Chapter 15

The NFL’s work schedule often ignores traditional holidays. That was true of Labor Day. Coach Tolbert wanted the team to get into our normal weekly routine as we prepared for next Sunday’s game. That meant we reviewed last weeks’ game Monday mornings and went over the game plan for next Sunday’s game in the afternoon. Tuesdays were our one day off for the week. Wednesday through Saturday we would practice our game plan and prepare for Sunday’s contest.

Dylan, Jay, Tyler and I spent a good part of the morning dissecting video of the Miami Dolphins, our first opponent. There was no point in our team reviewing last Thursday’s game. Nearly everyone who played in that game was cut. The cuts Friday included two of my proteges – Zach Ponce and Mike Walker. Zach was signed Saturday night to our practice squad, so he was still around.

We installed our game plan throughout the remainder of the week and practiced the plays we would use against the Dolphins. Time off the field was devoted to workouts, studying with our coaches and studying film on our own. Dylan organized some extra passing drills for himself, Mark, Jay and the majority of our receiving corps. We wanted to get our timing down so we were ready to fly on Sunday.

Studying the Dolphins reminded me of my team last year when I started. They had a 7-9 record but had some good players. Chip Brinton, their third-year starting QB and Penn State alum, had started half a dozen games towards the end of last season. Chip went 4-2 in his starts, which looked better than the injured QB he replaced, who’s record was 3-7 as the starter. This was the second season for the current coaching staff and they were starting to get their guys organized to play ball.

Chip, a Heisman Trophy runner-up, was not considered a sure-thing-lock to become a franchise quarterback. Chip, as did our friend Ed Fritz, suffered from “shortness” – according to NFL QB standards. His team listed him at 6’-2” but his actual measurements at the NFL combine when he came out was 6’-0 5/8” and 198 pounds. The NFL ideal for a QB was around 6’-4” in height and 225-235 pounds. My friend bided his time and waited until an opportunity opened up. He raised his rating among NFL evaluators at the end of last season.

This year he was established as the team’s starter and future at QB. Now he needed some talent among his receivers to make the Dolphins offense work. The team took a fast, though small, wide receiver from Cal with their second-round draft pick. Could the kid contribute in his first game in the NFL? We would see on Sunday afternoon.

The Dolphins had a strong defensive line, but we expected our offensive line could handle them. Hopefully Dylan would have enough time to get me some deep balls. If that clicked, we were certain we could beat the Dolphins.

Sunday afternoon’s game proved our confidence was somewhat misplaced. Dylan did manage to hit me on a deep pass on our first drive, which I ran in for a touchdown to give our team an early 7-0 lead. The threat of me going deep drew defenders away from the line of scrimmage and gave Marcus Waldron, our lead tailback, some room to run. The Dolphins defense was aggressive and relentless. Too often they pressured Dylan and forced us into third and long, slowing or stopping our drives. Our lead see-sawed: 7-0, 7-3, 10-3, 10-10, 17-10 and finally 17-13 at halftime.

Chip Brinton looked sharp. His rookie speedster wide receiver started. He kept us on our toes but he seemed slightly confused at times. Barry Lee kept him covered with help sometimes from Joe Stewart, our free safety. We had to make sure Joe stayed deeper than the kid.

The Dolphins kept me double covered after my initial touchdown. I managed some catches anyway to keep our team moving forward and making first downs. Late in the third quarter, Tyler O’Donnell broke free when the Dolphins were in zone coverage. He split the seam between the deep zones, having sprinted free of the nickelback originally covering him. His 47 yard catch put us on the Dolphins 22 yard line, where we managed to score three plays later. The score was 27-16 and we had a two score lead over Miami.

Our defense and some strong running by Marcus Waldron put the game away. The final score was 30-16, our favor.

A bunch of us single guys from the St. Louis days, plus Jay Nicholson, decided to see if we could find some good barbecue in LA after the game. Googling brought up a downtown place not too far from the stadium, Horsethief BBQ at the downtown market. It was open until 10 o’clock on a Sunday night. We headed over and chowed down on some ‘cue while we talked about our victory over the Dolphins. Quite a few fans stopped by our tables to talk. We did our best to make them feel at home with us.

Jay and I headed home after our meal. Jay was playing bachelor for a couple weeks while Allison organized the move to LA from Harrisonburg. Both of us managed to phone our sweeties to talk before we headed to bed.

My close friend and former high school quarterback was on the team of next week’s opponent. Ed Fritz was a fixture at my house when we were growing up. He was best friends with my brother Kyle. Ed was the QB who put me on the list of desirable wide receiver college prospects with his fearless and accurate deep throws. I owed Ed a lot.

Ed was drafted in the first round two years ago and Arizona expected great things from him. The same year they drafted him, Arizona picked up Carson Palmer, who was expected to be Ed’s backup and mentor. Things didn’t work out the way Ed or the fans expected. Carson, who was let go by both the Bengals and the Raiders edged out Ed for the starting slot.

Ed managed to get into four games last year. He filled in when Carson hurt his throwing hand, but wasn’t able to pull out the win in that game in Seattle. The score was 31-10 when Ed went in. No one held him responsible for the loss. Ed started the next three games, winning against San Francisco and Carolina but losing to Minnesota. Ed went back to the bench for the remainder of the Cardinals’ 7-9 season. Ed was still on the bench last week when Carson led his team for victory over Detroit.

Ed would have stayed on the bench in our game too, if not for a strip-sack touchdown in the second quarter. The game was tied at 10-10 at the time. Both offenses were moving the ball well. Coach Calloway, our defensive coordinator, sent a perfectly timed blitz in when the Cardinals weren’t expecting it. We had six blitzers coming while Carson had an empty backfield and no blitz-pickup help.

Chris Long was first guy to the QB. Darian Newton, out left defensive tackle had shoved the center back into the maelstrom around the QB. Chris managed to strip the ball away as he tackled Carson chest high. The Cardinals center fell to the ground behind Carson just as Chris hit him. The ball bounced free, right into Mike Keller’s hands. Mike secured the ball and sprinted for the end zone while Chris, the center and Darian collapsed on Carson.

I shuddered when I heard the scream come from the pile. All the players around Carson quickly pulled off the QB. Carson was screaming from pain, holding his knee. I stared in horror from the sidelines. I felt the bottom drop out in my stomach. In my head I could see my brother Kyle writhing in pain on the ground when he shredded his knee back in high school.

“ACL again!” Carson groaned as the trainers checked out his leg. “I heard it pop.”

There was a long pause in the game as the cart came out and the trainer gently loaded Carson onto the back. The crowd cheered as he gave them the thumbs-up sign. Many of the players from both teams came over to wish Carson the best. By chance, Ed Fritz and I happened to come up to Carson at the same time.

“You’ll get through this, boss,” Ed said. “My buddy from high school, Kyle Martin, had this too. Look where he is today.”

“My brother did it,” I added. “You can do it too.”

“Thanks, Andrew,” Carson replied. “Thanks for coming over.” He pointed at Ed. “Go finish this game. This is your team now, Ed.”

“I got this, boss,” Ed replied. The cart pulled away and hauled one of the classiest guys in the NFL away.

The referees got the game started up again. Ed played well, though not quite well enough. Dylan was brilliant, hitting me on two deep passes. I scored on one. The second one I set our team up for Marcus Waldron to dive in from the 3 yard line for a score. The final score was 38-33.

Our team headed back to the visitor’s locker room and dressed for our red-eye flight to London. I managed to say good night to Noah and Connor from the locker room. Buses took our team out the airport. We left Phoenix a little after 9:00 PM, arriving ten hours later in London. It was a little after 3:00 PM local time, Monday afternoon when we touched down. Most of the team slept most of the way to London. Buses hauled us from Heathrow Airport out to Pennyhill Park in Bagshot, our home for the next seven days.

The buses drove in a long lane, past a big soccer field (football to the Brits) and stopped in the circle in front of a massive brick building. The building screamed elegance and opulence. Ivy climbed the walls. The Rams were treating us to first class accommodations. The formal name of the place, “Pennypark Hill Hotel and Spa” said it all.

Mike Keller and I shared a room again, as we had during training camp and sometimes last year when we were on the road. I didn’t mind. Mike was a good roommate and wasn’t too sloppy or noisy. We moved our gear to our rooms and the team headed back to a meal. Our heads and stomach said this was morning and time of breakfast. The clocks at the hotel told us it was tea time, not breakfast time. The hotel kitchen staff kindly did a brunch style meal to fill our bellies.

I did a quick check to see when I would need to call the twins to catch them before they went to bed. My smart phone reported the twins’ bedtime was 1:00 AM local time. That might be do-able tonight, but it wouldn’t do for the rest of the week. I’d probably have to catch the boys at dinnertime back home, just before I went to bed. The boys would get a kick out of that. Daddy was going to bed before them.

Coach Tolbert had us follow our normal schedule according to local time. We were up for breakfast at 7:00 AM Tuesday morning, did our normal Monday post-game review after breakfast and then took the field to prepare for the coming Sunday’s game against Carolina. Our backsides were dragging during practice. That wasn’t unexpected. Our team was spending a week in the U. K. so we could get over our jet-lag well before we played our game. The Panthers were flying over on Thursday. Hopefully our extra time in England would give us an edge when we played them.

All our coaches took the stance that this trip to London was a business trip and we needed to take care of business. Coach Croft, our special teams coach was particularly adamant about that. He had worked for the Jaguars before he came to the Rams and had done a few London games already. If anyone wanted to play tourist, they could do so – in February, after we finished our season.

Some of the guys griped a little about not having a day off this week. Two of our team leaders, Chris Long and Dylan Harris, reminded them that it would feel a lot better to head into our bye week next week 3-0 rather than 2-1. We had a week off next week, so get to work now. I felt that was a good message for our team. We worked through the week in the lush, green English countryside, trapped in a luxury hotel. We had it tough.

The notoriously wet English weather never bothered us. We had no rain the entire week. Temperatures were between 18-22C, which the math-challenged on our team eventually figured out was around 64 to 72F. We couldn’t have asked for nicer weather than what we had.

Saturday night Noah and Connor excitedly told me they were going to be allowed to play hooky from church on Sunday, so they could watch me play on TV. The Eastern Time Zone broadcast start for our game was 9:30 AM. Kickoff for our team was actually at 4:35 PM, in London’s Twickenham Stadium.

We weren’t complete hermits for the week. Coach Tolbert allowed us out Saturday after practice for dinner. Barry Lee, Jay, Tyler, Clay and I squeezed into a cab and went to the local fish and chips place. The food was excellent. We headed back to our hotel after dinner.

Buses hauled our team over to Twickenham Stadium immediately after lunch on Sunday. We were about half an hour away from the stadium, leaving us plenty of time to warmup and get familiar with the stadium. The field seemed to be in good condition. I would be able to use my speed with this good footing.

“God Save the Queen” and the “Star Spangled Banner” played before it was our turn to perform. The crowd filled the 82,000 seat stadium. It was time for us to get to work and finish our business trip to England.

I faced off against Jerome Wright, a fifth-year cornerback. Wright was one of Carolina’s big free-agent signings this spring. I faced him last year when we played Cincinnati. He was fast and had excellent cover skills. I would need to work to earn my keep against him.

Dylan tested Wright early, sending me on a go route. He bought Dylan’s pump fake a dozen yards down field and I flew past him. Dylan lofted the ball to me. I ran under it and sprinted in for a touchdown, untouched. Wright was trailing badly when I turned back and raised the ball to the cheers of the already rowdy crowd. We were up 7-0.

Wright and the rest of the Panthers seemed sluggish in the first quarter. We were ahead 17-0 when they finally roused themselves to play some football. Our team’s decision to come over to England a week early was looking like a good decision. Eventually they woke up and tried to make a game of it. We were too far ahead for them to catch us. I pulled in a second touchdown in the second half. The final score was 35-24.

A very happy Rams team headed back for our late dinner at Pennyhill Park. We had most definitely taken care of business this week.

About a third of our team did what I planned to do, to head home separately to squeeze as much time out of our bye week as possible. The remainder flew home Monday morning on the team’s charter.

I took a 9:50AM Aer Lingus flight out of Heathrow that arrived in Philly at 4:05PM with a stop in Dublin. The eleven hour and fifteen minute flight was tiring. I grabbed an Uber to Paradise and home.

My Uber car dropped me off in front of my house. I was unloading my bag from the back when I was nearly tackled by Noah and Connor. My boys must have been waiting by the door for my return. They were dressed in their football uniforms, though without pads or helmets.

“Daddy, you’re home!” Noah declared.

“So good to have you home, Daddy,” Connor added as they hugged me.

“It’s good to be home,” I declared as I hefted Noah up and gave him a kiss. Connor received his kiss next. I managed to thank the Uber driver before the boys insisted on carrying my bags inside.

Mom and Dad greeted me when we got in. “The boys want you to take them to football practice,” Mom said. “They wouldn’t go until you got home.”

“On the way,” I announced. The boys cheered and we headed back out to my car. The boys loaded up in back and I drove them over to the middle school field where the mitey-mites team practiced. At 4’-2” and around 62 pounds, my boys were too big for the tiny-mites team they were on the last two seasons.

Coach Weaver and his son Colin had stepped up to mitey-mites too when this season started. He was still head coach for my sons. Coach Weaver was a good coach for the boys and a good man. He was a policeman for East Lampeter Township. His son Colin was a grade ahead of my boys.

I sat down in the grass on the sideline and watched as Coach Weaver and his assistants drilled the boys. I was impressed with their ability to get seven to nine year-olds to concentrate on something for more than two seconds at a time. They were teaching proper tackling techniques, which pleased me greatly. The remaining forty-five minutes of practice flew by as I watched the boys prepare for Saturday’s game.

“Sorry about getting the boys to practice late,” I commented to Coach Weaver after practice was over. “The boys insisted on welcoming me home before they came to practice.”

“It’s fine,” Coach Weaver replied. “By the way, just call me Mark, Mr. Martin.”

“Andrew is fine for me,” I answered.

“I caught your game yesterday,” Mark said. “You played well. Two touchdowns.”

“Thank you,” I responded. “I hope my boys are well behaved and not any trouble to you and your assistants.”

“Noah and Connor are great,” Mark said. “They learn their techniques quickly. I bet they get a little help from dad, when you are around.”

“My boys are full of questions,” I answered. “I try to help them where I can.”

“It shows,” Mark said.

“Your son shows some talent too,” I commented. “He looked sharp running the ball today.”

“I’m not sure where he gets his talent,” Mark commented. “None of his siblings are more than average in sports. I guess you accept the gifts God gave him and nurture his talent as best you can.”

“That’s right,” I agreed. “Boys...” Colin, Noah and Connor were standing beside us. “Work hard for Coach Weaver. You never know where your talents will take you. I would have laughed at someone if they told me I would play in the NFL when I was your age. My parents, my brother and my high school coaches saw my talent and nurtured it. Look where I ended up.”

“Do you think I could end up in the NFL too, Mr. Martin?” Colin asked.

“I don’t know,” I responded. “You work hard and make the most of your talent. You will see where it takes you.”

We said good night to Mark and Colin and headed for home. When we were in the car, Noah asked, “Do you think Connor and I will end up in the NFL like you and Unka Ky?”

“I don’t know,” I answered. “Work hard and develop your talents. We will have to see where they take you two.”

“I want to play in the NFL, just like you and Unka Ky,” Connor said.

“Me too,” Noah agreed.

I had to other calls to make that evening, after I put my boys to bed. The first call was to Jon Miller.

“Hey, Andy ... what’s up?” Jon asked as he answered my call. “A little birdie told me you would be home this week?”

“A little birdie named Heather?” I guessed.

“That’s the one,” Jon laughed. “What’s up? You coming tomorrow night?”

“That is why I called,” I replied. “Do you need me to do anything at the pack meeting?”

“Karl, the den leaders and I have most everything set,” Jon answered. “You want to do a story or maybe lead some cheers?”

“I can do that,” I agreed. “See you tomorrow evening.”

I punched the button for my other call.

“Honey, I’m home,” I teased when Heather answered her phone.

“Back from London?” my sweetie asked. “Do you have some free time tonight?”

“The boys are in bed and I have a week of free time,” I replied.

“Get that cute, sweet butt over here,” Heather replied. “Bring a bag too.”

“Somebody’s horny,” I teased.

“You know it,” Heather replied. “My boyfriend has been neglecting me. It’s been three weeks since we made love.”

“We can’t have that,” I responded. “I’ll be over shortly.”

I let Mom and Dad know I had an overnight planned and hurried over to Heather’s apartment. Our reunion was emotional. The first time we made love was quick but intense. No surprise, since Heather and I hadn’t been together for weeks. Thankfully I napped on the flight home. I managed to stay awake long enough to make love to Heather properly our second time that night. By the time we finished, my poor body thought it was 5:00 am, although the clock said it was only 11:00 pm. Heather and I cuddled together and fell asleep.

Tuesday morning, I got up when Heather got ready for work. I headed home, but missed the boys before they caught the school bus. I took a nap in the morning and then went over to Millersville to workout at Pro Train’s gym. I spent the afternoon working ahead in the business management course I was talking on-line for the fall semester.

A stampede of small feet thundered into the family room where I was studying a few minutes after five, when Mom came home from work.

“Daddy ... Daddy ... where were you last night?” Connor demanded as he half hugged and half tackled me.

“Did you do a sleepover?” Noah added, grinning from ear to ear.

“I did have a sleepover with Heather,” I confirmed. Both boys giggled.

“Why didn’t you stay here?” Connor asked. “You could have slept with us.”

“I saw you two already last night,” I explained. “I hadn’t seen Heather, so I went over there.”

“Are you going to Cub Scouts tonight?” Noah asked.

“Of course,” I replied. “I am your father; I am home and Cub Scouts is a family activity.”

“Cool!” Connor said. “I like it when you help out at Scouts.”

The boys headed off to get cleaned up for supper. I checked on them a few minutes later. I overheard a conversation between the twins and Hunter.

“I told you he went over to see Heather,” Noah stated.

“Yeah ... you were right,” Connor agreed. “What do you think they were doing all night?”

“Sex stuff ... probably,” Noah answered. “I think that is what grown-ups do when they do sleepovers.”

“What’s sex stuff?” Hunter asked.

“Talk to Mom-Mom or Pop-Pop,” Connor said. “We’re not supposed to talk about that stuff.”

“I don’t understand what you mean by sex,” Hunter said.

“Go talk to Mom-Mom now,” Noah said. “She can answer your questions better than us.” Hunter scampered off to see Mom’s take on “sex stuff.”

“If Daddy and Heather did sex stuff, do you think they made a baby?” Connor asked.

“I doubt it,” Noah replied. “Daddy’s been careful. He hasn’t made any babies since he made us.”

“That was a long time ago,” Connor stated. I suppressed a smile. I guess a whole lifetime is a long time ago for a seven-year-old.

“Yeah ... you’re right,” Noah agreed. “Do you think Daddy will marry Heather?”

“I hope so,” Connor answered. “I like her. She’s nice.”

“I do too,” Noah agreed. “She is good.”

“Why do grown-ups do sex stuff?” Connor wondered. “Why do it if you aren’t making a baby?”

“It must be fun,” Noah replied. “You remember back when we were little before Uncle Ky married Aunt Penny? They used to do sleepovers all the time before they were married.”

“I guess it must be,” Connor agreed. “Of course ... Uncle Ky and Aunt Penny did make Davey. I think they made him before the wedding. I heard Mom-Mom teasing Uncle Ky a few times about it.”

“Yeah, I heard that too,” Noah agreed. He giggled. “Maybe we will get a little sister or brother one of these days.”

“Maybe,” Connor allowed.

The boys switched to talking about football then, so I headed downstairs. I was glad the boys were comfortable with the idea of Heather becoming their step-mom.

After dinner the boys and I changed into our Scout uniforms and headed to the church. Hunter and Dad traveled separately. Tonight was his first night at Cub Scouts, so Dad was necessary to get Hunter signed up and properly prepared for Tiger Cubs. Ron McMichael, our committee chairman had been busy. He had signed up Dad to serve on the pack committee even before Hunter was officially a Cub.

The twins found their den when we arrived and found seats on the floor with them. Hunter hung back with me while Dad took care of the paperwork to make Hunter official.

I was surprised when Heather walked in just before the opening. She came over and joined Hunter and me in the chairs where parents sat.

“I didn’t expect you tonight,” I commented as Heather sat down beside me.

“I decided it was time I see what Cubs is all about,” Heather replied. “After all, I have a nephew here and my boyfriend’s two sons too.”

“Well ... I am glad to see you,” I said.

“I figure we should take advantage of what little time we have together this week,” Heather replied.

“I’d like that,” I said. Cognizant of my six-year-old brother sitting down two chairs, I added, “Does that mean you want another sleep-over?”

“We need to wait until Friday night for another sleep-over,” Heather said. “I was really dragging at work today after last night.”

“I understand,” I agreed. We stopped talking, as the meeting was starting.

The Webelos II den led the opening. Jon Miller and Karl Sweigart handed out the awards the boys earned over the summer. The six Boys Scout den chiefs, led by Jon’s oldest son Brian and his best friend Billy Baer, did a couple skits to entertain the Cubs. I led cheers after each segment in the meeting, to get the Cubs active and excited.

Dad, the other Tiger Cub parents, and their sons headed off for an organizational meeting for their new den. They spent most of the meeting getting oriented. The other dens met briefly to attend to den meeting details. Rebecca Landis, Noah Landis’ mom, agreed to be the den leader for our Wolf Cub den. The pack meeting concluded with a sugary snack. It would be fun to get Noah, Connor and Hunter to bed after the meeting.

Heather asked about getting together tomorrow after the Cub meeting was over. I explained about football practice. Heather decided to join me on the sidelines for practice. Who was I to argue? More time with my girlfriend was welcome.

The week went by too quickly. Mornings working out, afternoons studying and evenings with my boys and girlfriend. This gave me a taste of what I was striving for - a real family. Could I convince Heather to see my vision? Time would tell.

I took Hunter and the twins to swim practice on my own. Heather met us at the pool after she finished work. I took everyone out for dinner after practice. We ended up at the Friendly’s on Lincoln Highway East. The boys enjoyed with junior burgers and ice cream afterward. Heather followed us back to my home. She had packed for a weekend “sleep-over” before she left for work that morning.

Heather helped me get the three boys ready for bed. We all participated in reading the bedtime story, though Connor, Noah and even Hunter did most of the reading. Heather and I headed for the basement bedroom when the boys were asleep. Mom insisted we do our “sleep-over” downstairs. While all the boys knew of “sex stuff” in general, Mom felt they didn’t need to hear any specifics of what “sex stuff” was really about just yet. I agreed completely. It would be nice not to worry about keeping quiet while we made love. I made sure to lock the basement door so we didn’t have little kids gaping at us when we woke up Saturday morning.

Heather and I cuddled and enjoyed a movie for a while before we started our fun. We made love twice before we fell asleep. It was glorious. I could get used to doing this every day.

I woke up Saturday morning to the feeling of someone gently massaging and stroking my morning erection.

“Someone needs more?” I teased after Heather gave me a good morning kiss.

“Someone’s boyfriend flies back to LA tomorrow,” Heather responded. “I’ll get as much as I can while he’s here.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” I replied. I glanced at the clock. It was little after 7:30 AM. We had enough time for a quickie before we fed the twins and took them to their football game.

We spent about fifteen minutes on foreplay and doing the deed. The two of us cuddled together for a bit after satisfying each other.

“Andy, would you mind if I came out to LA Thursday instead of Friday night when I visit in November?” Heather asked.

“Sure, that would be great,” I agreed quickly. “You understand I will be tied up all day Friday with preparations for our game against San Francisco.”

“That’s fine,” Heather said. “Steven [her boss] is going to line up an interview for me with his college roommate. We can see if I like the kind of work he is doing out in LA and he can see if I would be someone he could use in his practice.”

“I love the idea,” I agreed. Heather was getting serious about whether she would be willing to move to LA. How could I not like that? “I...”

“Don’t ask that question yet,” Heather warned. She knew me too well. I took a deep breath and didn’t ask if the interview meant she would be willing to marry me. I needed to be patient and allow Heather time to figure out what she wanted.

“I can wait,” I responded. “You will let me know when I can ask the question?”

“You will know when it is time,” Heather said.

“We better get cleaned up,” I said. “I am sure the boys are starving and waiting upstairs at the basement door to see us.”

“Probably,” Heather agreed. We cleaned up, dressed and headed upstairs. No surprise, Noah and Connor were in the kitchen, snacking on cereal directly from the box.

“Mom-Mom won’t approve of that,” I half-warned, half-teased.

“Mom-Mom’s not here,” Connor replied, grinning.

Heather and I fixed breakfast for the twins. Hunter, who didn’t play football, was still sleeping. We helped the boys get dressed and pack their gear for the game. Heather rode along with us to the game. The plan was for her to spend the day (and night) with us, until I had to head to Harrisburg on Sunday morning to fly back to LA.