Some Flightly Observations

Sitting in an overcrowded airport shuttle this past weekend with a child and car seat and luggage, you can't help but notice other people.

First off, it's pretty clear from body language that people don't like the thought that you and your kid may be on their flight. I'm not sure what kid traveling gave other kids a bad name, but that's pretty much par for the course.

This country is quite coddled. Pulling up to the Columbus International Airport -- one not much larger than Portland, Maine's airport -- no one moved on our overcrowded shuttle. Instead, they yelled out their airlines. The shuttle had stopped at the first airline in the terminal -- the only terminal at the airport. A couple people filed out. We were at the back and unable to move. Many remained seated or stood in the aisles. Then a couple more people made the effort to get out, forcing others to disembark the shuttle. We seized the opportunity and also got off. Electing to walk the less than hundred yards to where our airline was located. More than a few people got back on and decided that that hundred yard walk to the end of the road where their airline was, was too inconvenient. It would be more beneficial to get back on board the shuttle, wait for traffic to clear so the shuttle could pull out and then park less than a hundred yards further down the road and then they could still walk across the road to their airline.

This is our country.

Paying for food on an airplane isn't that bad a deal -- especially if it means you're going to get something other than peanuts. Ironically, doesn't cost peanuts though.

If you check something at the foot of the plane, it's a reasonable assumption to think someone's going to notice and check-in a large, un-aeroplane object sitting in front of the plane. That's reasonable. Until it almost doesn't happen and you get apologized to.

Walking on to the tarmac feels, sometimes, like staying up past your bedtime. Not everyone gets to do it. Of course, when that means walking up a ramp into the plane that's shaking, well, that's like staying up past your bedtime to watch C-SPAN.

One couple on the return flight casually remarked aloud they didn't want to sit "near the children". There were a few of us with kids in one area so they moved to the rear of the plane where there was only one child. That kid screamed the entire flight.

Also, don't pay for privileges to board an airplane first. Have a kid.

And I remain convinced that Bob Dylan is the perfect music for an airline flight. Like Annie Lennox and Natalie Merchant are to elevators, Dylan is to that moment the plane rises above the weather to see the oranges, reds and purples fading into a field of clouds. It's not dark yet... but it's getting there.