Tweet-Up at SMF

I love Twitter and apparently so do many of the folks I follow and who follow me. I feel especially lucky to have connected with men and women in aviation, folks who get excited about contrails like I do, folks who believe spending a day at an aviation museum and an airport is having a fulfilling day.

While I was in California for Veronika's birthday, I had arranged to Tweet-Up with four new friends. Elliott flew down to Sacramento from Seattle. He is @AlaskaAir, the customer service/social media representative for Alaska Airlines. He loves meeting people, and was one of the earliest birds on the Twitter scene. As for me, if Captain Sullenberger and First Officer Skiles hadn't have landed their US Airways A320 in the Hudson River the 16th of January of this year, I still would not have the foggiest idea what Twitter is. I understand why so many people I talk to on an average day don't know Twitter or what a tweet is, but that makes the interaction I have with my Twitter Crew all the more magical.

In addition to Elliott, a husband and wife duo drove down from Reno. The husband currently flies Oriental routes for a US legacy carrier, and the wife is the director of the National Aviation Heritage Invitational, an annual competition held in Reno, Nevada that attracts beautifully restored vintage aircraft from abroad.

My friends from Reno offered to pick me up in Elk Grove on their way in to Sacramento, which was a way out of the way for them to go especially after the lengthy and windy mountain highway through the Sierras. As a token of gratitude, I gave them a bottle of Merlot. Upon presenting it, they presented me with a bottle of Two Buck Chuck, with the Swift club's label attached.

The logistics worked out perfectly, for we arrived at the museum within a minute of Elliott's arrival. It was quite a meeting, it felt more like a reunion to me, for we knew a lot about each other and talked about Twitter memories.

Inside the museum, my eyes were drawn to a sky blue Pitts hanging from the ceiling. While I've been in airline limbo,waiting for an airline to come swoop me off of the ground, and turn me into a Cabin Queen, the Pitts represented the aerobatic arena of aviation that I was feeling attracted to. It baffles me that I think I can grasp the proper responses an aircraft requires in all kinds of attitudes when I haven't even flown straight and level for a full hour, not to mention I need A LOT more practice taxiing, and haven't performed a single takeoff or landing alone. All I can hope is someday that all this book knowledge will translate into skill.

My favorite display was the C-47 that we were actually able to enter. I got to sit up in the cockpit, and @atp4tr explained some of it's features. @elliottp and I took pictures of each other sitting in the cabin.

For lunch, we went to Sacramento Executive Airport and ate at the restaurant there. @Captain_Ron flew in to have lunch with us. After lunch, we parted. @elliottp drove me to the skating arena where Veronika's birthday party was being held. It was definitely too loud to hold any kind of conversation. After a little while, Elliott left to go meet some other friends.

What a fabulous day!