The Joys of Traveling

As a life-long traveler, it has come to be my experience that every flight is it's own animal. And most of the time, it is rarely what you expect it to be. And once again, this past weekend's trip has proven me right!

But first, let's look at my trip to Pittsburgh, from a few years back, as Exhibit A. I was headed with the children, from St. Louis, MO to Pittsburgh, PA, to visit the latest amusement park attraction that my husband's company had built, via Atlanta of all places. Atlanta. Really?? Then, to make matters worse, our layover in Atlanta was three hours long. Yep, three hours with an 8 year old and a 12 year old ... oh goody!

So finally, after dropping a small fortune at the Atlanta airport, we board our flight to Pittsburgh, and both children want a window seat (of course). Which is a problem, as we have kind of a fractured seating arrangement. We have an aisle, a middle, and another aisle. So in this current seating arrangement, no one is going to get a window. The very kind man sitting in the window (next to our aisle/middle) offers to take the other aisle, so that the three of us can be together, except this really doesn't help my situation at all because now one child will get a window, and another child will NOT get a window.

Now that both children are in full meltdown mode (they are very tired), and the flight attendant is less than happy with us (clearly this woman does NOT have children) ... we realize that the other window seat is not taken. So the very kind man, once again ... offers to have one of the children sit with him in the window seat ... leaving me with the other child in a window seat. Eureka!

Now I have offspring #1 sitting with this nice man, talking his EAR off ... and after all of that drama, offspring #2, in her window seat, next to me, proceeds to fall asleep.

So in conversing with the very nice man, offspring #1 finds out that the very nice man is actually a rock star. More specifically a guitar player for a rock band that shall go unnamed. The guy then proceeds to let offspring #1 listen to his iPod so that he can talk to me. Here we go ...

He buys me a beer (okay three), which I really did need at this point, and we have a most enjoyable conversation on the flight. I told him that we were going to Pittsburgh to see my husband's newest ride at this amusement park, and he is quite impressed as he has been going there since he was a child (as have I seeing as my Father's entire family is from Pittsburgh). As the plane is beginning it's decent, he asks me for my phone number.

Oh good grief. What part of "my husband" did you not hear in our conversation?? Not to mention the fact that I am traveling with two children!! So I politely decline, and he apologizes profusely, and we laugh as we are exiting the plane.

Okay, so back to the trip at hand. I went to Ohio this past weekend to visit my 85 year old Grandmother. I, being the spend-thrifty person that I am, booked a 6:40am flight to Detroit to save money, and counted on the fact that I would sleep on the flight ... when I know darn good and well that it never works out that way.

I board the plane and head back to my seat, and when I get to my seat (I have the middle seat), there is an older gentleman seated in the aisle seat. He asks me if I am headed to sit next to him, and I politely say yes. Then he asks if the man walking behind me is with me, and I say no ... to which he says "good," and then tells the guy "no offense, but she is much better looking than you are." Oh brother!

We had a very enjoyable flight, talking about our current travels (my trip to visit my Grandmother, and his trip to go race a sail boat from Port Huron to Mackinaw Island), as well as talking about previous trips that we have taken with our spouses. Before I know it, the hour flight is up, we are getting ready to land in Detroit, and I had not gotten a lick of sleep! So much for my well intentioned plans, eh?

Ahhh ... the joys of traveling!

Cheers!