Fly, Fly Away

It is almost time to take our plane to Barcelona. While this is very exciting and we can hardly wait, all is not well at our home.

For those of you who know Rexie well, you know she does not like flying. No, that is an understatement. She HATES flying. So what kind of shows are on TV this week that I have been watching? Well we start with the movie "Alive". This is about a rugby team that crashed in the Andes. She actually yelled at me when she realized what I was watching. Can you imagine. I mean it is really about cannibalism, not an airplane crash.

It used to be that if we could not get to our vacation spot by Amtrak, we wouldn't go. That explains several of our long train trips over the years. I don't want to embarrass her, but she turned my TV off.

So, this is the story of how Rexie used to fly, quit flying, and now does so again reluctantly.

She is not fond of heights, but it took a special trip for her to swear off planes forever, or so I thought.

I think many of the problems can be traced back to our trip to England when our sons were young teens. We arrived in England with few problems, However, Rexie decided to have a bad time (along with making everyone else miserable), worrying about the flight back.

We get to Heathrow Airport for our flight back. Keep in mind the Rexie has already taken her pills the Doctor gave her. We find that the flight has been cancelled and we will fly out that afternoon. So she waits until the afternoon and takes her last pill for the flight home. You guessed it, the flight is delayed and when we get on the plane, Rexie has no pills left. Had this been after "911", I am sure an Air Marshall would have taken her into custody as she had a few problems getting back to the US.

That was it! Rexie was done flying and so was I, whether I wanted to be or not. Years and years go by and the Amtrak miles pile up. Until we find out our son and daughter-in-law are adopting a baby girl from China. We had a opportunity to go to China, one of the places on my bucket list. To every one's surprise, Rexie said she would go also.

We bought the tickets and made plans for China. We would fly from Columbus to Detroit and then head to Asia. If you talked with us at that time, none of us believed she would ever get on that plane. While there wasn't an official office pool on when she would refuse to go, we all had our bets on when that time would be.

I expected her to have a meltdown in the airport as we boarded. That would have been so sad as I would have had to say goodbye to her as she sat on the floor and I boarded the plane. What was I to do? I was going to China. My son thought she would make it to Detroit and then refuse to go any further.

To make a long story short, she made it all the way to China and back with our beautiful granddaughter, who we refer to as the Diva Queen. And now you know the story about airplanes and Rexie.

Tine for TV. Where is that TV guide for today... Hmmm... Some interesting TV on today. I wonder what she would have to say if I turned on "United 93" or "Passenger 57"?

I probably should pass.