Actually air travel has never been the same for me since the Lockerbee blow-up. But, like most people, I gathered myself up and continued on. This time I can't seem to do that.

As a committed traveler, will I ever go to my destination by airplane again? I think so. When I think of the odds I face at being obliterated from the face of our earth by just leaving my home base, using other alternative modes of travel, like a car, the train, a ship, I'm appalled at how wide a margin of safety I am actually afforded by using the airlines to go from place to place.

But since my air travel has been restricted, I can only take car trips, which leaves me cold. I hate to drive even to the grocery store. Ship travel is not my thing. As I hate being confined, it doesn't suit me. And not being able to see land disorientates me. The train is my next option, albeit a slow one. I haven't been on one of those things since I was a child when it was our only viable mode of travel.

I had always thought that air travel was an option I had exercised. It has just now hit me that it wasn't so; it's a necessity. I'll let you know next month how we get around.

EDITOR'S NOTE:
Like all of us, Nate's travlin' bug is going into a short hiatus.