The Perfect Flight

Our next flight..... In three hours.

I travel with a good head. Be it underground or overground, I always aim to have a smile on my face. There are many things in life that will get us down throughout our years, but travelling with fellow members of our species should not be one of them.

A modern day miracle, travel. The Globe, this planet of ours, Earth, is as wide as it is tall and at first, seems gargantuan to understand.

Driven by the endless curiosity of what is a core component of the human condition slowly, the world has shrunk. Lands of far away with their mystic tales of food, wine and weather are now at the beck and call to anyone who may have the time and the inclination. The Earth, is open.

So why would it be, deep within this modern day miracle, that you would find miserable men (or women)? Why? I am yet to understand. I dare to think that I will never understand. For I, above all else, enjoy travel.

With a smile on my face, I face the world. With a smile on my face, the world faces me and, it is with this sentence I declare my love for The Perfect Flight.

Flying home from the US of A after a week of riding horseback across mountains, knowing you have over six hundred emails to respond to, discovering that your row of four seats has only one occupant; you. That is the perfect flight.

Spending the entire Summer taking plane journeys, one after the other after the other after the other, each time with new members to your gang. 30 plane rides, each time yearning for the one you love to be with you. Flight 31, she’s there. With you. Next to you. You wake up halfway across the Atlantic and you can’t believe she’s there with you. You sleep and you smile. That is the perfect flight.

Leaving London, walking. At your own pace. Traversing the underground, picking up packages en route. Travelling. Working. Train-ing to the airport. Relaxing. Resting. Focusing. Terminal 5. You arrive. There’s no queue for check-in. The man behind the counter takes your bags, makes a phone call. You smile. Make a joke. Say thank you. Later, when boarding, your pass buzzes. “That’s not good.” I half-joke, the attendant looks at me again “Sometimes it is.” – we wait. He nods, knowingly. “It’s your lucky day” he says, “Enjoy your flight sir”. Checking my ticket my seat number has changed. 17A is now 3G. First class. That is the perfect flight.

Your perfect flight may come in any shape or size, you just need to know where to look.

My advice? Be nice to people.

Say please and say thank you. After all, a wink and a smile can go a very long way.

4000 miles from home: Chicago

Moleskine entry: July 18th, 2009

I’m sat at the back of Virgin Atlantic flight VS039 en route to Chicago. I’ve never been to the windy city before, for all intents and purposes it looks like I’m not going to see much of it either.
We’re just passing through…

Our final destination today, July 18th 2009, is Billings Airport, Montana. From there we are to be transferred to The Hideout ranch some four hours drive outside of the airport, over the state line into Wyoming.

All this travel is for challenge two of Lucozade’s Summer of Energy Challenges and time we’re Cattle Ranching.

Last week we were sand-boarding in Namibia which, it has to be said, was simply breathtaking. There are hundreds of photos to look at and just a few videos too. As you may know, I have a very, very hectic Summer lined up ahead of me and to say that I’m clocking up ‘a few air miles’ might be somewhat of an understatement.

Strange. I have a note here, it says:

‘Experiment with adjusted images’.

I think I know what I mean. I’ll have a play with that that later…

Moving on…

Through a rather strange set of circumstances, I find myself not sat next to my traveling partner in crime, Sam. But in face next to a young student going by the name of Grant Rostad. He spots my N97 and asks after a play. I offer it up gladly, and also go onto explain how, in my opinion, the N86 (which I’m also carrying) is the far superior device.

“Oh no!” he says “I’m all about having a qwerty keypad, and a touch screen. Those things make a phone for me. “

Americans are such strange creatures.

We talk more and eventually at the very last minute, we grab said N97 and throw a quick podcast together for The Really Mobile Project.

It’s all a bit incidental and a bit geeky too, but I kind of like it.

Later that day, on a different page…

Chicago came and went.

We board the 1547 United Airlines flight to Billings, Montana.
THEN a 3hr drive into Wyoming.
Headed for a place known as ‘The Hideout‘ at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains.

No.
Really.

Q: “You ever been on a horse before?”


A: “Um… I’ve seen one, does that count?”

This is going to be fun 🙂


The clouds are different here…

…stretching lazily across the acres of sky…

…I could take photos of clouds all day.

.