My brain's in a bit of a jumble since it's Sunday night and I'm not at home suffering from the (somehow comforting) Sunday blahs, but instead am sitting in a large hotel room taking advantage of the high speed internet connection and the A/C. I feel like it won't even be fair to say that I've been to Atlanta since this will be an airport => hotel => office => airport type trip. My thoughts so far about Atlanta have been as follows:
1. Wow, it's hot
2. Look at all those green trees
3. Where's downtown? Oh wait, you mean we just passed it?
4. Why is everyone in this hotel tan?
Profound, huh? People should pay me to make such stunning observations. ;)
In any case, my favorite conversational tidbit of the day was provided by the man sitting behind me in the shuttle bus to the hotel. Five of the eight passengers were discussing various topics including where we all hailed from and how much gas cost in our respective areas (Pensacola won with $2.79 per gallon; I could have claimed to have seen $3.09 on the Palisades, but we had actually paid $2.49 before getting onto the Palisades, so I thought that wouldn't quite be fair). He said to us at some point "That was the first flight I've taken since 1972."
I goggled at him. "How have you managed that?" I asked.
"I don't leave the country," he said.
I didn't know what to do with this information, I honestly didn't. I mean, even if you don't leave the country, it's still a pretty big country -- big enough to need to fly around in. I mean, you could technically drive around the continental US, but it would take such a staggering amount of time all you'd be doing is, well, driving (yes, Karen, I see you smirking and saying "the journey IS the destination"...). The entire topic of not leaving the country -- that I'll save for another day.
In any case, I wish I had asked him where he'd taken his last flight in 1972.
Okay -- time for bed.
1 comment:
I am indeed smirking. Because I myself have only flown twice in my 35 years-- once to Michigan for business, and once to Tennessee for pleasure. I've seen most of the east coast from Florida and back again, and have been through much of eastern Canada as well, all without benefit of flight. And while it is true that I would like to be able to say I had done more traveling than that, I don't know that flying would be my first choice for mode of transportation, even for places a bit further away. Because yes, the journey IS the destination. I had more fun driving to Montreal than I actually had IN Montreal. And let's not forget that my Mom has NEVER flown. Ever-- and she has seen more of the US than I probably will in my lifetime...
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