Know that this blog was first written in my journal and then transposed…
Two years ago tonight I was packing for my first cross-country recruiting trip with Snapper to Arizona. That was the epic journey to Embry Riddle Prescott where a Mountain Dew bottle exploded on me all over the car. Tonight I am on a Southwest flight headed to Orlando to meet up with Snapper and Charity. However this trip is to Embry Riddle Daytona Beach.
I feel like Johnny Cash! You know the song where he lists all the places he has been. In the last forty-eight hours I have been from Green Bay, Wisconsin to Memphis, Tennessee. I have stayed in Rockford, Illinois and spent one night in my bed in Huntsville, Alabama. I have been through St. Louis, Missouri and stopped in Nashville, Tennessee. Soon I will be landing in Orlando, Florida… I have been everywhere man!!!
Going on a road trip with my parents made me feel like a kid again. Right down to being stuck in the back seat of the car only to get car sick. Being a sympathetic puker I vomited twice, because I felt sorry for myself. Something that has changed is when I was younger I was the one asking to stop often to pee. Now it is my parents who need the frequent potty breaks. The road trip was fun, don’t get me wrong. It is always fun reliving your childhood. Here is a good example, when I was a kid I could blame the mysterious smells coming from the back seat on my older brother. Now my back seat partner is my husband and we can’t rat each other out.
Flying to Orlando on Southwest is different than riding with my mother. I don’t have to watch out for the “mamma arm” from the pilot when we hit turbulence. Flying Southwest is however, very different than flying other air carriers. I think the passengers are a little friendlier and out going since they made us do a team building exercise before we boarded the plane. Southwest asks all the passengers in Group A to line up in order of the ticket position. It could only have been better if a few of us were blindfolded or couldn’t speak.
Honestly, Southwest is friendlier, maybe not because of the line up exercise. I think it could be avoiding the stress of thinking about assigned seating. The thought of sitting by a sweaty man or in between screaming kids is so stressful. Knowing you are trapped next to an obsessive talker or someone that will show countless pictures of their grand children, even child birth photos. There is some relief in knowing that if you just don’t like the way someone looks, you don’t have to share an airplane ride with them. This makes the preflight checklist more like a cocktail party than a funeral, and thus making the traveling experience more enjoyable.
What can I say… I wanted adventure in August! Since August I have been to 10 states on different trips and visited six college campuses as a recruiter. Not bad for a kid who worried she would never leave her back yard. Great thing my parents instilled in me an adventurous and independent spirit. Heck, traveling to Green Bay was a great reminder of the values my parents wanted me to have. Thanks Mom and Dad.