Love of Flying

Some folks really dislike flying. I love it. I flew over a million miles during the course of my career and never tired of flying. You depart one place and in a matter of hours, sometimes a lot of hours, you are in a different place… a different city, maybe or a different country… a different continent or even a different hemisphere. Granted, being ‘on the road’ was tiring at times and traveling the same route over and over was onerous, but the thrill of arriving in a new place in a matter of hours was always enthralling. Flying is magic.

I love the acceleration at takeoff and that second when you feel the wheels leave the ground. Breaking through the clouds to 35,000+ feet where the sky is blue or the stars are twinkling can be breathtaking. Spotting towns and structures, semis racing on ribbons of endless highways, freighters that look like toy boats on the rivers and waterways below.

Now we travel by air infrequently, a flight or two a year maybe, hot air balloon rides on rare occasions. Mostly Blanche is our transportation of choice. We love slow travel and blue highways, but our recent trip to Alaska reminded me of just how much I enjoy the thrill of flight. As much as the destination was an exciting adventure, so too, was the journey, ‘the getting there’.

We left Las Vegas on a mid-afternoon flight and thus by the time we reached Seattle and Alaska, there wasn’t much to see out the window. Since we usually choose middle and aisle seats when we’re in coach because David needs the legroom, I rarely get to peek out the window if the window seat is occupied. We had free air mile tickets to Alaska… some segments of which were coach and some were First Class. Though First Class is definitely the preference, sitting in coach has its benefits… to wit, my seat partner by the window was a mailman from Alaska… Kenai, Alaska to be exact. Meeting people on flights is always interesting. You tend to learn quite a bit about them, but there’s still a certain amount of anonymity in the encounter. You’ll probably never see the person again, so why not enjoy the moment?

A most amiable fellow, I enjoyed learning about his time in Alaska… why he moved there, why he stayed, why he moved from Fairbanks to the Kenai. Did he like being a mailman? He loved it! Why? He was outside and felt unencumbered by a desk and cubicle. Did he like living in Alaska? Absolutely, he had no plans to leave. Did he mind the biting cold? Yes, sometimes, but the temperatures in Kenai were much more temperate than Fairbanks. He liked sailing and had a 35’ Erickson sailboat in a marina in Seward that he wished he could visit more often. He talked about Fairbanks and places we might scope out to view the Northern Lights. A good conversation.

First Class was lovely and my seat partner was an excellent conversationalist and an adventure seeker (he’d sailed around the world in a sailboat with his wife). We chatted throughout the flight and I enjoyed his company so much, I took him to my B&B for the week. Enough said.

On the return flight, Alaska Airlines offered only a coach flight from Fairbanks to Seattle. I chatted in the gate waiting area with a couple from Colorado Springs. They, too, had traveled to Fairbanks to see the Northern Lights. After a week, they still hadn’t seen any significant aurora displays and were disappointed. They’d shelled out quite a wad for the week’s stay including airfare, hotel, restaurants and $350/pp for the aurora tour. We, on the other hand, had also not seen an aurora display and viewed it as an opportunity to return for another try. Our out-of-pocket was ~$1000 most of which was a car rental and lodging. In the meantime, good friends whom we’d met while living aboard Nine of Cups, suggested a return trip next October and if it materializes, that would be awesome.

Once aboard, my window seat partner was Bobby, a native Texan and DOD employee currently billeted in Huntsville, Alabama and in Fairbanks on Army business. Bobby had never been to Alaska and fell in love with the place in the three days he was there. Alaska has a strong effect on people… you either love it or hate it. He, like us, was in the ‘love’ category. He talked of his love of travel and how he wanted to do more. A Middle-East war vet with several deployments under his belt, he was originally an expert in Chinook heliocopter repair. Now as a federal employee, he no longer repaired equipment, but oversaw others making repairs.

Bobby and his wife had purchased a 1980s vintage 34’ Avion trailer which he spent two years repairing and upfitting. The results based on his photos were outstanding. He shared lots of photos and our 3-way conversation (David joined in when the van upfit discussion began) was interesting and most enjoyable. Since he was at the window, he had a great view of the sunrise and the Coastal Range mountains. When he offered to take photos for me, I was thrilled. He gets all the credit for the following pics.

How can you beat these random encounters with strangers? How easy it is to develop an easy familiarity with someone whom you’ve just met minutes ago. Granted, we didn’t discuss anything substantive… no life philosophies. We didn’t discuss politics nor religion nor views on any of the divisive topics currently in the news. Instead, it was a pleasant peek into a total stranger’s life and a gem of an opportunity to connect with someone new during a flight.

Perhaps it’s not so much flying, it’s just the travel that I adore, the meeting of people, the sharing of stories, the connection with someone I don’t know, but with whom I share a meaningful, albeit very short, experience. Throughout the years, it’s always been like this. Folks that come into and out of my life for minutes of time, it just intensifies my love of travel and desire to travel more.

What about you? Do you enjoy flying? Do you like to travel? Any special places on your travel bucket list? Inquiring minds want to know!