Red

  I have had to fly to different places many times.  Despite my familiarity with flying, I am a bit of a nervous passenger.  I learned in Europe to chew gum on taking off and landing.  It helps with the change in air pressure.  I have also learned to drink a soda during the flight to help with my stomach, or to take some Pepto-Bismol tablets before the flight.  I have only gotten sick on two flights.  One was flying between London and Rome, and the other was from Columbia to Nashville.  Most of the time, I like sitting by the window.  It is interesting looking out of the window and hopefully not seeing an engine on fire.

 When I lived in Fort Worth, I had two ways to get home for a visit.  One was to drive, which usually took almost three days.  Back then, my car was not the most comfortable way to go, and I had to stop when my back started hurting.  The other way was to fly.  As I was working at Sanger-Harris, I might get one day off for Christmas, and I wanted to fly home to be with my parents.  If I could work it out and get another day off, that was when I flew home.  I wasn't making a great deal of money, so I found that taking the "red eye" flight to Atlanta and then to Columbia made sense.  It was cheaper than a day flight.  

 Flying at night was much calmer for me, since I could look out of the window and see the lights of homes and businesses.  On one occasion, we got into Atlanta a little late.  We had to circle due to storms in the area.  There was even discussion about landing in Birmingham, but the pilot did get us down to Atlanta.  By the time we arrived, the flight to Columbia was going to leave sooner than I had planned.  Had we arrived on time in Atlanta, I would have had a longer time to wait for the departure to Columbia.  As it turned out, I was running through the terminal to get to the right gate.  It was sort of like that old TV commercial of OJ Simpson running through the airport and jumping over luggage on the floor.  I made it to the gate with just seconds to spare.

 The flight from Atlanta to Columbia was a bit scary.  I could look out of the window and see lightning in the distance, and it was a bit bumpy.  It was raining, when we reached Columbia.  The pilot landed the plane halfway down the runway and jammed on the brakes.  When we finally stopped, everybody clapped.  We weren't clapping, because we landed.  We were clapping, because we were lucky to be alive.  

 I am sorry that my parents had to come out to meet me early in the morning, when it was still dark, but sometimes saving money outweighs the inconvenience.  At least, the engine didn't catch on fire, or I don't think it did.  It was dark.