I finally went and did it. A friend of mine moved out to Denver over a decade ago, and I’d been saying many times I was going to head out there for a visit.

Well, a nice window opened up in the calendar – early May, right around when there aren’t any holiday weekends where the office is closed anyway, but not when it’s still Winter. And, with me being a baseball fan, the Rockies were at home.

So I booked a flight and a room at a decent downtown hotel, and off I went.

And since I always get a couple of blog posts out of my vacations, you’re going to get to read all about it. Well, almost all about it.

I’ve traveled by air often enough to learn that the normal airplane boarding process stinks. There have been a number of efforts to come up with something better:

However, as far as I can tell, these plans all assume that every person is the same physically, with the same carry-on baggage. We all know this isn’t true. So automatically one starts with large people struggling to move down the aisle, slim people trying to maneuver their overstuffed carry-on into the overhead compartment, you get the idea.

Me, I’m neither so broke or so cheap that I cannot afford to pay the small fee to check my suitcase and have the baggage handlers deal with it. Then I have only one single small tote bag for my travel documents and personal electronics. And since I usually try to reserve a window seat, I should theoretically be one of the first people on the plane.

And then, naturally, I’m stuck behind everyone else when it comes to leave the plane.

All these boarding procedures are nice, but the real problem comes at the other end of the flight. Everyone trying to get off the plane at the same time. People in a rush to make a connecting flight; people with nothing to retrieve from a compartment, they’re all stuck behind the clumsy and slow.

I don’t think there’s anything that can be done about it, other than to encourage people to check as much of their luggage as they can (so they’re bringing as little as possible into the passenger compartment), and if they cannot avoid a tight connection, reserve a seat at the front of the plane.

Since I prefer window seats (I like to guess where we are during the flight and admire the landscape), I have to wonder if there are any ‘guides’ to what can be seen at cruising altitude. Clouds are VERY different when seen from above, and there are some interesting optical effects that can be seen.

It’s called a “Glory”

One can also see plenty of geology and geography from on high, even at night. They are far more interesting than those cheesy in-flight magazines the airlines provide.

Maybe these magazines could feature a column on the sights outside the window? I see it as potentially being geared towards the younger travelers. Might keep them occupied for a while…..