A THOUSAND SCREAMING BANSHEES
FROM CAP’N MERYL
Link to this week’s column at USAToday.com/travel:
Aug. 9th column
NOTE: Thanks to all of you who joined Al The Web Guy and me
on our teleconference last evening. Cap’n Al and I enjoyed
“meeting” several readers and hope we provided some
interesting general information. A second teleconference
will take place tonight, August 9th, same time (5:00 PM PT
and adjust for your time zone) for nervous fliers. You may
register for that call right now at www.flyingfearless.com
and you’re welcome to join the call even if you’re not
nervous about flying. (!)
This week was spent doing quite a bit of running around the
country for my own purposes. My first stop was Chicago
where I was obliged to attend a meeting at the airport. One
of my teenage readers, Anthony from New York, has been in
contact with me for months after discovering my site, column
and book. He’d written to say he’d like to meet me sometime
and would be passing through Chicago on a certain date.
I wasn’t in Chicago on that date, but then he wrote that
he’d returned to his home in New York as his flight was so
late due to weather he had no chance of connecting. There
was almost an exact repeat the next day, although this time
his flight was actually cancelled due to traffic saturation
at O’Hare, which is also usually weather related.
So was it to be “third time’s a charm” or “three strikes
you’re out”? In this case, apparently it was “third time’s
a charm.” Not only did Anthony and his sister Tiffany, who
was traveling with him, make it on the third attempt, but
that happened to be the very day I was in Chicago for my
meeting.
So I high-tailed it out of the meeting room as soon as we
were done and dashed through the airport to find Anthony and
Tiffany two terminals over, and the rest is history. We
took each other’s pictures and, as Anthony pointed out, it
seemed time for a new Album. Thus was born the Cap’n Meryl
& Friends Album. You can look for Anthony and Tiffany along
with Father Jeremiah Loch (I moved him and his family from
the overloaded U.S. Album). You’ll also see Captain Jimmy
Smith whom I met on a charter I flew some months ago to the
Middle East. He just wrote me this week, in fact, to tell
me he’d returned home to the U.S. for a couple of weeks to
meet his new baby son. Then it was straight back to duty.
As I cross paths with other readers I will add them to this
Album.
Captain Brown
On that same charter flight, I posed with my entire flight
crew along with Major General Webster whom I’ve since seen
occasionally on the evening news. This is one of the most
viewed photos in my entire Photo Gallery. If you’ve never
seen it, have a look:
http://General
After my business and personal meetings in Chicago, I came
home to Denver for a few days, then headed out to San
Francisco to do a live in-studio interview with Ronn Owens,
a popular talk-show host on the Bay Area’s largest radio
station. Many of my readers wrote to let me know they heard
the show, so let me say thanks for taking the trouble to
listen. There wasn’t one time during the entire hour that
every phone line wasn’t lit up and emails pouring in with
questions from listeners, and I feel it was a good
interview.
The night before the interview I invited my brother Ned and
his wife Irene to come from Berkeley to have dinner with me
downtown San Francisco. Ned was featured in my book “The
World At My Feet” in the chapter called “Let’s Go to Smokey
Joes!” In that chapter I described how I flew overhead his
Berkeley restaurant in a helicopter but got a little lost
and had to hover on down to read the street signs (through
binoculars) with my helicopter flight instructor Barry Lloyd
. There is a picture in the book of Ned and his clientele
standing in front of Smokey Joe’s which I took from the
helicopter and a picture of Barry Lloyd as well. Irene is
credited for the last picture in the book for a collage she
created for my parents’ 60th anniversary a few years ago.
For my newest subscribers: If you haven’t read “The World
At My Feet” and would like to order it now, you’ll find it
at the bottom of my Home Page at www.fromthecockpit.com.
There is a synopsis accessible from the Home Page as well.
Just click on the brown button that says “The Book!” and
don’t miss the seven minute audio clip about my run-in with
the Goodyear Blimp. The chapter in the book is called “The
Good Times Blimp” and this episode has pretty much become my
signature story when I speak publicly. Speaking of
speaking, Al The Web Guy has added a new button to my
website called “Professional Speaker.” So many of my
readers are business executives and might be interested, I
thought I might as well include it here:
www.fromthecockpit.com/profile.htm
So what does any of this have to do with screaming banshees?
Well, I’ll tell you: When I fly into San Francisco as a
flight crew member, our transportation is arranged and we
just jump on and go. This time I was on my own, and I
decided to check out Bart. When I lived in the Bay Area in
the late 80’s, I rode Bart a couple of times but it did not
yet extend out to the airport.
From my flight I followed the signs to the free “Airtrain”
which dropped me off at the airport Bart Station. Very
clean and very efficient. I got my ticket out of a machine
($4.95 for stops downtown San Francisco) and hopped aboard
the next train, which came along in about five minutes or
so. So far, so good.
