Today was our first foray out into the world since our return. For a variety of reasons, we just stayed in for nearly a week! We’ve cataloged and put away most of the stuff from Tripp, and are about to go pet her a bit and maybe take her for a ride. Meanwhile tho, I wanted to share a realization from our drive into town.
Partly due to not having been out of the house much, and our only drive being from the airport home in the dark, driving in traffic was stimulating. We realized after a moment that during our NxNW Adventure it was rare that we rode in a car, and only a few times did we drive one. The last big city we were in was Edmonton about a week ago. Careening along a narrow lane at 65mph with cars a couple of feet away merging, passing and all that… Well, it was a bit overwhelming. I mean, if any of those drivers take their hands of the wheel for five seconds there’s going to be mayhem. Even though lots of them are on cellphones and a few are txting, most keep at least one hand on the wheel and glance at the road every couple of seconds.
Contrast this with flying, where the “marked” lanes are 500-1000′ apart and even without autopilot most airplanes will happily fly along on course for perhaps 15 seconds and then gradually drift a bit. Even in “crowded” airspace like SBA it’s not unusual to have great difficulty spotting another airplane even when it’s “close” enough that you’re carefully looking. Actually coming near another plane is very rare except of course landing and taking off, and collisions even more rare (though they get lots more media attention than the daily highway carnage). While flying, when a pilot says, “Traffic” it means there’s another aircraft visible somewhere, but I often say it when noting freeway congestion below with unabashed delight. Will today’s drive help me to feel more compassion for all those souls who aren’t flying? Am I an insufferable snob, who will get my due when our meager savings are all spent and we’re forced back to ground-based transport?
Well, enough spew. Hope we can safely reach the airport, and maybe get a glance at the freeway traffic from a safe distance. 🙂
John & Anne Wiley 