My Skytress friend, Nicole, and I were walking up the street in Santa Fe. A homeless man was walking behind us yelling, “You’re all fakes!” Nicole and I continued walking up the street trying to ignore the gentleman. Still, he kept yelling out to everyone on the street. A kind woman who was standing in a shop doorway called out to us, “Ladies come inside”. Nicole and I stepped inside the shop. The gentleman continued up the street shouting, “You’re all fakes”. I turned to the woman, I smiled, and said, “Some days I think I am a fake”. We all laughed. The three of us stood in the shop for a few more moments. Nicole and I thanked the woman again for looking out for us. Then we left the shop and crossed the street to continue our shopping. I thought about the gentleman when we got back to our hotel in Albuquerque. The truth be told, the gentleman was correct. Nicole and I had been faking it all the way to Santa Fe.

Santa Fe is an hour drive from our Albuquerque layover. I’ve wanted to travel to Santa Fe ever since my Skytress friend, Meagan, took a day trip there on one of her long Albuquerque layovers. I’ll admit. I’ve been looking for a long commutable Albuquerque layover for months. I was excited when got my bid results and saw I would have a long Albuquerque layover at the end of August. I was even more excited when my Skytress friend, Nicole, swapped on my trip. Skytress Nicole is one of my favorite people. I’ll forever be grateful for her friendship and support after Ron died. She was a blessing I never knew I needed. But, God sure did. Skytress Nicole was going to be our Skytress In-Charge for our trip. Nicole hadn’t flown in-charge for 20 years. I knew she was extremely nervous about this fact. I tried to calm Nicole’s fears by telling her I would assist her with the “Skytress In-Charge” position. The passengers would never know Nicole hadn’t flown this position in ages. Yessiree. We would fake that part. I’m proud to report Nicole was so good at faking it, even I forgot she didn’t fly as the Skytress In-Charge on a regular basis. Now that’s the ultimate faker for you! Heck. Nicole was such an incredible Skytress In-Charge…. our crew will never forget there is an “e” at the end of the word turquoise. Unfortunately, I can’t divulge this story due to aviation security protocols. However, if you are a Skytress, Skyter or Pilot….I suspect you are giggling right now.

I can divulge to everyone Nicole and I created a new crew position on our trip. Yessiree. We created the “Lead Aircraft Lighting Engineer”. We officially created this position for Skyter James. Skyter James was, without a doubt, the best Lead Aircraft Lightning Engineer we could have asked for. Yessiree. He didn’t fake this position. Each leg Skyter James would get the Boeing 737-900 aircraft lights to work on the touch screen panel when we couldn’t. I’ll admit. Towards the end of the trip Nicole and I didn’t even try working the aircraft lights. Heck. We knew James had everything under control. This made him an absolute hero in our books! I’ll admit. I did feel a wee bit guilty I got to work with Skyter James more than Skytress Nicole did on our trip. I know for a fact James and I were having loads more fun in the back of the airplane than Nicole was having up front. Each leg of our trip Skytress Nicole had to deal with a problem passenger. I repeat. Every stinking leg! Egads! Unfortunately for Nicole, these passengers simply refused to fake being nice or normal.

Unfortunately for Nicole and me, Skyter James met up with his Aunt and Uncle on our Albuquerque layover. We would have loved spending the day in Santa Fe with him. Heck. James could have been our “Lead Backseat Engineer”. I’m sure Skyter James would have easily figured out how to lower the backseat solar shades on the car I rented. I unknowingly hit a button to make them go up. For the life of me, I never could figure out what button I hit. Embarrassingly, we had drawn solar shades the entire trip back to Albuquerque. Egads! The car I rented was from Turo. Now I’ve rented many cars in my Skytress career. However, I had never rented a car from Turo before. The big advantage of renting from Turo is the fact many hosts will bring the car to your location. Our hotel in Albuquerque didn’t have a designated hotel shuttle to the airport and car rental agencies. Thus, having a rental car brought directly to us was truly convenient. I’ll admit. I definitely felt out of my comfort zone booking through Turo. The process was completely different than renting from other car rental agencies. Of course, I faked it to Nicole that I had everything under control. Dealing with an individual person and knowing you would be driving their car was a wee bit stressful for me. However, I loved being able to choose the exact car I wanted to drive. For months now, I have been thinking about trading in my Suburban. One of the cars I am considering buying is the Genesis GV80. So of course, that is what I rented. My Turo car host, Sarah couldn’t have been more gracious. She texted me recommendations of where to park in Santa Fe. She even gave us restaurant recommendations. Both proved to be invaluable. If she could have given me the heads up about the solar shade button, that would have been perfect. I’ll admit. I may have been the designated driver for our road trip to Santa Fe. But, Skytress Nicole was definitely my designated driving instructor. Sadly, my Suburban doesn’t have the advanced technology features of the Genesis SUV. Good golly. I didn’t even fake how overwhelmed I was with the SUV’s technology. Fortunately, Nicole drives a BMW with many of the Genesis features. Heck. If it wasn’t for Nicole, I’m sure I’d still be at our layover hotel sitting in the car trying to start it.

Nicole and I talked nonstop on the hour drive to Santa Fe. When we arrived in Santa Fe we quickly discovered parking is a major issue. Fortunately for us, our Turo host suggested we park the car in the La Fonda Hotel parking garage. So we did just that. Astonishingly, we didn’t have any plans when we walked outside the parking garage. I know. Who comes to Santa Fe for the day without a plan? Well, Skytress Nicole and I did. Heck. Who needs a set agenda? Sure. We had a very basic idea of what we wanted to do. The rest of the day we just faked it like we had a well- thought out plan.

