Shout out to my boy!

For those of you who didn't know, or haven't learned yet, Dane (and his brother) absolutely love things like planes, fire trucks, police cars, anything with a siren, helicopters, and everything big that fits into that category. It is a little peice of him that will be "little-boy" forever, and I think it is really cute. A few months ago when we were in California, we went to go see a member in St. Helena that had really helped the missionaries a ton. He is a member of the St. Helena volunteer fire department. Yep, the entire fire department is run by volunteers and funded by the government. Dane's friend took us to see the station and even let us get into one of the fire trucks before he showed Dane how to pull the horn! It was so loud, and very fun. Just thought that you all might enjoy a picture.

"Every good story starts with 'so there I was'"...

So there I was...at the Salt Lake City airport with my brother Dale. We have a nerdy hobby called "airplane spotting", and we do it anytime that we have a chance. Well, yesterday Dale and I had some down time before and after my BYU Salt Lake Center class to go and spot planes. After avoiding the SLC airport police several times, we got to watch the Salt Lake-to-Paris flight take-off. That was awesome! A little nerve racking trying to not be seen by the cop that told us to "get out of here!" twice. We were successful though.
Anywho, I went to my Econ. class and then Dale and I went back to the airport to a "po-po free zone" as I like to call it. Dale and I both agree that we had our best SLC spotting experience ever. The highlights were seeing the take-offs of the DHL 727 (although it has a "hush package") ,the Fed-Ex DC-10 (the biggest plane scheduled to land at SLC. Also pictured below.), and several 737's and 757's. Included in these highlights were the landings of several 737's, 757's and a Fed-Ex A300-600F. It was a great night of spotting! Added to all this, we found a guy named Dave who is also a spotter, and knows WAY more about planes than Dale and I (he's the reason I knew the 727 had a hush package!). He was complete with a walkie-talkie to listen to the Air-Traffic controllers clear all the planes.So, the time came for me to take Dale to his flight. He had about 40 minutes before his flight left, so we had to boogie. We finished the night off with the usual talk about how we wish that we could see BIG planes take-off and land, like 747's, 777's, A-340's, etc. As we are driving over a bridge to drop back into the terminals, Dale yell's "NO WAY! 747!!!". Instantly we both break into ravings about how we can's believe there is an Air France 747-400 parked on the tarmac of the airport. The chance of being there while a 747 landed unexpectedly is not good! We felt lucky! It was obviously there for an emergency landing because of the Fire trucks that were around it. I still don't know why it landed. To make a long story short, Dale had to go, I tried to stay to watch it take off, and then left at 10:15 with it still sitting there. I found out today it left at 11:25. I don't think it would have been worth it to wait. Nevertheless, it has always been, and still is my dream to watch a 747 take-off in person. Maybe one day?