A year ago today was the last time I got on an airplane; I was flying back to the Twin Cities from Bozeman, MT following a couple of days skiing at Big Sky and a couple of days exploring Yellowstone National Park in the winter.
While the coronavirus was just beginning to filter into our consciousness here I do remember that the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport was the emptiest I’d ever seen it. And that was in 37 years of flying in and out.
Little did I imagine that in the next year I would not set foot into the airport again, much less get on another airplane. I’m quite sure these past 365 days of not flying anywhere is the longest stretch I have gone without getting on an airplane in a very long time; probably since high school.
Possibly since grade school.
Possibly since my very first flight when I was barely a year old; a flight with my parents and older sister from Karachi to Baghdad to London to Chicago.
Awhile back I stumbled onto a fun website called Great Circle Mapper, that allows you to build a route map of flights. Waxing nostalgic for my flying days I decided to reconstruct (which meant trying to remember) all the routes I’ve flown.

Hmm….there’s a big gap in South America . And Africa is pretty slim as well.
If you’ve travelled a lot, it’s kind of a fun thing to do. But you need to know your airport codes! In my BC (Before China) days I worked as a travel agent, so that wasn’t a problem for me. It won’t be for you either, since you can just “google” the airport codes for the places you’ve flown to.
I’m really hoping that I can get off the ground this year and add a new route or two to this map! Botswana is high on my list!
When you decide you are ready to travel again, where do you want to fly to?
Well Jo, it happens that Jonathan wants to me to celebrate celebrate my 90th birthday in Pakistan. Think it will happen??