Ever since the Wrights spoiled the party on the ground by taking to the skies the humans have kept wanting to improve the experience.
After over 100 years let me announce this...
We really have NOT! We flew Singapore Air - the staff at least does not yell back at you (certain stateside airlines will also give you free attitude and no peanuts) but its still hopeless.
One good thing going for the brothers Orville and Wilbur was that they tried to experiment on a beach in the Carolinas... clean fresh air and a short flight. Bathroom breaks at will etc.
Modern flights - this one going from San Fran to some point in Asia - 14 plus hours depending on the point. In something they call COACH. Not the fancy accouterment the ladies carry - although now that I think about it the trip sure felt like I was sitting in one. Cramped - barely able to sleep.
Some have counseled that the way to do these long haul pressurized, smelly, sort of compressed and almost tasteless food journeys is to adopt a Zen posture. Tune it all out and dream of what awaits on the other end. Sometimes that can work - again depending on what the other end might be or why you are trying to get there.
Regardless, add few infants (that are beginning to lose it) and invalids to the mix coupled with the pressures on the airline to keep feeding the dolts in all those seats lest they revolt, the passageways are barely free to wander and stretch any part of the anatomy.
If you do stretch, careful what you wish for since the bowels may want to take a break from this monotony and if luck would have it the lavatories would be out of commission - someone really went wild minutes before you and they had to shut a few down.
Now you have an aromatic pressurized cabin with wild infants and meal carts and semi comatose world citizenry, some waking up in an unfamiliar time zone and wondering why they got boiled chicken instead of the Korean grilled beef.
That's my beef!
This autumn the weather gods cooperated as we took a family trip in the northeast to see six states that qualify or makeup what is known colloquially in America as New England. Mass, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island (tiniest state in the union). The outing helped tally up the states we either lived in, visited or have worked in to 47. Guess which three have eluded this intrepid traveling family. Any rate the drive was all in about 1,800 miles and included some memorable geographic wonders or points of interest. Easternmost part of state of Massachusetts being one. Furthest drivable road east in Mass being another. Visit to all Ivy League schools (term harkens to a collegiate athletics conference and generally regarded as elite academic institutes of some repute worldwide) is another random bucket list item of which this trip afforded the chance to knock two more of the list. Dartmouth in Hanover, NH and Brown (and its sister institute the RISD - school f
at least you are not asking where's the beef, like some great people. The less said about long flights, the better.
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