It was a great privilege for me to fly with my daughter and grandson to their home in Tunisia from our family home in Oregon. Baby Noah had arrived unexpectedly early while they were home for a Christmas visit, and his Daddy had already flown back for his job, so after Noah was big enough to travel I accompanied the remaining two.
I love to fly. I love it especially when you can look down and see the landforms below. I always wish I knew the name of that river, or what mountain range that is….I love seeing the swirls of circular fields plowed or the patchwork of agricultural lands with tiny Monopoly–sized houses along the boundary roads. The mountain ranges and the watershed lakes are marvelous. It is good to see creation in all its variety.
I have wished that I could have a GPS with me on these flights, or a moving map, that would answer these questions. On occasion I have asked a flight attendant or even the pilot for information. I like it when the pilot announces what we are seeing. On this trip for instance, I thought we must be over the lakes of Minnesota when the pilot announced we were at the southern end of Appalachia. Who knew there was so much water there?
Even though it’s not a detailed map, I do appreciate the new computer maps on the backs of the seats above the tray table which show basically where we are. It’s not that I need to know how close to our destination we are (in that case, the maps are infuriatingly slow in showing progress), it’s that you get the big picture.
First, I will show you a picture of coming in to land in Washington, D.C. The snow on the ground made a collage of newspaper-like clippings scattered across a desk.
Due to turbulence, some of these pictures aren’t very good, but they tell the story anyway. I was thrilled when I saw on the map that I was over Ireland, seeing “Shannon”, “Limerick” below me. Then, “Glasgow”, “London” and just a hairsbreadth away from other possibilities: Istanbul, Addis Ababa, Kinshasa. The romance of it all distracted me from being a helpful traveling companion.
An exceptional traveler he proved to be, and it’s a good thing since he has a foot in 2 continents. I can hardly wait until he’s back in this one!
