Round Robin Photo Challenge --- In Flight

Welcome to this weeks edition of Round Robin Photo Challenge. The theme this week is “In Flight” and this time we are specifically looking for something that is in flight.

I choose to write about the first time I took to the skies. My photo was taken in December 2006 during my very first airplane flight. I was sixty years old and had never been west of Kansas City, Missouri. I had made many trips to Lambert Airport to drop off or pick up someone but I had never been on an airplane myself.




Then suddenly on Monday at work I knew, with no uncertainty, that I had to make a trip to California and could not waste any time getting there. During my lunch break I went home and got on my computer and found the best price for a round trip ticket leaving early the next morning. But, why was I in such a rush?

I belonged to several singles websites back then and a very nice man from San Diego had contacted me on the Friday after Thanksgiving. We emailed for a while then we started to talk on the phone each night after I got home from work. It was the best 16 days of my life. Then on the seventeenth day the gentleman told me that he had promised to have a first meeting with a lady he had been talking with for some time. The date for their meeting was coming up soon and he wanted to be honest with me.

I just knew that I had to meet him first and there was not much time. I was working the 2 to 10 pm. shift four days a week. It was Monday and my three days off were coming up. I had to move quickly before I talked myself out of going. So with the ticket purchased I called my guy as usual when I got home. I asked what his plans were for the next day. Then asked if he could meet me at the airport. He was surprised but agreed.

I packed and made the one-hour drive into the airport. Put my car in long term parking and headed for the check-in counter. My flight was scheduled to leave at five AM.
At 4:40 I placed a call to one of my sisters, getting her out of bed. It only took a minute for her to come fully awake when I explained where I was and what I was planning to do. She was convinced I was going to California to meet an ax murderer or worse but she did not have enough time to find a way to stop me. I promised to call her that evening and headed for my plane.

I was so excited (and nervous) that the flight was over before I could calm down. I had no problem spotting my gentleman waiting at the end of the ramp as promised. The Old Salt was much better looking in person than in the photo I was carrying. Those three days seemed like minutes. I returned home to start making plans for a return visit in January. The following March the Old Salt packed all his worldly goods into a Toyota Yaris and as we made the trip from La La Land to my small town in the heart of the Missouri wine country we stopped at a small wedding chapel in Laughlin Nevada long enough to be married.

You can check out the photo's posted by the other Robin's or join the fun by visiting roundrobinphoto.blogspot.com