The Great Unknown

Well I have to say: today went a lot smoother than I expected it to.  American Airlines came through big time and I didn’t face a single problem.  The longest flight I’d ever been on before today was a five or six hour direct trip to Mexico so I was anticipating today’s two 3.5+ hour rides to be somewhat torturous, but they weren’t all that bad. 

On the first flight, I drank my tea, read my magazine, and snacked on a cinnamon apple, a huge bag of cucumber slices, and some Annie’s chocolate bunny grahams that I brought with me. 

I also watched One For The Money, a Netflix movie I’ve had for months but never got around to watching.  Now I wish I hadn’t waited so long though, because I thought it was really pretty good. 

When I made it to Dallas, I had a little less than an hour to kill.  Of course, the first thing I saw when I walked off the plane was Annie’s Pretzels, so I grabbed one to snack on between flights.  Those things are so good.  So good. 

I also picked up a Subway sandwich and chips to have for dinner on the plane later.  I got turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, pepper jack cheese, and black pepper (I love anything with “pepper” in the name) on wheat.  Also, I’m not really a huge potato chip girl (and I generally don’t like any kind of flavored chips) but these jalapeño ones are the jam.

On the first flight, they were playing the movie What To Expect When You’re Expecting, but I didn’t have my headphones out in time so I was glad to see they were playing it on the second flight as well.  It was really cute and pretty funny at times.  I had to try not to laugh out loud on the plane…  I felt like that might be a little weird. 

Speaking of weird – isn’t it crazy how much of the United States is uninhabited?  Sorry if that seems totally out of left field, but we flew over al these crazy mountains between Dallas and San Francisco and I was just amazed at how much untouched land is out there. 

I mean, does no one really live there?  It’s way cool to see it from above and get to really capture the enormity of it all, but I bet it would also be pretty cool to hike around down there.  Most people I know back east would probably consider a few parcels of empty land or some good sized farms to be pretty desolate, but it’s really nothing compared.   I always love flying over different places and comparing the layouts of the neighborhoods and how things are built into the landscapes, but seeing so much land with absolutely nothing on it was pretty cool too. 

The “getting there” of traveling isn’t always easy, but the things you get to see along the way are pretty dang cool.  And the new places you get to experience once you’re there aren’t so bad either… 

It was about a two-hour drive from the airport, but it feels good to be unpacking in the place I’ll call “home” for the next two weeks.  Now that I’m settled in, I’m going to try to take advantage of the three hour time difference and get to bed early.  A couple extra hours of sleep can’t hurt when I’ve got two extra long weeks of work ahead!

Questions:

Do you fly a lot? What are your pro and cons of traveling?

What do you do to stay busy on long trips?

What do you think is the worst/coolest part of flying?