New CDs and Best Co-Pilots

For me listening to a new CD for the first time is something of a event. Whenever I buy one, I try to make everything just right to maximize the experience. I try to get the mood just right for the music. I try to make sure I'm in a position to repeat the CD over and over, since sometimes you listen to one and it doesn't make any sense until the fifth time you hear it.

Maybe the best experience I've had happened because a friend of mine gave me one just before I left after spending the day with her. The whole way home I listened to the CD, and for what ever reason, I kept thinking about the girl who gave it to me. The more I listened to it, the more I hoped to see her again. But I knew it probably wouldn't happen, but that didnt' keep me from being hopeful. Then just as the last song began, my cell phone rang, and it was her.

But this week I had another great experience flying back from Daytona Beach. I'd been down there since Sunday playing golf with my best co-pilot. She joined me on this trip, tagging along under the guise of being my assistant. We spent the mornings in meetings, the afternoons on the golf course, and the evenings in the restaurants. And in between that we managed to get a little shopping in as well. She wanted a few new outfits, and I was happy to buy them for her.

She was checking out the sales in the Monday's paper and came across something she knew I'd like. "Jimmy Buffett has a new CD ," she said. "It's on sale tomorrow. Can I buy it for your birthday present?"

"That would be a great present," I replied.

The next day, after all the meetings were finished, we ducked into a Target and picked up the CD. Outside, I wanted to pop in in to the rental's player, but my wise co-pilot talked me out of it. "You wanted to wait until the time was just right," she reminded me. So I waited...

An hour later we were cleared to take off of Runway 7L of Daytona Beach International. As I climbed into the blue sky, the tower handed me off to approach who kept me heading East over the Atlantic for a while as they dealt with all the training traffic.

"You fly," I said it her. "I want to get the CD ready."

She looked at me through her sunglasses, "We're headed the wrong way," she protested. I had to agree with her. She liked to fly, but only if we're on course.

A few minutes later, approach handed me off to someone else who cleared me on a heading that would take us home. So I turned smoothly and climbed freely. I climbed above the thin layer of clouds around 6000 feet, and as I flew further away from the busy skies over Daytona, the radio quieted. Then as I eased above the clouds and leveled out at 8500, I trimmed the plane out. Everything was just right, so I grabbed a drink and a snack.

"We're on course," I said to my co-pilot.

"Autopilot on?" she asked.

I activated the autopilot with a switch. "Check."

"Okay," she said and rested her hands on the yoke, while I dug the CD player from my flight bag and plugged us both in.

And for the next three hours, I was near heaven. The sun was setting, the skies had just enough clouds to catch the evening light. I was plugged my new favorite CD and was traveling with with my favorite girl in the world. Everything was better than I deserved.

It's one thing to listen to a CD on the highway, coming home from seeing someone you want to see again. And it's pretty cool to listen to a new CD while flying in the plane, being at peace so high above the earth. But to listen to a new Jimmy Buffett CD with your best co-pilot--your 8 year old daughter, smiling at you with two new front teeth, while she "flew" over the Gulf of Mexico into a magnificent sunset is one of those incredible memories you keep forever.