looked I saw one spectacular view after another. I’ll admit. I was completely in my winter-loving element. I couldn’t stop smiling. Yessiree. I walked around all day with a dopey smile on my face.

The next morning the crew van was filled with laughter as we exchanged stories with each other. Skytress Kenisha and Ron shared the most incredible pictures from their tour. We enthusiastically filled them in on our adventures….and how we didn’t stop Skyter Wayne from purchasing items in every store we walked into. Of course, we laughed about the pooping moose. Skytress Lucy showed our pilots the pooping moose she bought for her nephew. They couldn’t contain their laughter over it either. Heck. It’s a pooping moose! Pooping moose bring out the inner kid in all of us. Of course, we took our crew pictures with the moose in the airport before we headed to our gate. This time, though, we took a picture standing next to the moose’s bum. What can I say? Pooping moose and moose butts brought out the inner kid in all of us.

I’m so grateful everyone on my crew heard Alaska calling them. I definitely have a another suitcase full of new Anchorage memories. More importantly, Skytress Lucy, Skytress Kenisha and honorary Skyter Ron have become amazing new friends to Skyter Wayne and me. Alaska may be called the last frontier. But, I choose to think of Alaska as the place where lasting friendships are created. I looked to see if we had any Anchorage trips for November. Sadly, we do not. I’ll keep looking each month though. I know Alaska will be calling sooner than later. I definitely can’t wait to answer the call and head back to Anchorage. I have more adventures to experience and more forever friendships to discover. So, until then, I’ll keep my phone on.