The first part of the ride from SFO was above ground and
just like being on a regular train. Then we went
underground and the sound effects got very weird and very
loud. The noise started out rather like a voice howling
—like something from a Stephen King novel. Then it got
louder as it sounded like more and more and more voices
joined in. As the train got faster inside the tunnel, the
noise level grew so loud and the pitch so shrill and high I
had to cover my ears. It was incredible, really.
After one particular stop I was the one of only three people
in my car. There was a guy at the far end of the car and
one just across the aisle from me who appeared to be
sleeping. How anyone could sleep or even look relaxed
through that racket I have no idea.
Somewhere along the line, I decided to test the noise level
á la Cap’n Meryl. First, I spoke in a normal tone of voice.
Nothing. Couldn’t hear a thing except the screaming of the
train. Then I raised my voice somewhat. Nothing. Then I
tried a soft scream. Still nothing. So I went for it. I
sat there and screamed really, really loudly and tried to
match my pitch to that of the train. Unbelievable! I
couldn’t distinguish my own scream from the noise of the
train, but I couldn’t sustain it because it was just too
funny and I started to laugh instead at the absurdity of it.
The guy across the aisle still appeared to be asleep and the
guy at the far end never once looked my way.
So let me say this about Bart: I love it. I can’t imagine
taking any other transport from the airport again when I’m
doing my own transportation arranging. What a wonderful,
inexpensive, efficient way to get downtown San Francisco
from the airport. But take your earplugs! I actually carry
a spare set in my purse as I’m around airplanes so much, and
I did wind up using them. Other passengers didn’t seem to
mind a bit, but if you’re at all like me, heed the warning
and protect your ears.
After my radio interview it was the BART scream-machine back
to the airport, then a short flight down to San Diego to be
with my parents on my Mom’s birthday. We had a birthday
dinner the night before her birthday and a birthday
breakfast out the next day, and after that it was already
time to leave and come home to Denver. You’ll see I added a
picture of my Mom and me in the Denver to San Diego Album.
Meryl and Mother
Tomorrow (Wednesday, August 10th) it’s off to New York to
meet with my publishers about my next book, due out June
2006.
And that’s my news. I’m taking some more time off from
flying for now so…
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airspeed!
Cap’n Meryl
http://www.fromthecockpit.com
http://www.flyingfearless.com
**********************************************************
To UNSUBSCRIBE………
Link to this week’s column at USAToday.com/travel:
Aug. 9th column
NOTE: Thanks to all of you who joined Al The Web Guy and me
on our teleconference last evening. Cap’n Al and I enjoyed
“meeting” several readers and hope we provided some
interesting general information. A second teleconference
will take place tonight, August 9th, same time (5:00 PM PT
and adjust for your time zone) for nervous fliers. You may
register for that call right now at www.flyingfearless.com
and you’re welcome to join the call even if you’re not
nervous about flying. (!)
This week was spent doing quite a bit of running around the
country for my own purposes. My first stop was Chicago
where I was obliged to attend a meeting at the airport. One
of my teenage readers, Anthony from New York, has been in
contact with me for months after discovering my site, column
and book. He’d written to say he’d like to meet me sometime
and would be passing through Chicago on a certain date.
I wasn’t in Chicago on that date, but then he wrote that
he’d returned to his home in New York as his flight was so
late due to weather he had no chance of connecting. There
was almost an exact repeat the next day, although this time
his flight was actually cancelled due to traffic saturation
at O’Hare, which is also usually weather related.
So was it to be “third time’s a charm” or “three strikes
you’re out”? In this case, apparently it was “third time’s
a charm.” Not only did Anthony and his sister Tiffany, who
was traveling with him, make it on the third attempt, but
that happened to be the very day I was in Chicago for my
meeting.
So I high-tailed it out of the meeting room as soon as we
were done and dashed through the airport to find Anthony and
Tiffany two terminals over, and the rest is history. We
took each other’s pictures and, as Anthony pointed out, it
seemed time for a new Album. Thus was born the Cap’n Meryl
& Friends Album. You can look for Anthony and Tiffany along
with Father Jeremiah Loch (I moved him and his family from
the overloaded U.S. Album). You’ll also see Captain Jimmy
Smith whom I met on a charter I flew some months ago to the
Middle East. He just wrote me this week, in fact, to tell
me he’d returned home to the U.S. for a couple of weeks to
meet his new baby son. Then it was straight back to duty.
As I cross paths with other readers I will add them to this
Album.
