Beam us Home, Scotty

Returning home after traveling for ten days in the Rocky Mountains gives one a mixed sense of relief and regret.  The relief comes from a feeling of returning to the familiarity and safety of one's home.  The regret stems from the knowledge that the adventure is over.

Life is full of contradictions: I love being home; I love being in new places.

The problem with traveling is the actual process of traveling.  I enjoy seeing new places and meeting new people, but getting there is agony.   Planes, trains, automobiles are crowded, slow, and uncomfortable conveyances.  I look forward to the day when we can instantly "beam" ourselves to different places, like they do in the Star-trek movies.  

Public modes of transportation are the worst.  It seems like they allot fewer inches of seating space per person every year.  You would think that they would acknowledge the the fact that nearly 50% of the customers are XL.  Why do they want people to hate flying?

Southwest, which once boasted the most comfortable seating, has sacrificed the legroom so they could add a few more rows.  Their "open-seating" policy is  eroding.  Now you can jump the line for a few more bucks.  They don't feed you, anymore, and an adult beverage costs $7.   You elbow out a little old lady so you can beat her to the emergency exit row where you can get a precious extra few inches of legroom. The old hag glares at you as she passes down the aisle and mutters something about ungentlemanly behavior.  Hey, you say to yourself, this is what happens  -- when they treat you like cattle, you act like cattle. 

The journey started in Boston at 4 AM when our faithful friend George arrived to drive us to Logan Airport.  We have a complicated symbiotic relationship when it comes to air travel.  I always offer to drive friends and relatives to and from the airport and suggest that a quid pro quo on our next trip would be great.  This works out pretty well.  Since they built the Ted Williams tunnel, our trip to the airport is about 20 minutes during non-rush hour traffic.  For the record, our daughter was waiting to pick us up when we returned.  George and Jeanette had gone on their vacation to Azores.   I don't know how they go in, bit a few days after we returned we were back at Logan to pick them up.

Two of the best innovations of the century are the establishment of the Cell Phone Lot and airline flight tracker.  Now your driver knows how much your flight has been delayed, and can wait for your call or text to say "we have our bags."  Presto they are there at your terminal in a few minutes.  This makes it much easier than in the old days.   

One of my ideas for a retirement business was "Vacation Minders."  This would be a service where I offer to drive people to the airport and pick them up in their own vehicle and also check their houses, water the plants, etc. (No pet care).  I figured that some of the affluent families in the area would find that a useful service.  It would cost less than hiring a limo and having a trusted neighbor checking up on a daily basis would take some of the worries out of being away.  But as a procrastinator, I have never taken this idea off the drawing board. 

Maybe next year.