Moncks Corner - Part 2

Annual Number of Sunny Days for Cities in the United States

Source of Information: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Climatic Data Center

City	Years Included in the Averageverage	Sunny Days per Year
YUMA,AZ	32	242
PHOENIX,AZ	57	211
LAS VEGAS,NV	47	210
BISHOP,CA	29	201
FRESNO,CA	46	194
EL PASO,TX	53	193
TUCSON,AZ	55	193

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PITTSBURGH,PA	43	59
BURLINGTON,VT	52	58
SEATTLE SEA-TAC AP,WA	51	58
VALDEZ,AK	21	58
LIHUE,HI	46	56
BUFFALO,NY	52	54
BARTERIS.,AK	34	53
BINGHAMTON,NY	44	52
OLYMPIA,WA	54	52
KING SALMON,AK	42	51

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Yep. A very sad place is Binghamton... but I wasn't talking about Binghamton, was I? Nope. I was talking about that backwater, whistlestop town known as Moncks Corner...

Way back then, the company that I worked for was just a small enterprising young group and we actually had a company plane. I never quite figured out the necessity of having one, but I guess the ability to schedule flights at any time, flying to any of the thousands of municipal airports, as opposed to only being able to fly where the airlines went, made up for what I imagined to be the extra cost. I think, with enough flights, it might have been cost effective, but I believe that was also back in the day when we had some decent sales people - ones who could actually manage to, oh I don't know, sell something.

Well on my first trip to Moncks Corner, we flew direct to the little muni airport in Moncks Corner, tiny little 1 runway affair with a terminal smaller than most reststop welcome center buildings. We landed and had to "park" our own plan, tie it down, etc. We went in to the terminal - they actually had a rental car counter there, of course... but, wouldn't you know it, it was after 5pm and they were closed. The entire terminal was CLOSED. You could still walk in to use the restroom, but all the lights were off and nobody was in.

I have never before been to an airport that CLOSED.

So there we were, stuck in the middle of a large field which was, in turn, stuck in the middle of nowhere with the several computers and barcode printers and scanners that we had brought with us to install at our customer's site. Across the not-recently-mowed field, there was what appeared to be a large hanger/garage - it was the only other sign of civilization in sight so we walked over there to see what was what.

It was, in fact, a garage and in the garage was a mechanic... and a junkyard hound dog. This guy was very cool and being that he was associated, after a fashion, with the airport, he agreed to help us out and give us, and our equipment, a ride to the hotel. So he brought his pickup truck over and helped us load all the stuff into the back. The pilot rode up front with the mechanic. I rode in the back with the equipment and the dog.

Nice, yeah? I bet many of you are not believing a word of this... Whelp, just for you doubters out there, here is a satellite image of the airport:

Scenic Moncks Corner.
Can you smell the manure from here?
(Click on the pic to read the notes)

We rode through some backwoods neighborhood areas and eventually arrived at our 1.5 star motel, not far from the customer site. I couldn't help but be bouyed by hope of a night life in the town as I saw that this place was TRULY advanced in culture.

Why?

Well, not only did they have karaoke on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but they had

LASER KARAOKE!!!

What more could I possibly ask for?
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