A Year on the Ground

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?