On Friday, January 11th, I was a guest of Governor Granholm to fly with her on the state plane to visit two high schools in the Chicago area. It was like flying on Michigan’s version of Air Force One, but a lot smaller! The Governor’s plane is a prop driven Beech craft King Air. A very nice plane. It holds ten people in very close quarters.

We were told to be at the M-DOT building, Lansing airport, at 6:30 a.m., bringing no carry-ons other than small notebooks or purses. Wheels-up at 7:00 a.m. EST, wheels-down at 6:55 CST, Midway Airport, Chicago.

My wife dropped me off at the appointed time, and I was met in the lobby by Superintendent of Public Instruction, Mike Flanagan. I was directed to sign in on the planes log, and then stood around to make small talk as the others came in. Four legislators, six association executives, and the Governor’s Education advisor, Chuck Wilbur, joined me. At 6:50 a black suburban pulled up at the planeside entrance and the Governor entered the building. Two planes were pulled out from their hangers, I’m sure at the last minute so they would be warm for us when we entered. At 6:55 five of us were directed to board the plane with the Governor. At 7:00 a.m. we were off to Chicago.

Hey, this is the way to go. No security lines, we got to keep our shoes on and an on-time departure. Loading took less than five minutes. Though there were not snacks or coffee served. There really wasn’t room to hold a coffee cup. The seating on the plane is very tight. Especially for a wide body guy like myself. I wasn’t sure my seat belt would get around me. The seats, once I got the seat belt around me were leather and comfy. I sat in a jump seat looking at the door. Chuck Wilbur was at my knee in the tail of the plane. The Governor was just in front. Also, in the plane were Senator Ron Jelinak, Rep. George Cushingberry, chairs of the appropriations committees, Iris Salters, President of the MEA, Don Wotruba, from MASB, the pilots and the governor’s security person. Chuck and I discussed his recent trip to Iowa with seventeen students from Ann Arbor’s Community High School. Chuck teaches a politics class at the high school and they went there to help with the democratic campaign caucus.

When we arrived fifty minutes later, four Illinois State Troopers who stayed with our group until we returned to the planes greeted the Governor. They spent the day talking into their wrists and making sure no stranger approached the Governor. When the second plane arrived, we all boarded a small bus, like they use at airports to take you to your car rental and we were off to our first school. Two black suburbans were in front of us. I’m told they had their lights flashing. It did seem like we were able to navigate through the Chicago traffic with ease.

We visited two “small” high schools. I’ll be sharing my observations from the school visits in our association newsletter. But, if I understand the freedom of a blog, I thought I’d share this lifetime experience.