10/23/2015

Flying Home





As the sun was fading in the sky over the Greenville Spartanburg Airport last evening I was waiting to board this plane to fly home to Dulles Airport.

This is not my favorite air plane. I had not read the fine print on my reservation in time to make changes. So  - - having ridden one of these  - the 3 - 800 Haviland DASH - from Tri-Cities TN in September I knew how it could roar and toss and turn - no way does it ever DASH.  It pokes along. I was nervous - oh, truth - I was scared. So - preparing for the worst -  I took one half of a small pill to help with that.

And the Lord provided.

Turned out my seat mate was a clean-cut, red head with a crew cut - a grad student at Clemson University - who took one look at the propellors outside our window, which he was sitting next to - turned to me and said, - "I don't like this". I agreed, " I don't either." And that opened our two hour conversation. We began to talk and we talked and talked and talked. And best of all we laughed. We laughed all the way to Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C.

I learned about why he came to Clemson from up North, and how he liked living in the South and more and more and more. And he was curious about storytelling and a grand-mother traveling from home to tell stories. We told stories to each other and at one point when the plane jumped - we found out that we had both laughed out loud at the Louis C.K. comedy routine about flying - "what's the matter with you people, you are sitting in a chair in the sky?"

The time sped by - slower than ususal on a plane, that's true - and louder - but, hey. it had turned into fun.

Before we landed, he took out his phone. "we have to take a selfie." And he did.
He caught the moment.

He has my email and I hope to see it after his partying is done this week-end.

The nightmare I expected had flipped into - not a DASH - but a good ride home.

3 comments:

Granny Sue said...

What a great story! All it takes is being willing to talk--and listen.

BYRSTN said...

Great story...looking forward to seeing the pic

ELLOUISESTORY said...

I would have posted the picture - but he isn't sent it. That's OK - it was a great ride and I remember the important lesson - talk to your seat mate - you never know what fun it will be.