On Air Travel

Nothing deep this time, just my feelings on air travel.

Some things I like:

Take-off.  Hands-down my favorite part of any trip by air.  I love taxing down the run-way, the feeling of being airborne, and the view you get as you're ascending...

Landing.

Not having to check any luggage (obviously this doesn't happen every time, but when it does, I'm happy).

Southwest Airlines.

When I manage to get an A-group boarding pass.  (See above.)

Watching people in the airport.  Not in a creeper-ish sort of way, just observing life going on around me.

Seeing snow from the air.

Clouds!  So many different kinds.  From a completely new perspective (including flying through them).

When we're close enough to landing that the cars are more than tiny dots.

Watching (from the airport windows) planes getting ready to take off/pull back from the gate.  I didn't realize this until recently, but there's actually a vehicle that steers the plane backwards until it's far enough away from the gate to turn.  I don't know how a fully-loaded jet gets pushed backwards by some comparatively puny vehicle.  But then, a fully-loaded jet is also capable of remaining airborne...

Some things I dislike:

Planning trips and booking the tickets.  I used to think I really liked it, but I don't anymore.

Packing.

Aisle seats.  Especially towards the back of the plane.

Flights with screaming children or super-chatty adults (who does, really?).

Really full flights.

Airport food prices. Ick.

Stale peanuts.  I'd rather go hungry.

My usual post-travel headache.

When my ears won't pop.  Ouch, ouch.

Searching the terminal for an outlet to plug my computer charger into (harder to find than one might think!).

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There you have it.