I retired from the State of Fla. and my job for many years involved travel. Some of it was out of state when I was on a federally funded task force, and a lot was in-state. Since I live in the Orlando, Fl. area I'm about 250 miles from the capital in Tallahassee where I periodically had to attend meetings, seminars, etc., all that real interesting crap. I often would ride the Wing I had at the time, no problem getting mileage when I used it. And more than once I would fly myself if a plane was available on short notice. The first time I flew, the gal in Tallahassee that OK'd the expense report asked me what my tie down cost was so I told her. She called the FBO and they faxed a voucher to her, she added it to my mileage. I couldn't get extra mileage, had to use the standard chart between cities, but I always got reimbursed for tie down which I thought was kinda cool. I found out they actually liked it when I flew because the perdiem was less, and often I didn't stay overnight. I'll never forget my boss's surprise the first time I flew to some official doings, I took off at 6:45am and got there before 8:00. The meeting and a tour of some facilities was overwith by 2:00pm that same day so I got a quick shuttle back to the airport. I was off the ground by 2:45 and back in the office before 5:00. About half the rest of the attendees either stayed over and flew home commercial the next morning, or drew extra perdiem for getting home late, plus taking the time off the next day for having worked past five. They all knew if I flew myself, they saved money in most cases unless the weather turned real bad, in fact they encouraged me to fly.
In one case, I took off about an hour after some friends did who were driving back to Tampa. I knew the car they were in....bright yellow convertible and it was "top down" weather. So, just for the heck of it instead of flying direct, I started to follow the interstate I knew they were using and sure enough...I caught up with them. I dropped down to a legal altitude and flew alongside until they started waving and I waggled my wings then circled them before heading home. My cell phone started to buzz but I left it alone until I landed(illegal to use). When I checked my messages, I got some good-natured zingers from everybody so I called them back to tell them I was home. They hadn't reached the halfway point yet so had some choice comments which will not be repeated here.