I knew I wanted to visit the two famous churches in Santa Fe. The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and the Loretto Chapel. We visited the Cathedral Basilica first. The gentleman at the information desk gave us a quick history lesson on the Basilica. On the gentleman’s suggestion, Nicole and I walked to the small adobe chapel located on the side of the church. The adobe chapel is an original part of the church from 1714. Although it was small in size, it was simply beautiful. In fact, the small altar and artifacts housed in the adobe chapel made it feel extremely special. I felt very peaceful standing in the chapel. Nicole and I lit candles. I lit a candle for my Dad and Ron. I suspected Nicole lit a candle for her Dad. Neither one of us mentioned who we lit our candles for. But, God knew. My heart swelled when I saw Pope John Paul II’s Zucchetto on display. I immediately thought of my Dad. My Dad, sister Patti, and brother Brian were blessed to see Pope John Paul II when he came to St. Louis on his papal visit in 1999. My Dad was a very proud Catholic and cherished his faith. These days I cherish the fact my Dad not only got to see the Pope, but, saw a future Saint.

After feeding our souls at the Cathedral Basilica, Skytress Nicole and I headed to The Shed to feed our hungry bellies. The Shed came highly recommended by several people. Skytress Nicole and I ate in the adobe hacienda part of the restaurant. This part of the property dates back to 1692. Admittedly, I knew before I saw the menu that I was going to have chicken enchiladas. Ron loved making enchiladas. Dios Mi’o! Ron made excellent enchiladas. Try as I might, I can never make my chicken enchiladas taste as delicious as his. So every opportunity I get to have enchiladas, I do. Nicole and I both ordered the chicken enchiladas with the Christmas sauce. Santa Fe is known for it’s Christmas sauce. Christmas sauce is red and green enchilada sauce on your food. Boy, oh boy! The Christmas sauce made me as happy as a child on Christmas morning.

I was just as happy when Nicole and I visited the Loretto Chapel. The chapel is known for its miraculous staircase. Amazingly, Nicole and I experienced a little miracle of our own as soon as we sat down in the chapel. The audio tape explaining the miracle of the staircase and the history of the chapel started from the beginning as soon as we sat in the pew. I sat and marveled at the exquisite architecture of the chapel as we listened to the audio coming from the speakers. I smiled listening to the story of how the nuns prayed to St. Joseph…the patron saint of carpenters….for a carpenter to come build a staircase for them to access the choir loft. Other carpenters told the nuns it was simply impossible to build a staircase in the church due to the space constraints. Undeterred, the nuns prayed. God listened. The nuns’ prayers were answered. A carpenter did come. He requested he be able to work alone in the church. The nuns granted his simple request. The carpenter miraculously built the staircase without using nails or glue. He built it out of wood completely unknown in the area. When he finished constructing the staircase, he disappeared before the nuns could pay him or discover his name. But, God knew. Isn’t that a glorious story? Nicole and I walked over to admire the miraculous staircase. Then we strolled into the gift shop. I had unyielding faith I would find the perfect Christmas ornament to take home. And I did! Nicole got a Christmas ornament, too. There is no faking it…I’m always happy when my quirky Christmas ornament collecting rubs off on my friends.

Nicole and I walked round Santa Fe after we left the Loretto Chapel. I even bought another Santa Fe Christmas ornament. I know. This doesn’t shock anyone. You might be shocked to know I left my cell phone in the ladies rest room, though. Not as shocked as I was. Egads! I wish I was faking this story. But, I’m not. I left my cell phone in the ladies restroom at the La Fonda Hotel as we were getting ready to head back to Albuquerque. Thankfully it was still there when we ran back to the ladies room. I was still saying prayers of thanks when we arrived back in Albuquerque. I was grateful I had my cell phone and more importantly the Genesis was still in one piece. To celebrate, Nicole and I went to eat pizza. Okay. I faked that part. We went to eat because we were hungry. Of course, we tried to fake ourselves into believing we didn’t have to get up early the next morning to go to work. But, we couldn’t. However in my head, instead of calling it going to work, I called it taking the long way home.

The crew was genuinely excited to see each other in the morning. The crew van chatter consisted of everyone telling what they did on our Albuquerque layover. We were still upbeat when we got on the aircraft. Unfortunately I can’t fake it and say the rest of the day was uneventful. Heck. I already told you about the passengers that refused to fake they were normal and nice. Regrettably, we had a situation on our flight back to Atlanta from Austin that also wasn’t normal or nice. Gee wiz. If Nicole was slightly contemplating flying in-charge again, this situation quelled that. Yessiree. In the rush to close the aircraft door on time, the gate agents in Austin accidentally mistagged several passenger bags. Egads! Skyter James diligently handled one of our passenger’s mistagged bag issues. He along with Skytress Nicole were able to get the gentleman’s bag reunited with him when we got to Atlanta. We aren’t sure what happened to the other passenger bags that were mistagged. I’m fairly certain one day I will be flying a trip when a passenger tells me about the time they checked their bag in Austin and it didn’t show up at baggage claim. Do I fake I have no idea what they are talking about? Decisions….decisions.

There are many times I don’t have any idea how I’m going to make it through a particular situation. I like to say I’ll “ fake it until I make it”. So, again, the gentleman walking up the street in Santa Fe was correct. I am a fake. Faking you know what you are doing isn’t always the worst thing. Heck. I had absolutely no idea if I made the right decision renting a car through Turo. Or even if going to Santa Fe would be worth it. Fortunately, faking our way to Santa Fe turned out to be a blast. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Flying with Skytress Nicole and Skyter James on this trip was blast, too. They are the real deal when it comes to outstanding Skytresses and Skyters. More importantly, they are the real deal when it comes to being genuine caring, compassionate people that love to have a great time. Yessiree. Some things you can’t fake in life. If I ever visit Santa Fe again, I’ll be sure to tell the gentleman walking up the street this very thing.