Travel

Photo by Dino Reichmuth on Unsplash

The bus rolls on, tires turning endless circles with the smell of rubber on the pavement. Inside, I feel the smooth yet pitted texture of an orange. Pulling the peel away, I catch the fresh clean scent. I dispose of the skin in a bag because this bus is clean, unlike others I have ridden. The road hums a lullaby and I sleep.

As I awaken, a man opens a bag, “Anyone want a bagel?” A young woman, with a pixie haircut says, “Please.”

I look at the man and say, “You must be from Boston.”

He says, “Yes, I’m headed home. How about you.”

“Away from home and toward a job,” I say, accepting his generosity.

There are five of us I notice.

No one is suspicious of the offered food. No one suspects drugs or poison.

The earth was younger then.

I have since traveled by train, airplane, and automobile, but I remember fondly the days I traveled by bus from Ohio to New England, North Carolina, and once for a six-month job in the Florida Keys. Then I rode the Amtrack from Ohio to Boston for work and back to Ohio to visit family. I made that circuit several times.

Then, Peoples’ Express offered cheap flights and I flew. I have flown on various airlines since, but I remember only one flight I enjoyed. I left Provincetown on a plane with an aisle on one side and a row of single seats on the other.

The pilot donned a headset and did the pre-flight orientation. There was a second seat in the cockpit but no copilot or flight attendant. Carry-on luggage was prohibited. I forgot this specification and had arrived carrying a briefcase which someone took from me and placed in a small compartment on the plane’s exterior. He told me to have someone retrieve the item when we landed in Boston.

We flew low over Cape Cod Bay. I could see pleasure craft, fishing boats, and other maritime craft. At one point I saw several passenger boats pulled up in a horseshoe. Whale Watch Boats I thought.

The flight was fun, and I might cosider doing a similar one if the opportunity presented itself. However, I have not flown since before the turn of the century. Flight is an environmentally costly means of travel. Avoiding it is one thing I do for conservation. I discussed others in an earlier post.

If you want to read about my Cape Cod adventures, the posts begin here: