she still hasn't taken me up!

What a raw deal. Tell her I said to arrange an airplane ride immediately. Most pilots will do anything just to log some more hours.

I have a son-in-law who is a commercial pilot, and back when he was still trying to build up enough hours for a regular job, he flew charter. One of his jobs was to take a forest ranger up during fire season and look for smoke. The plane they used was a Cessna 172, and since the back seat was empty, I went along one day just for the ride. It was really fun. It was one of those rough, turbulent days and the plane never stopped bouncing. We were flying just a couple of thousand feet above ground level and we could see people walking around on the ground. We even saw some deer. We managed to report a few ground fires before they became real forest fires, and one time we actually saw a fire truck turn off the road and start squirting water on burning brush. We also noticed a few trash fires, including one that was unattended and had started a small grass fire.

We made a brief stop at an airport up on the Cumberland Plateau above Rockwood, and then headed back to Knoxville. A few minutes before we landed we flew right over my house! I could see my lawn mower sitting out by the garden. I had forgotten to put it away.
Howard