The irony of flying at middle age

When you tell someone that you’ve never flown before, their first assumption is that you’re scared of flying. That has at least been my experience when I revealed this in my late 20s and persisted through my 30s.

Now, in my early 40s, I finally crossed that maiden flight off my bucket list.

Three years of living in Minnesota has kept us from visiting our families in West Virginia, but we had an opportunity to go for Thanksgiving and we decided to take it. Making the drive is a two-day excursion one way, making flying the only viable option in the short week.

Flying was never a fear I had. I am notoriously anti-travel for recreation. There are plenty of things I can do to entertain myself locally, and for everything else, there are pictures published by the more intrepid.

Factor in hassle and price, and the overall experience of flying didn’t seem worth the effort, and that’s where it stood until last month.

The overall experience was pleasant. It helped that my wife is a pro at air travel at this stage of her career. By the time we took our flight, she had already logged three flights for work this year. She helped us navigate the pitfalls and got us through security and to the right terminal with plenty of time to spare.

I loved the Minneapolis– Saint Paul International Airport. There were restaurant chains inside that I had only seen on the East Coast. Firehouse Subs still has one of the best brisket sandwiches around, and it was nice to experience that again before disembarking.

There was also a Prince store near the entrance to the shopping area. I’m not personally a Prince fan, but I once worked with a guy who was a superfan. It always amused me because he was firmly a country boy. He sported a ragged beard, moonlighted as a drummer in a classic rock band, and went on to be a truck driver after he left newspapers. Yet, this guy loved Prince wholly. He took the day off the day Prince died. When he caught wind of me moving to Minnesota requested that I visit Paisley Park if I’m ever in the area. I made certain to send him a picture of the store. “That’s freaking awesome!” was his reply.

As for flying, it was as expected. Cramped and turbulent, but efficient in getting us across the country fast. I wasn’t expecting to sense every change in altitude, but I expect that’s something one gets used to with repeat trips.

My daughter, who also shared our inaugural flight, got a Delta first flight pin on the way east. I joked that they didn’t give me one, and she made sure I was given one on our return trip.

The worst part was we got COVID somewhere along the way and spent an extra week recovering from the journey. I may not have a fear of flying, but it would have done some good to be a germaphobe