Airborne Lifetime

1987 – Flew to Los Angeles, California (5534-mile round trip)

2001 – Flew to San Francisco, California (5790-mile round trip)

2002 – Flew to Savannah, Georgia via Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1853-mile round trip)

2007 – Flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico (3218-mile round trip)



I am flying way too much. I mean, 16,395 miles in 25 years! That’s like a trip from my house to Portland, Maine and back, once a year, every year. (Note: I have never been to Portland, Maine. Though I wouldn’t mind visiting it. Driving there, that is.)

And now, this trip to Paris will tack on 7,278 more miles, or a 44 percent increase in my airborne lifetime, all in the space of five days! Yikes! Normally it should’ve taken me another eleven years to reach this amount of flight time. Egad!!

Now, my wife flies anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 miles a year, depending which coast holds her company’s annual sales meeting. Also, she’s not adverse to packing the little ones up and jetting down to her ma’s in Hilton Head, a 1670 mile round trip, when I’m not involved in the equation. I’m sure in the past 25 years she’s flown almost 45,000 miles, close to three times as much as I have. And that includes a previous trip to Paris as an exchange student in high school.

So, I am somewhat nervous about my first trip across the Atlantic.

Fortunately, we’re traveling business class, a perk from winning first prize in that there raffle that my wife done did. I may or may not have a stiff drink at the first possible minute, in hopes that it will relax me, if not knock me out stone cold for the 8 hour trip. Additionally, I’m bringing along The Hunchback of Notre Dame – it’ll either completely engross me or else do the job that stiff drink couldn’t. I also have a very important book of a religious spiritual devotional nature that I want to bring to France; be sure I’ll be dog-earing those pages. And I intend to camp out in the aisle seat. That’s right: aisle seat.

Please, if you know me – or even if you don’t! – say a little prayer for me next Monday night, for a safe trip overseas, and another little prayer Saturday night, for a safe return. After all, you wanna be reading the Hopper for years and years to come, right?!