| February 08, 2006 It has been an interesting journey so far, although it has merely begun. I'm thrilled to have my good friend of many long years, Jay Carnes, traveling with me on this, likely the greatest adventure of my life. We departed from Cincinnati on perhaps the smallest, shabbiest plane in use by American Airlines. The flight was a smooth and fun one, however, as I snapped some excellent photographs of the American Midwest from the air. The flight was delayed on the Cincinnati runway such a long time that our plane to London's Heathrow airport had already began boarding 30 minutes prior to our arrival to Chicago O'Hare. Thus Jay and I had to take our speed walking to the next level, into a full-fledged run reminiscent of that in the movie Home Alone...same airport in fact. I'm sure to onlookers, it was an enjoyable sight to see two young college boys, weaving in and out of fellow airport patrons, toting some nicely-sized baggage on our backs through one of the most heavily trafficked airports in the world. Having only been on one airplane flight prior to this experience, I was shocked at the size of the plane that was to take us to London. Gigantic. Onboard, the light turbulence on flight 86 was nerve-racking to an amateur globetrotter such as myself. Again, it was nice to have an experienced traveler like Jay by my side. He has been to Brazil and also, on a Centre sponsored excursion, to Spain. The most |
humorous event on the flight across the pond was an incident during which, terrified, I mistook the light on the end of the wing as an oncoming plane. Jay swiftly allayed my fears. |
