When I was in 4th grade, probably 10 years old, I was fascinated by a picture in my geography book. It was of a city with a plane in the sky. In 1949 a plane flying overhead in my little town was an “event”. To think of flying over cities seemed like magic to me. Maybe that is when my desire to travel and see all 50 states was born.
I didn’t actually fly until I was 31 when I went with Jim to a chemical engineering conference in Denver, CO. It was a great adventure for us as we left the kids at home with Grandma Weise and saw the great Rocky Mountains for the first time. At that conference I took a very scary trip on a tour bus with other spouses. A big tour bus making the mountain S-curve turns is enough to make you swear off of buses!
I loved flying. People dressed up for travel, enjoyed decent meals and were treated like special people by the stewardesses. Watching the land pass by below was an experience I will never forget. I thought that one flight was a semester in geography. Only in flying do we get a sense of the size of our country and the vast unoccupied areas.
Since 1971 I’ve flown across the country and over the oceans in all sizes of planes from jets to helicopters and I’m still in awe as we take off and enter the clouds.
Memories & Musings 