Shorewoods Photography

After more than a year of cancelled and postponed travel, Art and I embarked on a trip we have dreamt about for awhile- traveling historic Route 66 from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California.We have been planning this trip for months, hopeful everything would come together to get us back out on the road. Our first airline flight since 2019 approached in sync with Hurricane Ida

We arrived to the airport with cloudy skies, and occasional peeks of sun. A heavy downpour slowed arrival of our plane, but it eventually made it to the gate, offloaded passengers, and we embarked with our fellow travelers. Just when we thought we were in the clear, the plane engines throttled back, and we came to a hold on the runway as a torrential downpour engulfed the airport. It was raining so heavily, we could barely see the terminal from the plane window. 

After about 15 minutes, the rain stopped, the sun came out, and our opportunity opened to take off. The turbulence during take off reminded me of riding on the back of one the flat beds of a farm pick up truck bouncing down one of the field roads; there is just nothing you can do to minimize the jostling.

Our pilots were amazing, and soon we were flying above some pretty impressive clouds.

I am a window person. Art is an aisle person. I love a good window view, especially from an airplane. The view from my window on this flight went from breathtaking cloud formations to glass smooth skies and water of Lake Michigan. 

Our return is two fold; not only are we returning to traveling, we are also returning to where Art and I started as a family. When we were first married we lived outside Chicago. Our son Aaron was born in Illinois, and our daughter Rachel was born in California. In a way, Route 66 is a way to come back to revisit these places where we started off long ago. 

It feels good to be back.