Here we go again! I’m off on another air adventure with daughter #3. I’ve been to 45/50 states. Let’s see how many I can visit on this trip. First stop Arizona. That makes state #46!
For those of you who don’t know, I have 3 daughters. Daughter #3 works part time for American Airlines in order to get the free travel perk (as long as there are unsold seats on the plane). A parent can also fly at an extremely low rate. By the way, daughter #3 is also a lawyer and works for a legal marketing company making websites for lawyers.
The flight was quick and smooth. Headwinds were lighter than average and we got to Phoenix around 1/2 hour ahead of schedule. The plane will be quickly cleaned and then fly on to Sacramento, perhaps with the same pilots.
We had mid-level clouds with numerous breaks in the clouds out to about the Mississippi River ( see pic. above), then clear skies all the way to Phoenix.
I love looking out the window. On your phone, you can (even in airplane mode) see where your plane is and then try and pick out landforms, rivers, towns and cities. This is fun for me (BTW, I had a double major in college – Atmospheric Science and Geography. Since it was Sunday morning, you could reasonably guess churches, with all the cars in their parking lots reflecting the sunshine. While there are towns and cities, the majority of the land between the Sierras and the Poconos is relatively sparsely populated.
In the past couple years…we’ve gone to Portland ME, Boston, we’ve gone through NYC twice, Chicago (of course – do a day trip and you don’t have to pay for a hotel), Knoxville, Dallas, London (twice), Juneau, Nassau, Tel Aviv (we were supposed to go to Fargo, but a blizzard closed the airport there and there Michelle scanned the departures to see what was available and we saw there were 26 open seats on a flight to Israel, where it was mostly sunny and 75 degrees.)
Phoenix is our first stop today, direct flight from the new terminal in Grand Rapids this morning. I got the window seat – my favorite! I watched out the window most of the flight. Now, we’re in the Admirals Club waiting for our next flight. I’m having oatmeal and a banana.This is the view from the Admiral’s Club, where we’re waiting for our next connecting flight. It’s lunch for us on EST and breakfast for those here in Phoenix on Mountain Time. I’m looking our the window at the passing (in the air and on the ground) planes.
I marvel at how far we’ve come since that chilly December day 120 years ago on December 17, 1903, when the Wright Brothers made a 12-second flight, traveling 36 m (120 ft – 40 yards on a football field), with Orville piloting. The best flight of that day, with Wilbur at the controls, covered 255.6 m (852 ft) in 59 seconds when the Wright Brothers. Sixty-six years later, we put a man on the moon. Wow! BTW, those mountains in the distance are closer and smaller than they look in the pic. The mountains by the airport look like mounds of mud that a gopher would dig up.
