For roadtrips, I love the process of mapping out the route and planning pit stops. As I’ve mentioned before, maps have a certain appeal to me, and the roadtrips of my youth included visits with my dad to AAA to pick up TripTicks or maps of various cities, states, or regions, depending on the destination. These days, I use Google Maps to plot the course, and print out physical copies to take a long on the ride.
Another throwback to childhood travels are trip treats. On roadtrips longer than a couple hours, my mother would allow my brothers and me to choose a bag of candy, chips, or other treat to indulge in (and share) on the ride. My dad always picked jelly orange slices, which I like, too. I usually chose Rolos (and once ate a whole bag of them myself on a roadtrip to visit my cousins in Virginia). I continue this tradition today, and while I still grab a bag of sweets, I try to augment with “better-for-me” food like granola, grapes, or the like. International air travel restrictions make it harder to bring trip treats on flights, but from time to time, I’ll buy a bag of M&M’s or a roll of Rolos at the airport newsstand to tide me over.
On flight-based trips, there’s the process of getting to the airport, getting through check-in and security, take-off, the flight itself, landing, and then making my way to the destination. Any point along the way can include mini-adventures. For example, to get to the airport from my apartment in Amsterdam, I have to take both a tram and a train out of the city, and timing that just right -- especially with the snow so far this winter -- can be an art in and of itself. When I landed at London Gatwick recently, it was a train/taxi combo to get me from the airport to the hotel. I could simplify and take a taxi direct from one location to another, but I’m too cheap to begin with, and I’d miss out on half the adventure.
In-flight, there are two things I get excited about -- the views of the ground or clouds below the plane (depending on the altitude and the weather), and watching movies I would otherwise not watch.
I’m continually awed by the physics of flight, that a massive beast of a steel structure can actually rip itself from the tarmac and stay aloft for hours on end. So, I love to look out the window -- during takeoff and landing, and in-flight. It’s fascinating to watch the ground below evolve -- it’s particularly neat flying westbound over the United States, transitioning out of the flat plains if the American MidWest into hills, plateaus, and finally, the Rocky Mountains. When the clouds cover the landscape below, the patterns they create are also beautiful to behold. On my trip home to Boston over the Christmas holiday, the clouds looked like they were quilted, the indents and swirls were so delicate and regular. Here’s a picture of today’s flight, somewhere over the ocean near Greenland.
I know the process of getting somewhere really stresses out some people (like my mother), and I understand that tendency. But the desire to see new places, experience new things so overcomes the hassles of “getting there” for me, that I’ve come to accept, embrace, and even relish in the journeys that usher me to my destinations.
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On a side note, this is my 50th post, achieved in just about a year from when I started this blog. Thanks, dear readers, for your time, attention, and support.
On a side note, this is my 50th post, achieved in just about a year from when I started this blog. Thanks, dear readers, for your time, attention, and support.
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