Looking down from 30,000 feet, Life’s been good to me
BOS from above
I swear, all the good blog ideas hit me in the middle of the night. I’m queuing this up to come out at a reasonable time so it doesn’t look like I’m completely mental.
Every time I listen to Ben Rector’s “30,000 Feet”, I get this sense of longing for that feeling I get when I’m on a plane and look down at the world (which seems so small when my feet are on solid ground) - everything seems so simple when you’re in the air. You leave your problems, worries, and stresses below you and are off to somewhere else. Now, I’m more of an aisle seat guy these days because I travel for work and with a small bladder and needing to hit the boys room at a moment’s notice - it just makes more sense to keep selecting aisle seats. I also like to control my row from being those “plane standers” - you know exactly those people I’m talking about. If you set the tone that (pun absolutely intended) that shit won’t fly (boom), then they’ll follow suit. I’ve got a 75% success rate thus far and that number is still climbing with each flight (more flight puns, yay!). Always be the alpha and stand your ground.
Regardless, I thought it’d be fun to try to figure out how many miles I’ve flown since the first time (that I can remember) I flew. Now, I did not cross-check this list with my parentals, so I could be off by a few thousand. The first time I remember flying was on Delta Song (RIP) to Orlando when we went to Disney when I was 7 years old in May 2000. Luckily for me, my memory of this sentimental type shit has been a steel trap, so I remember every flight I’ve taken since then (even the layovers…. I know, I know, it’s a gift). So I found this sketchy webpage via a google search that helps you calculate legs of flying as well as roundtrip flying mileage between airports. Give it a try if you’ve got the stamina and mental fortitude to take it on… Here’s the link.
76,397 miles flown since May 2000.
I am pretty embarassed by how low this number is considering the amount of flights I’ve taken since I turned 18 years old and could afford to fly places on my own. Then add in work trips? God damn. That number is pretty abysmal.
One caveat here, I’ve left the country a grand total of 2 times. Both times on cruises. One of the times we flew to Santo Domingo in the DR and took the cruise from there and then flew back. The other was a Boston to Bermuda cruise which I don’t really consider leaving the country because it’s just the basic New England-ite version of international travel, but technically we did go through customs getting off the ship so it counts. My friends, I haven’t even been to Canada for christ’s sake. Honestly though, that’s not your problem… I’ll get back on track here.
I could have sworn my number was north of 100k easily. But hey, I’m privileged enough to have been on one flight so I really shouldn’t complain. I’ve ran the numbers and flights over about three times now and I’m netting the same number each time so unless I did a lot of travel that I don’t remember pre-Y2K then that number is pretty (checks notes) airtight (gotcha again, I love flight puns).
Gotta get back out there and keep logging miles, I’ll give an update to the numbies bump in a year’s time.
Happy travels!
