Here I am at over 30,000 feet in the air and all my mind is
thinking about is, “air travel is barely 100 years old.” I remember learning in
history class even one of the Wright brothers flew planes in World War 1. This
is just fascinating to me. With every bump in the…wait, how does air have
bumps? They call it turbulence which I guess is air pockets, rough weather and
nothing to be concerned about, so they tell us when it happens. All because two
brothers from Ohio took an idea of air travel and made it a reality. For which
I thank them and my pilot. For me air travel is the best way to go. Always an
adventure worth experiencing and fodder for stories.
I remember one flight we hit one of those air pockets and
dropped a several feet. Just how many feet I don’t know but we fell none the
less. The little boy in the seat in front of me turned to his mother and asked
her a question just as sincere as it was loud, “Hey Mom. If we fell from this
high would we die?” The mother, obviously embarrassed, tried to quiet him while
answering his question. Every few minutes and until we landed, the curious
toddler continued to ask, “How about this high, Mom?” The mom knew she was
fighting a losing battle trying to teach him talking about crashing in a plane
isn’t a great topic for conversation. As for me, I laughed and hoped he would
ask it louder. It was more entertaining than an in-flight movie.
Air travel does has its ups and downs though. The lay overs
in towns you don’t know and not enough time to leave the airport to experience
them. Recently coming home from some shows in upstate New York my wife and I
had a delayed flight which erased any time to grab something to eat and almost
erased our being able to get to our connecting flight. I hate running through
airports. Well, I don’t run…ever. I may walk fast but never run. There is
always a story to relay when asked how was my trip.
Once I was getting ready to head through security and got
fast passed. They had chosen me to get pre-screened which bumped me to the head
of the line. I didn’t have to take off my shoes or anything. Through security I
headed to Starbucks as is my ritual. When I got there the guy in line said, “Here,
go ahead of me, I’m waiting for someone.” This is turning out to be a great
flight. Arrived to my seat on the Boeing 737, removed my flip flops and settled
in to relax while reading my book. As we took off on my perfect flight sent to
me from the Lord above I heard a young child say, “Uh Oh.” I’m the father of
two girls and I’ve heard enough “Uh Oh’s” to know this wasn’t good. Soon my bare
feet discovered the source of this “Uh Oh” as they were covered in slushy.
Almost on cue, another child began to cry. My perfect flight quickly became
less than perfect to say the least.
But today I am having a great flight to Michigan. Other than
my head plugging up, it’s perfect (the two children on the plane are behind me
and quiet). It’s the 13th Anniversary of 9/11 so I am feeling
patriotic, proud to be an American and grateful to those brothers from the
Buckeye state for developing this mode of transportation. In spite of the kid asking
his mom if we would die or my slushy covered feet, I love to fly. This has
taught me to take the good with the bad. The good is always better but without
the slushy feet and layovers, I may not appreciate the good as much. This is
such a great lesson to remember for our everyday walk in life. All because two
bicycle repairing brothers made the dream of air travel a reality.
So today, at 30,000 feet, all I can say is, “Nice job Mr.
Pilot. But if we were to fall from here…”
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