This Aviation Lifestyle
My Grandmother Wylly called it, “being journey-proud.” Many of us know this feeling: a delightful mix between anticipation and anxiousness. This emotional gearing-up towards journeying that keeps us up late at night just before the next day of actual travel. As a child I was always quite “journey proud” whether it was anticipating our annual Christmas trek from Milwaukee to Savannah or going to camp in the north woods of Wisconsin. As a teenager it was the future thrill of an upcoming orchestra tour of England that kept me excited and repacking until the last minute. I found international travel such a joy that I signed-up to be a German exchange student casually informing my surprised parents about it. Plane trips overseas? Count me in! Practically the minute that suitcases were hauled out of a closet and a trip seemed officially in motion, the anticipation of it kept me enthralled. It still does.
Though James and I over almost 20 years of marriage now have traveled many places, even the simplest day trip contains anticipation for me. All he has to say is something like, “do you want to go to…” and I’ll answer, “yes” before he can finish saying where we’ll be headed. We’ve day tripped up to his family farm in central South Carolina, up to Charleston, over to Walterboro, Hilton Head Island and Bluffton and down to Savannah. Savannah actually is a regular day trip destination since the bulk of both sides of my family still reside there. Additionally there’s a renewed Broughton Street to enjoy strolling around as much as the historic riverfront’s well known Bay Street. Our day trips are basically car trips now but I remember a time fondly when day tripping for us involved flying a small airplane. The ole’ maxim of “hundred dollar hamburgers” definitely applied to our daytime getaways taking off in a plane to head to parts ‘yonder. One of my favorite times taking a quick trip was flying from Charlotte to Beaufort, SC to have dinner with my parents. That was more of a night trip actually but really fun. James and I would arrive at Beaufort’s Frogmore International Airport via a Cessna. It was then just a short hop over in my parent’s car to a local seafood joint where we all enjoyed dinner together. Afterwards, James and I flew out from this tiny local airport heading back home with full stomachs and full smiles. How convenient to have access to familial conviviality via a quick run in an airplane down the coast as they say here. Now that we live off the same coast sometimes I wonder how many people are flying into our nearby Frogmore Intl.’ for quick day tripping.
I must admit, however, that for me personally, still nothing beats the anticipation of looking forward to international travel. I absolutely love to be thinking about being on a big jet heading across oceans towards a whole ‘nother world out there waiting to be experienced. Some folks complain about being seated in coach, about the long flights, about the time differences- not me. I’m quite happy to be there. I’m literally happy as a clam to be in whatever seat they give me with my travel satchel underneath the seat in front and a soft shawl over my shoulders. With a couple of good books to read, my small travel pillow at hand and a whole flight to think about the place I’m going to- what could be better?
Well, flying first class on an international flight IS actually much better I’ll readily admit and every so often I experience that- what a delight. The best thing for me is being able to stretch out and actually fall asleep for a couple of hours. I’m not a foodie so upscale eats are kind of a waste on me and I don’t drink much however, to sleep comfortably is really nice. Since I’m on the short and petite side of body shapes, any airline seat’s fine with me although I can understand where bigger, taller people than myself much prefer the larger seats. I thought that I could curl-up in a coach seat about as contained as any person could possibly do that until my first flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia. Back in Quanta’s coach section, I was amazed and intrigued by my two other seat row mates. I’ve never seen individuals so flexible! Later on, I discovered that they were Cirque du Soleil performers. Okay, that definitely explained it. No problem there with their ability to reconfigure themselves into a smallish space for say, 16 hours or more of flight time.
This month we’re headed across the Atlantic pond for a vacation week on the European continent. You can bet I’m eagerly anticipating this trip! We’ll be on the plane for almost 9 hours, give or take a few minutes. I’ll have my usual books, travel guide and writing notebooks to enjoy. Rarely do I watch the movies, use the games or even utilize the music channels available. For me, it’s relaxing to just listen to the hum of the plane and the buzz of assorted quiet conversations going on once everyone gets settled-in and the cabin lights dim. I hope that they never allow cell phone use during flight. The overly loud constant chatter of a multitude of people within a contained space would certainly destroy any fairly restive reprieve from information overload that I seek. Give me the hum of airplane engines over second hand cell phone conversations any day. Its funny what a person anticipates with travel conditions and circumstances isn’t it? Maybe it’s fairly humorous how I’m proud of being ‘journey-proud’. I celebrate the fact that, for me, traveling has always been such a pleasant part of my life experience; yes, even the times when it’s not very pleasant and indeed much more challenging. By foot, by car, by rail, by boat and especially by plane… some of the best parts of a journey are the anticipatory moments just before it begins.