Captain Brown
On that same charter flight, I posed with my entire flight
crew along with Major General Webster whom I’ve since seen
occasionally on the evening news. This is one of the most
viewed photos in my entire Photo Gallery. If you’ve never
seen it, have a look:
http://General
After my business and personal meetings in Chicago, I came
home to Denver for a few days, then headed out to San
Francisco to do a live in-studio interview with Ronn Owens,
a popular talk-show host on the Bay Area’s largest radio
station. Many of my readers wrote to let me know they heard
the show, so let me say thanks for taking the trouble to
listen. There wasn’t one time during the entire hour that
every phone line wasn’t lit up and emails pouring in with
questions from listeners, and I feel it was a good
interview.
The night before the interview I invited my brother Ned and
his wife Irene to come from Berkeley to have dinner with me
downtown San Francisco. Ned was featured in my book “The
World At My Feet” in the chapter called “Let’s Go to Smokey
Joes!” In that chapter I described how I flew overhead his
Berkeley restaurant in a helicopter but got a little lost
and had to hover on down to read the street signs (through
binoculars) with my helicopter flight instructor Barry Lloyd
. There is a picture in the book of Ned and his clientele
standing in front of Smokey Joe’s which I took from the
helicopter and a picture of Barry Lloyd as well. Irene is
credited for the last picture in the book for a collage she
created for my parents’ 60th anniversary a few years ago.
For my newest subscribers: If you haven’t read “The World
At My Feet” and would like to order it now, you’ll find it
at the bottom of my Home Page at www.fromthecockpit.com.
There is a synopsis accessible from the Home Page as well.
Just click on the brown button that says “The Book!” and
don’t miss the seven minute audio clip about my run-in with
the Goodyear Blimp. The chapter in the book is called “The
Good Times Blimp” and this episode has pretty much become my
signature story when I speak publicly. Speaking of
speaking, Al The Web Guy has added a new button to my
website called “Professional Speaker.” So many of my
readers are business executives and might be interested, I
thought I might as well include it here:
www.fromthecockpit.com/profile.htm
So what does any of this have to do with screaming banshees?
Well, I’ll tell you: When I fly into San Francisco as a
flight crew member, our transportation is arranged and we
just jump on and go. This time I was on my own, and I
decided to check out Bart. When I lived in the Bay Area in
the late 80’s, I rode Bart a couple of times but it did not
yet extend out to the airport.
From my flight I followed the signs to the free “Airtrain”
which dropped me off at the airport Bart Station. Very
clean and very efficient. I got my ticket out of a machine
($4.95 for stops downtown San Francisco) and hopped aboard
the next train, which came along in about five minutes or
so. So far, so good.
The first part of the ride from SFO was above ground and
just like being on a regular train. Then we went
underground and the sound effects got very weird and very
loud. The noise started out rather like a voice howling
—like something from a Stephen King novel. Then it got
louder as it sounded like more and more and more voices
joined in. As the train got faster inside the tunnel, the
noise level grew so loud and the pitch so shrill and high I
had to cover my ears. It was incredible, really.
After one particular stop I was the one of only three people
in my car. There was a guy at the far end of the car and
one just across the aisle from me who appeared to be
sleeping. How anyone could sleep or even look relaxed
through that racket I have no idea.
Somewhere along the line, I decided to test the noise level
á la Cap’n Meryl. First, I spoke in a normal tone of voice.
Nothing. Couldn’t hear a thing except the screaming of the
train. Then I raised my voice somewhat. Nothing. Then I
tried a soft scream. Still nothing. So I went for it. I
sat there and screamed really, really loudly and tried to
match my pitch to that of the train. Unbelievable! I
couldn’t distinguish my own scream from the noise of the
train, but I couldn’t sustain it because it was just too
funny and I started to laugh instead at the absurdity of it.
The guy across the aisle still appeared to be asleep and the
guy at the far end never once looked my way.
So let me say this about Bart: I love it. I can’t imagine
taking any other transport from the airport again when I’m
doing my own transportation arranging. What a wonderful,
inexpensive, efficient way to get downtown San Francisco
from the airport. But take your earplugs! I actually carry
a spare set in my purse as I’m around airplanes so much, and
I did wind up using them. Other passengers didn’t seem to
mind a bit, but if you’re at all like me, heed the warning
and protect your ears.
After my radio interview it was the BART scream-machine back
to the airport, then a short flight down to San Diego to be
with my parents on my Mom’s birthday. We had a birthday
dinner the night before her birthday and a birthday
breakfast out the next day, and after that it was already
time to leave and come home to Denver. You’ll see I added a
picture of my Mom and me in the Denver to San Diego Album.
Meryl and Mother
Tomorrow (Wednesday, August 10th) it’s off to New York to
meet with my publishers about my next book, due out June
2006.
And that’s my news. I’m taking some more time off from
flying for now so…
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airspeed!
Cap’n Meryl
http://www.fromthecockpit.com
http://www.flyingfearless.com
**********************************************************
To UNSUBSCRIBE………
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