Tuesday, March 20, 2007

On the road again ...

I travel a lot. It's usually road trips, at least once a month, to Iowa to visit my mother. So I always have a suitcase that's partially packed, ready to go. That's a four hour drive, one way if the weather's good and there's little traffic. In the summer, my DH and I take weekend getaways, spur-of-the-moment things where we just get in the car and drive. And I get away for weekends with friends, once or twice a summer, where we go gamble and brainstorm our books. Great fun.

Flying, though ... I don't enjoy flying. It's the simplest way to get from A to B, but I dislike it a lot UNLESS (big UNLESS) I have the right attitude. I've found that I have to just give in and not worry about it. I don't worry about crashes or terrorists or anything like that. But I just hate being at the mercy of somebody else's schedule.

So what I do is this: I figure I'm going to suck up at least 3 or 4 extra hours besides the time spent in the air. I may as well make it as enjoyable as possible. I get to the airport early, breeze through security, wheel my wheelie-bag around the shops, sip some latte, find a good spot and sit down and pull out my ebook reader on which I have about 30 books loaded. Or I'll whip out Paula PalmPilot and WiFi my way to Yahoo and read my email.

I always pay the $15 surcharge to get the exit row seat -- it's worth to me. I get on early, settle in, take my Dramamine, and prepare to snooze. I stretch out, doze, and wake up about the time we land. Then I waddle around the airport, find my bag, find the shuttle, and voila ... I am where I should be.

It's all about the attitude. I take the trip in milestones: "get to the airport". "get through security". "find the gate". "board the plane". "take off". "land". "find your bags". "find a shuttle".

If I break it into little chunks, it's much easier to digest....

J

No comments: