It sure is easy to meet people while traveling. I recently traveled to San Diego by plane, and I met more people in the few hours of my airline trips than I normally do in a month! The first person I met during a layover in LAX was an elderly man named Mike. We were both waiting for a table at the only nearby restaurant in the airport.
The place was packed and understaffed, and when the man ahead of me finally got a table, I asked if he would mind if I joined him. We introduced ourselves and each ordered dinner and some beers.
We got to talking about where we were from, and where we were headed, and pretty soon I knew that he lived on over 500 acres of vineyards in Napa Valley.
I also learned that he had two grown daughters, one of whom will soon be getting married, and a wife who had died of ovarian cancer. After we had both had a few beers, we got to talking about his new girlfriend, a traveling nurse who had just decided she would take a job in Alaska for a few months.
After we had drunk a few more beers, Mike and I even got to talking about our relationships, such as my recent divorce and whether he should join his new girlfriend in Alaska. We talked so much I missed connecting flight! Luckily there is one from LAX to San Diego every hour, so I wasn’t too late.
On my next flight I was seated next to a slightly built young man named Paul who flies planes for the air force. He was on his way to the base in San Diego to be shipped out for a few weeks for a training mission. We talked about his experiences in flying a fighter jet compared to being a passenger in a commercial airliner.
The view from our plane window was beautiful. It was a stormy day, and we flew over the beach with the waves crashing on the sand and the palm trees blowing in the wind. Paul left to depart on a navy ship while I went to the Hard Rock Hotel to begin my vacation.
I had a great time on my vacation but didn’t really meet many people until my flight back to Colorado Springs. I had to change planes in Phoenix and nearly missed my connecting flight again because the Phoenix airport is both sprawling and confusing.
I was the last person on the flight and sat in the next to last seat right in front of the restroom. The man I sat with was a heavier set man named Jonathon who was from my hometown and worked in the same industry as my ex-husband, the prison system.
If you are familiar with the department of corrections you know we had lots to talk about. We talked about our hometown of Canon City and the fact that we had even worked in the same building!
I don’t know what it is about air travel that makes it so easy to get to know people, but I sure do like it.
