It has been pointed out to me that for you, this is known as Treason Day.

So Happy Treason Day to all of you,

Or the fireworks, or any of the other recreational activities you might do today.

While we clelbrate it on the 4th of July, that isn’t the name of the holiday…

It is Independence Day.

A day as sacred to me as Easter, although for different reasons.

It is the anniversary of the birth of the greates nation on earth. One that people risk their lives to get to…..and about the nation with (despite many attempts to change it) the most freedoms and the best chance at upward mobility of any of the nations in this world. Where one can ride to the top on sheer willingnes and hard work and ability. Where everyone has the same rights, and the same freedoms.

Please, while doing your cookouts, take a moment to refect on the genius of those men who signed the Declaration and who, in that deed, began the country we call home today.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

So, done with the pupose of the trip, buying an aircraft, I got into the Tiny Nissan rental and headed northward.

Had to stop and fuel up before I left town, and then driove north on the state highways for an hour until I got onto I-75, and then, since the road was clear, I unleased all 73.6 horespower of the Nissan engine…..Did I mention that this car had absolutely zero redeeming qualities? I mean, yes, the turn signals worked, and the AC blew (sorta) cold air, and that was about it for the good qualities…..I will say that given enough room to accelerate it would get up to (ahem) 85 or so and could cruise with traffic if you paid enough attention to what was up ahead and reacted accordingly. The tiny engine did spin like a sewing machine motor though. 4000 +Rpm at 85 MPH. But hey, rental car…..

I thought I had plenty of time to get back to ATL, and I did….because my flight didn’t leave until 10 PM….so I didn’t push it. Despite a few slowdowns, I got back to the Rental Car return point with time to spare. They must really be having issues with finding employees, becaus ethere were ACRES of cars waiting to be checked in, and they weren’t checking them in. Just drop your car and go….

So then, again, a train to the terminal, TSA line (nuch better and professional in ATL than MDW (but that is a low bar) and then another train to the gate,

Got to the gate at 8:30 pm or so, plenty of time for a 10 Pm flight (9:30 boarding).

I had originally planned to take an ealier flight, but all the flights that left for MDW earlier were one or two stop flights that arrived withiin a half hour of the time this later (direct) flight….which was scheduled (note that word carefully) to arrive at 11 PM local….so I made reservations for the direct flight that was scheduled (notethat word again) to depart at 10 Atlanta time and arrive at Chicago at 11 Chicago time…..

And that is where Southwest then again showed their ineptitude….the gate was occupied by about 300 people half waiting for a flight scheduled to depart before us….Finally that plane arrived (at 9 PM) and did the deplane/emplane dance….then that plane pulled away from the gate at 10 PM….and we all waited .

And waited

And waited.

And….waited.

Finally, about 11 15, the gate attendant announced that our flight was “on the descent” into ATl….and a half hour later told us that it was “on the final descent”. and 20 minutes later, was on final. (we obviously had different definitions of what those terms meant). At about 12:30 or so, we were told that our plane had landed (finally) and would be at the gate “momentarily”.

Now, I know that ATL is a BIG airport and all, but it shouldn’t take 25 minutes to go from “landed” to “at the gate”. But bitching about it to the gate attendant who couldn’t make anything happen wasn’t gonna gain anything, so we waited…..and waited.

Finally, at 1:15, the plane pulled up and 10 minutes later people began stumbling out of the jetway door.

We finally began boarding at 1:45 or so, and what with everything, didn’t depart until 2:15.

Geh.

The departure was normal, as was the climb. No beverage service as there was some significant turbulence, buth they did hand out salty snacks…

Arrival at MDW was at 3:15 local, and we deplaned.

Now I had an hour and fifteen minute drive home.

I got home at 4:20 and crashed.

Southwest used to be so much better. Hopefully, I won’t have to use them again as I will have my own aerial transportation.

But I BOUGHT A PLANE!

So I arrived at the airport at the agreed upon time: 8:30 Am local, to meet the owner of the 340 I had been negotiating on. He was a nice guy, enthusiastic about his airplane, eager to show it to me, and very open about the good and the bad points.

We drove to the hangar, opened the doors, and there she was. a 1980 cessna 340A with the Ram conversion….325 HP engines, Vortex generators, Fowler flaps, all the things that had been on my shopping list…a real cross country machine that could also get into small strips….

We pulled it out into the sulight, and I did my exterior inspection, then the interior inspection…A nice new interior, new seat coverings, new carpet, new wall coverings, etc. The panel had a lot of nice new avionics mised with some older stuff, but it was pretty much as adverised. 750/430/A1000, a decent multifunction display with radar, etc.

We pulled it out and ran up the engines. then taxiied to the FBO and waited for the pilot to arrive….the guy selling the plane had had a heart attack and would not be able to fly this aiplane under Basic Med as it was over 6000 grosss, so he needed an experienced 340 pilot along as PIC to make the insurance company happy…while I am a licensed and certificated multi engine pilot, the insurance companies generally want people to ahve at least 50 hours in-type to act as PIC….So the extra pilot to make the insurance company happy to act as PIC

I we took off,  climbed, flew, made sure the autopilot worked, the avionics worked (tracked a VOR, and an ILS, etc). climbed high enough to see that the pressurization worked, trimmed the plane to make sure that it flew straight and level (and not sideways like one of the other 340’s I looked at did) and did a general but thorough checkout. I liked the plane…there will be some small things I will change, but for the most part it is as I want.

I The pilot landed the plane and we spent a few minutes discussing the logistics of getting it to an expert for a Pre-Buy inspection, and a few things that needed to be fixed by the owner before I bought it….like the air conditioner, which was non functional.

