Off We Go

Here we go again. Off to see the world, or at least a bit of it we've not seen before.

I hate long airplane rides. It's not that I'm claustrophobic...maybe a little bit.  For miles and miles you simply sit in a very small space with severe limitations on movement. I think any flight over 2 hours is cruel and unusual punishment. However, until we get one of the Enterprise's transporters it's all we have.  So, the best we can do is an eight hour flight. At least it is less than our longest flight to date: fourteen hours.  That flight was nonstop from Atlanta to Tokyo. I thought we were caught in a time warp and the flight would never end. 

There is packing, which I am not fond of. What to carry? I never know. What will the weather be like at our destination?  Who can tell? A television weatherman told me once that weather forecasters were right 85% of the time. Which means they are WRONG 15% of the time. Should I pack according to  what the weatherman says the weather "may be" or carry too much stuff to cover 100% of the possibilities? I do not pack, my wife is much better at it than I. What camera should I take? Or Just take my smartphone for capturing the images of breath taking vistas? How much cash will I need? Should I have gotten some Euros at the AAA?  It gets stressful. 

Have you noticed that lately that you can book a flight on a particular airline but when you get to the departing gate it is a completely different airline? Coufusing? It seems the airlines have partnerships with other airlines. When I book a flight on Delta I expect to get on a Delta plane not Air France.  But, then again, Air France has better food. Once upon a time you could use seat layout diagrams of various planes and airlines to pick a seat with a little bit more leg room.  But no more! The airlines have become wise to this procedure and now charge a premium for this little bit of extra legroom. Thinking about it is stressful.

And then there are the government agencies you must deal with in air travel. They operate in the name of security. I for one believe in airline security. I don't believe you can be too safe flying through the air at 30,000 feet at 400 miles per hour. But that does not mean I like to go through security checks. Kinda like going to the dentist. You hate the pain and suffering but you love the results. TSA, the Transportation Security Administration, is the biggie. Yep, that is where you take off your shoes and put all other stuff you have in your pockets in a plastic wash basin and place it all on a conveyer which goes through an x-ray machine. I always seem to forget to remove some small item from my person. Once a TSA employee found a pocket knife in my carry-on bag I had been looking for for two years! Usually going through security is relatively painless.  But what if I look like somebody on the "no fly" list. And then there is the possibility of the dreaded body cavity search. Flying can be stressful.

I have a friend who refuses to fly without medication.  Let me rephrase that.  He refuses to fly without being medicated. But not me.

Perhaps tonight you will look into sky in and see the blinking lights of an airliner and think of me/us as I/we have climbed into the "big sewer pipe with wings" and taken to the sky.

Bon Voyage!