Come Fly with Me

Clouds somewhere between Chicago and Baltimore. 

On my flight on from the D.C. area, I was setting next to a young man who was some where between 11 to 13.  His mom and sister were sitting behind us and from time to time would place thing too him.  One of the items was a tablet.  I watched from time to time, he would play games on it.  I am talking about really good game, not watching a dot avoid other dots on the football game that I had when I was 14.  But also movies.  I could tell that he was, at his age, a well seasoned traveler.

This brought back to my memory of all the times I have been traveling on an airplane.  I have been flying since I was 3 months old.  That was when my dad got out of the military, and we flew home, well Boise.  But we finally settled in Chattanooga.  With my mom's parents living across country this meant that I did a lot of flying at a really young age.  And the earliest I can remember is about 5 going to see my Grandparents in Arizona.  

Back then, you dressed up to go on the plane.  I remember being dressed in my little suit.  There plane was huge and they would either load from the front or from stairs that came from the back of the plane.  I think that we always had a set where the classes were divided, (back them they did offer a smoking class) because it seemed like there was some room to play on the floor with some toys.  And I always got wings!

I don't remember much flying as a teenage.  At this point we were leaving in Arizona.  I did go out with my dad, just before I turned 14 to see my grandparents, in Tennessee.  Right after my birthday, I was on a plane back to Arizona, because I had scout camp.  This was the first time I was flying by myself.  And I did fine.

At 18 I flew to Hawaii for my senior trip and with in a few more months I was flying to Salt Lake City to go to the MTC (Missionary Training Center), then off the Ireland.

On a flight to Atlanta from Chattanooga, right after we were married was probably one of the scariest flights I have ever been on.  We had left Chattanooga and it had been raining, but as the plane got closer to Atlanta, the storm had gotten more intense.  I remember the plane coming in for a landing and you could feel the plane pitch to one side, like we were landing sideways.  We got in the terminal and they had just shut down operations, so no flight in or out for an hour and a half.  It was like Kim's 4 time flying and I do not think she knew how scary that was.

And On the flight home, the leg of the trip to Detroit, they told us that the weather from Baltimore to there was so bad, that they were not going to have any cabin service during the flight.  So if we wanted to have a drink and a snack on the flight, we better get it before we boarded.  It was a ruff flight.

I do enjoy flying.  I don't know why I never got my pilots license.  And I wish every time we fly now, we didn't have to almost be naked to go through security.  But once you are past that, the fun begins, and you can relax, knowing you are going home or going somewhere fun.