I recently had the chance to go to a small town near Cleveland, Ohio. As a side note, who knew that I would ever see Ohio?! It sure wasn’t on my list of places to go. Never the less, I got the chance to go. My flight included Orange County to Atlanta, Georgia and then from Atlanta, Georgia to Akron, Ohio, and the reverse on the way back. On those flights I met some very lovely people. It’s amazing what one will share with another person if they’re willing to listen or in my case willing to talk. As many of you reading this blog may know, I have a slight shyness problem… as in I’m not shy often.
Upon boarding my initial flight in the OC I was to sit in an aisle seat however, after hearing the gentleman in the middle seat talk to who I am assuming was his wife about how uncomfortable he was going to be because he is sooo tall, I gave my seat to him. I know, it’s very kind of me. I just figure that I’m small and am not bothered as much by sitting in a seat with no leg room. My decision turned out for the best when I chatted with the gentleman in the window seat for most of the flight. I barely even noticed the flight “fly” by. Born and raised in the South, he was fascinated with my travel and ranger stories. I wondered if I was boring him and even asked for his forgiveness when I felt that I was talking his ear off. To my pleasant surprise, he wanted to hear more! I was in the mood to oblige. He also told me a little about the South. For example, do not go to New Orleans or Baton Rouge by yourself. It’s a lot of fun and there’s great food, but go with someone. Good advice! Thanks! Hopefully he’ll send me a message so that I can help with his travel plans to Alaska.
The problem with me meeting people however is remembering their names. There has got to be an easy way to convince myself to remember names.
On the flight from Atlanta to Ohio, I met a wonderful lady that was making her way from Texas to Ohio to see her dying mother. I really do hope she was able to speak with her mother before she pasted. To keep her mind off the thought of her mother, we talked a lot about her and her family. She and her husband teacher piano at the college level, from what I understand, and one daughter is an opera singer in New York and the other owns and teaches in a dance studio. Turns out is speaks Austrian! She spent 2 years in Vienna playing and teaching the piano. A couple of her students were children of a countess. She had some amazing stories of famous musicians she played with. We had a very long discussion about music and what it means to play. I’d like to believe that music plays a vital role in our lives. I hope she finds some comfort in music during these hard times that I could tell she was experiencing.
On the flight back from Ohio I slept on the first leg, but met a very interesting gentleman on the flight from Atlanta to the OC. He was born and raised in India (the same place my good friend Amanda is living actually) and moved to the U.S. when he was 23 years old. He travels a lot of his work, so it was fascinating to hear his take on different places. I was interested to know that Dubai lacks culture. Apparently I didn’t miss all that much when I spent 8 hours from midnight to 8am in the Dubai airport. Good advice: you’ll more than likely experience more Indian culture than Arabian culture if you go to Dubai, if you want Indian culture you should go to India. Just something to keep in mind. Speaking of people that we meet on planes, he was telling me a story of a young lady in her early 20’s that he had met once on a plane coming back from Dubai. It is a story worth repeating.
On a plane to Orange County he sat next to a young lady that calmly told him a story about a man she had met through a call center. There were no details on how long she had known this man; however she felt that she knew him well enough to go to Dubai to meet him. She had never left the U.S. before, no less on her own. She had procured a passport specifically for this trip. When it was time to leave, she told her family that she was going to visit a friend in San Diego and got on a plane instead. While in Dubai she called her family to let them know. Her father turned off her cell phone immediately thereafter. On the flight back she was unsure of how she was going to contact her sister to pick her up at the L.A. Airport. My new made friend lent her his phone. It was very kind of him. In my opinion and my friend’s as well, she was one crazy and lucky girl.
[As a side note, I wish it had been a completely clear and a perfect photograph day on the flight back, because flying over the Grand Canyon at sunset was beautiful. The oranges, the pinks, the reds were all so vivid through the haze that hovered over the canyon.]
Oh the people we meet on planes if we’re willing to meet them. It’s been a good couple of days of travel.
Onto more next week!
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