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And I had to make sure I had room for my camera bag somewhere. If I didn’t have that, this whole trip would be a waste.
Chapter five
Gabe
After confirming that we’d be leaving the first day I had free, I heard Miss Overstreet’s voicemail. I knew I should have called her back right away when I first realized I hadn’t told her what time we’d be making the return journey, but hearing her voicemail really underscored just how confusing our communication had been. She had a lot of questions about flight details, and I wrote down a list of her questions so I could make sure to answer them all when I called her.
I double-checked my itinerary to be sure that I gave her the right details. For this particular journey to work we’d have to have our timing on point; In other words, we had to time our departure just right to avoid getting tossed around like chaff in the wind in any of the storms expected over the Rockies. I made careful note of a few small airports and landing strips that we could use if we needed to touch down to wait out the worst of a squall.
To my list of things to do, I added calling the airport coordination team I worked with to make sure we could get deiced on Monday since Tulsa was expecting a cold front to move in the night before. We’d have to take off within the twenty minutes immediately following that to make sure that it worked. Tulsa airport staff was pretty good about only doing the deicing as the plane just ahead was taking off, which allowed the runway to be free for the plane deicing to take off as soon as the captain was ready.
I needed to make this call before my itinerary got too crowded. With today being my only free day, I could see that list starting to get full of things I needed to do to make sure the rest of my itinerary would work.
I took a deep breath. Whatever Miss Overstreet was going for, I struggled to see why she wanted to visit Corinth right now. It’d be much better to visit when the coast wouldn’t be quite so chilly. While I understood that tourism photographs were often taken during the off-season to make it easier to catch the sights without people milling around, why go while it was supposed to snow over much of our flight path?
Even as I thought it, my brain figured the snow would make beautiful photographs. The large snowstorm blowing in was such a freak storm that people were rushing to make sure they had supplies - people from the northern parts of Idaho touching the Canadian border down to Salt Lake City, Utah, and Elko, Nevada. These storms were normal for winter in that area. But not during the early spring. Not like this.
Then again… I had heard of it snowing on the Fourth of July in parts of Idaho, so I supposed anything was a given in some areas where snow was a part of life.
I decided that it’d be worth looking into what was available in Corinth. Since next week was the only week for a while where I had multiple days in a row where I wasn’t carting people around, I planned to take a bit of a vacation. Corinth was not where I would have chosen to go if I were the one making the plans, but I understood that Miss Overstreet had no choice if she wanted to get the column done on time.
I opened a fresh tab on my laptop and searched for Corinth, OR. I scrolled past a few advertisements for car rentals that could take me to Corinth, and finally clicked on an article about the city itself. There weren’t many to pick from, and I had to scan through a few pieces before I started to get any clear idea of the place.
As I had suspected, the city survived primarily on tourism. It appeared to have been struggling recently, and perhaps Miss Overstreet knew that. Prices had risen a little, but I purchased a ticket to one of the events in town that would be able to continue regardless of what weather the town saw. It was inside a museum of replicated ancient statues.
Replicated. Everything in Corinth was like this. It might have been built to last in Rome and Greece, but these appeared to be cheap knockoffs built to last long enough. I supposed I couldn’t knock the quality when the economy nationwide was struggling, and this small part of Oregon had put together a tourist attraction to bring more money into the small community. It was smarter than relying on the fact they were located on the coast.
With that all sorted out, I decided the next thing to do would be to reply to Miss Overstreet that I’d be staying with her in Corinth. Not in her hotel room, of course, but I’d still be in the city for a few days. That would be much easier than having to arrange to pick her up again, and I wouldn’t mind taking a few days break.
“Grace Overstreet speaking,” she said when she picked up.
“Miss Overstreet, it’s Mr. Delaney. I will be staying in Corinth for a few days with you, so if you want to get the return trip when I leave, you’ll have some busy days in the city,” I stated.
“I can deal with that,” she replied. “What is the absolute latest you could leave and still return to Tulsa on time for your flights the next day? I need to know so that I know when I must be ready to leave, no matter what.”
“Umm… let me find my schedule.” I rummaged through some papers on my desk. I knew I’d just been holding the schedule, but it must have slipped under other papers. This is why I usually don’t even bother printing out these things, a voice in my head reminds me. “Hold on just a moment.”
I gave up looking for the hard copy and instead looked at my calendar on my phone. I liked the idea of having paper copies of my schedule, , but the fact that I was always on the go made it much easier to work with having a schedule on my phone – which I took with me on every flight because I needed to be able to talk to clients while I was in other cities too.
“The first flight I have scheduled after our flight to Corinth is for Friday at noon,” I said. “I’d like to be back no later than midnight Thursday… so we’ll have to leave the hotel around two in the afternoon, I’d say. That’ll get us back at a decent hour if everything goes according to plan – I’d say around nine to account for the traffic, the air control tower, and all the other fussy specifics of leaving from an airport so small. If we get delayed, then we have a couple of hours to spare and still get home at a decent hour. The absolute latest I’d feel comfortable leaving the hotel would be three on Thursday afternoon.”
“I’ll call it two o’clock then,” Miss Overstreet said. “I’d rather be out the door on time than late. Thank you for taking the time to get back to me so quickly.”
“Of course. Do you have any other questions?”
“What time will I have to be at Tulsa airport? I imagine there will be some part of the getting ready where we’ll both be on the plane while you get us ready for takeoff.”
“You’d be right. If you arrive around eight in the morning, we can get to Corinth in time to miss the high noon pictures but still get some good afternoon ones if you want.”
“That sounds like a plan. I like to take some time the first day to just get a feel for the place, and that will still give me plenty of time.”
“Of course.” I managed a smile.
Even without seeing her face, I imagined that she had pulled her red hair up and away from her eyes. It might have been back in a bun or a low ponytail, but it was most likely pulled back. She sounded as though she was out running errands since there was some obvious background noise on the call. Or maybe in her office with other reporters or whoever running around, talking about news.
“Well, I should be getting ready for my flight tomorrow,” I said eventually. “I’ll talk to you later. If I don’t answer, assume I’m in the air or getting ready for takeoff or landing. But you can always leave a message if you have any other questions.”
“Of course. Good luck over the course of the week, and with all the flights. I hope you find enjoyment in them all.”