Details agreed upon, we called the broker and informed him of the slight changes to the details, and shook hands, and I started for Atlanta for my trip home.

THat was the best part of the day….the travel home was less than perfect.

Part three soon.

But I ended up agreeing to purchase the 340.

Left the house at 11 AM to go to Chicago Midway airport. for a 2:15 PM flight on Southwest to Atlanta. There was the expected slowdown due to road construction on I-80/94, and then additional traffic issues, but having planned for that I got to the parking lot at MDW at the expected time…

That was the best part of the trip.

For some reason, after waiting in line for the expected TSA theater, the folks running the baggage xray(ish) machine took exception to my cheap $25 Casio watch….for what reason I do not have a clue….They ran it through the scanner 5 times, and finally I told them they could keep the watch as I had to get to the gate (WTF? 15 grams of plastic and electronics is a danger to the travelling public?)  I’m not sure why the cheap Casio was of such interest, but they apparently found it fascinating….

I made it to the gate with time to spare, only to discover thathe plane was running 30 minutes alte….I considered (momentarily) going back to try to get my watch back, but that would have required that I leave the “secure” area and then go through the TSA probulation line again, so I chalked the watch up to the cost of travelling…

Then the delay was changed to an hour.

Then an hour and 15 minutes.

Then an hour 30

Then to 1:45…aaanddd a few minutes later to 2 hours.

The plane did show up unexpectedly about an hour and 45 minutes late, so thaere was that good news….

Then they debarked everyone, and loaded us up. I had a B place in line, so I was able to find a place to put my bag in the overhead bin and a decent seat towards the middle of the plane. Soon enough the plane was full and they closed the doors and pushed us back…and that is where we again came off the rails.

An hour and 15 minutes while they “loaded the bags on board”.

We finally taxiied, and took off…3 hours and 30 minutes late.

It was a smooth fight and we arrived in ATL with no issues…. I retrieved my bag and wasted no time getting off and taking the train to the rental car counter…Where I enountered a line of about 35 people and ONE clerk moving at a pace one (but only one) notch faster than “dead”. (the other car rental counters had similar lines and a similar lack of staffing, so I guess they can’t get employees anywhere in Atlanta)

After 50 minutes or so, I get my turn and he takes my information, looks up my reservation, gets pissy when I decline their insurance and their inflated gas pricing, and gives me a car spot assignment number.

I walk about a half mile to the very spot and find it empty. As in no car there, just two lines on either side and yellow painted 4 digit number at the front….Checked the number he had written down and yes, I was at the correct parking space…but there was no car. Just bare concrete with empty air abover it. No one was in attendance at that part of the garage, so (just to have proof) I took a picture of the empty parking spot (with the number clearly visible) and walked back to the clerk at his desk. He tried to get me to go to the back of the line, but I was insistant (not wanting to wait while he (slowly) processed 40 other people), and he insisted I had gone to the incorrect parking spot until I showed him the photo of the empty place (with the correct number) on my cell phone. At that point he allowed as there might be a mistake and gave me a different number for a parking spot for a car…I made him write it down so there could be no mistake.

Walked back to the garage and YES! there was a car there….but no keys that I could find. I even tried to start it with the “Push to Start” button to make sure the keys were not hidden somwhere inside the car, but no joy….The car did not come alive ….the keys were not in the car. Taking a deep breath, I returned another half mile to the desk…where the line was now about 50 poeple and still one clerk. I again asked for a car that I could take off the lot. He gave me another spot number and again I walked to the garage. Yes, there was indeed a car there…..but it was locked.

I was about to lose my shit at that point ….As in come uncorked…blow a gasket…. as I was tired and frustrated…but before I went back to the counter, I took some deep calming breaths and counted to 38 in sanskrit and other such methods to calm down so I would not make things worse with violence……… when a kid with a “Dollar” Rent-A Car vest pulled up in a very tiny Nissan, still dripping water from a recent washing. “Is this one ready to go?” I asked. “Yessir” he replied….So I tossed my bag in the back seat and drove to the check-out gate….Where the dude manning it told me “This is not the car you were assingned”….”I know”, I replied…”But the other times I tried to get a car there were issues”….after getting my tale of woe, he then fixed the paperwork and let me leave the lot (I suspect the first car that I was assigned my have been taken by an equally frustrated customer having had a similar experience).

Finally! On the road. I only have to drive for 3 more hours!

Which would have been true, exept that the State of Georgia does repaving and other roadwork at night…..and in some places they took 6 lanes nown to ONE….(actually, the delays were not that bad compared to what would have happend in Indiana and Illinois…maybe the Georgia driver are used to this and simply merge better…I dunno).

Oh and did I mention the very nice young lady (of questionable virtue) at the Truck Stop (where I stopped for a cup of coffee and burger (I hadn’t eaten since the morning) to keep me going another hour of driving) who offered to take my mind off my troubles? (I politely declined her offer of  services)

So after what should have been a 3 hour drive that was more like 4 and a half, I arrived at the hotel. Nearly 5 hours later than planned.

“There is an issue with your room, sorry sir”.

I just laughed….

“Is there a bed?” ….”yes”

“clean linens?……”Oh yes sir”

“Towels? Does the shower work?” ….”Yes sir”

“Does the AC work?” “Yes sir”

“No snakes or scorpions or ants or other critters or  toxic, deadly hazards (demons, ghosts or portals to another dimension)?”…..”No sir”

“Then I will take it. ”

Turns out one wall had no working outlets, but I really didn’t care.

I tumbled into bed at 2:30 or so AM local and slept until 6:45 (which is late for me) and thus begins the next chapter……