The joy of flying

Four and a half hours to L.A., a two hour layover that turned into four, and fourteen hours to Sydney without any in-flight entertainment (the system was down) ..... is not the joy of flying. One of the things that does make flying, and travel in general, fun is the people you meet along the way. I was lucky enough to have a seatmate, Phillip, who was friendly, conversational, and a welcome break to the boredom of flight. A few things I learned about Phillip were that he was retired from a local governement position in Olympia WA, never married  (he did appear to have had a number of girlfriends at one time based on his stories), a Vietnam veteran and overall a nice guy. Thirty-five years ago his brother started travel/working his way around the world. When he reached Sydney he liked it so much he decided to stay and has lived there ever since (although he did not give up his US citezenship). When it was time to depart, Phillip said Hey why don't you meet my brother. He knows Sydney maybe he can give you some tips on how to get around, things to do, and maybe he can drop you off somwhere. I said sure. So we made through customs and looked for his brother. Because of our delay in L.A. Phillips brother wasn't waiting for him and when he tried to call him, he only got his voicemail. Since we didn't know how long it would be before his brother would arrive, Phillip and I decided to part ways. Here was a guy I had only met hours before, a stranger, but he was willing to go out of his way to help a fellow traveller.

That is the joy of flying.

Cheers,

norb