Airplane

As I type, my wife is in an airplane flying home from Las Vegas from a business meeting. At least that's what she said.... I know, what happens Vegas, stays in Vegas. I think Las Vegas is Spanish for The Fertile Valleys, but I digress. It's probably Spanish for The House Always Wins. Anyway, as I check her flight status every 10 minutes, I'm reminded of a special flight with my Dad.

One Christmas, when I was living in Nashville trying to be a rock star, my Mom gave my Dad flying lessons for Christmas. He's always been a flying buff and can look up at a plane tell you what it is. "That's an L-1011. You can tell by the engines." or "That's a 747. You can tell by the hump." Frankly, he could have told me it was a flying pomegranate and I would have bought it.

The next Easter... maybe, that seems really close to Christmas, he had the chance to fly to Nashville with his instructor and fly me back home. So they buzz up driving this little puddle jumper and I hop in feeling like Kiefer Sutherland in "Flatliners".... "Looks like a good day to die."

It was an experience I will never forget. Many details have been lost, of course, except one memory sticks in my mind. Sometime over the course of the flight, I asked "Where are we?". Dad said: "I don't know where I am, but I know where I'm going." I think about that a lot. Literally and figuratively. I only hope to have the confidence that he had when he said it.

Flight status update: Arrived in Charlotte. Departs to Greenville at 22:35.