"We can sit in my car. I can arrange for a perc test, but I won't promise the sellers will absorb the cost."
I waved that off. I wasn't going to quibble over the cost of the test, but I wasn't going to buy the property without a test. We checked on Charlie (still snoozing happily) and then got into Andrea's car and did the paperwork. She expected to be able to close between 30 and 60 days from now. John Steiner would handle my legal work. Finally, we shook hands and climbed out of the car. I wanted to look around the property some more, but Andrea wanted to get back to her office.
"One last question. Just curious, but which airport is closer, Philly or BWI?"
She smiled. "You're not that far away from things. Philly's probably over two hours away. BWI will be a lot closer, maybe an hour away. Why?"
"Just trying to figure it out. We'll probably want to travel a bit, and with my bad leg, flying is a lot nicer than driving.", I explained.
"Well, maybe you can get a feeder flight out of Westminster."
Huh? "Westminster?"
She pointed west, towards Hamsptead and Westminster beyond. "Yeah, maybe twenty minutes that way. There's a small regional airport. It's mostly small aircraft and some corporate type jets and stuff, but maybe you can catch a connecting flight to BWI."
"Really! I had no idea there was an airport out here! That would be a lot nicer." I turned to Marilyn. "Want to go exploring?"
"No. You can go explore. I want to get Charlie home and get dinner going." Almost on cue, we heard our son start to fuss and cry inside the car.
"Okay. You take care of him. I'm going to look around a bit more." I turned back to Andrea. "Andrea, thank you for everything. Get any of the paperwork and reports to John. Marilyn and I are going to be out of town for a few weeks, but I'll check in with John at some point." We shook hands again.
I left Marilyn with Charlie and wandered out into the field. I walked around it for a bit, trying to visualize placing the home, and even went over towards the apple trees. I was smiling as I got back to the car. "Happy?", asked Marilyn.
I smiled back. "Happy! I'll do my exploring tomorrow."
Marilyn snorted at that and leaned across the seat to kiss me, and then we loaded Charlie back into his seat and headed home. We looked through the books on home plans some more, trying to settle on a design. I already knew we were going to end up modifying the plans, but not by how much.
Tuesday morning I kissed my family and drove out towards Westminster. I had an address from the phone book, but otherwise was winging it. I figured I should be able to find an airport. It was not quite three quarters of an hour from where we were living, but like Andrea had said, maybe half that distance and time from our new place.
I found it easily enough, or at least easily enough after I stopped at a local gas station in Westminster and asked direction. The airport was a single mile-long paved strip serving light aircraft and business jets, but was surprisingly modern. A plaque near the door announced it had been modernized extensively just a few years ago, and everything still looked new. It was supposed to be a relief airport for BWI, Baltimore Washington International, between Baltimore and Washington. In case BWI vanished, it was long enough to send jets to in an emergency, I guess.
I walked in and found my way over to an information counter. A harried looking young girl came over and asked, "Hi, can I help you?"
"Maybe. Are there any charter companies here at the airport, or is it all private plane owners only?", I asked her.
"No, sir, I mean, yes, sir!", she replied. I simply gave her an amused look and waited. "I mean, yes, sir, there's charter planes here. It's not just private owners."
"Can you point me towards one of them?" I was trying valiantly not to laugh at the poor girl.
She pointed across the lobby area to a hallway and a door. "Over there."
"Thank you." She went scurrying back to her other work, and I chuckled and headed over to the hallway.
I chuckled and turned towards the hallway and went down it. The first door was open and labeled "Executive Charters", which sounded promising. I looked inside and saw a middle-aged man sitting at a desk looking over some charts, and wearing a semi-military shirt and slacks. I knocked on the door. He looked up and said, "Can I help you?"
"The girl out front pointed in this general direction and said the air charter companies were down here.", I said. "But I'm not sure she was sure."
"Pretty little blonde, a bit ditzy?" I nodded. "That's Brenda. A sweet girl but a real airhead."
I grinned at the description. "I bet she makes up for it in other ways."
He laughed. "I'm too old and married for that, but you are right. How can I help you? Looking to charter a plane?"
"Yeah, but I want to know how it works."
"Well, have a seat. I'm Lloyd Jarrett."
"Carl Buckman."
"So, Carl, where do you want to go?", he asked.
"Well, first, I want to take my family up to Utica for a few days. After that, we'll come home and I want to travel to the Bahamas. Can that be done?"
He nodded. "No problem. Just say when."
"So, Lloyd, how does this work? For the last few years most of my flights have been one way. The Army made me climb on board and the Air Force made me jump out rather than land."
Lloyd laughed at that. "Paratrooper?" I grinned and inclined my head in assent. "I know what that's like. I have some buddies who fly C-130s for the Maryland National Guard and they occasionally do their two weeks a year down at Pope. You might have jumped from one of their flights."
Lloyd had the look of a military man, with the stocky build and short hair cut of a pilot. "Maybe so. You?", I asked.
He shook his head. "I fly A-10 Warthogs for the Guard."
"A fighter jock.", I said with a smile. "Well, I want to fly charter to a few places, and not commercial, so, again, how does this work?"
"Rates are based on the size of the plane and the distance we fly, usually expressed in a cost per hour and the number of hours. You usually end up with a flat fee on a flight. We take most major credit cards."
Executive Charters had a mix of planes, with a couple of Beechcraft King Airs, a Learjet 25, and a de Havilland Twin Otter for cargo purposes. They also had access through a network of charter companies to larger planes, including Gulfstream IIs and IIIs.
"Do you normally get guys like me just asking to fly places?", I asked.
Lloyd shrugged. "Not so much, but it's more like you're younger than the norm, by far."
"I'm in investments these days.", I replied, temporizing. No need to get into the money with everybody. I could always run the bills through 'The Buckman Group'. I was starting to be thankful that Jake Junior had me start up the corporation.
Lloyd just nodded. "Still, most of our work comes through corporate travel departments, or a few high end travel agents."
Now we were getting somewhere! What I had in mind for Marilyn and me would involve a high end travel agent of some sort. "Such as?"
Lloyd gave me a few names and numbers for some travel agents he had worked for, and then took me out to the flight line and showed me a couple of his planes. Eventually I thanked him for his time and took his card. Lloyd had been very helpful; maybe I could have the travel agent use his company.