Leaving on a jet plane

~ MaryG
Daily writing prompt
You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?
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If we’re talking about my country (the U.S), I’m going on an airplane. The days when I may have fantasized about doing a Jack Kerouac/Hunter S. Thompson/Bob Dylan/Route 66 Great American Road Trip are over. It always sounded cool and like something you should do at least once in your life, but I never did it. I once drove from Massachusetts to Florida with a boyfriend. We had no particular plan. It was spring break and we just wanted to get warm, so we headed south. I think we made it to Daytona Beach before heading back.

Driving all the way to California from Massachusetts would’ve been a great adventure in my twenties, but I won’t be adding it to my bucket list now. I’m too old for that shit. And a bus would be even worse.

Actually, my mother took a bus from Massachusetts to California with two of her friends (one from high school and one from college) in 1960, between her junior and senior year of college. This was before women could get birth control or hold a credit card in their own name. They got jobs in Los Angeles and stayed for the whole summer, then took the bus back. They just wanted to see the country and have an adventure. I’ve always been impressed that my grandmother allowed her to plan that trip and that she had the guts to go.

Los Angeles in 1959 (photo by Railroad Jack on Flickr)
My mother in the 1950s

I suppose you could take a train across the United States, but nobody I know has done that, so perhaps it’s not that great of an experience.

Six years after my mother’s adventure, I was born. Two years after that, Peter, Paul and Mary wrote Leaving on a Jet Plane. I always loved that song.

11 thoughts on “Leaving on a jet plane”

  4. I did the cross drive once in five days. when I was moving to MA from Oregon. I was towing a U-Haul and trying to keep a 3 year old occupied. I would love to drive cross country again, but this time at a slower pace.

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    1. Oh wow! With a 3-year old?? We drove to North Carolina from MA a couple times with kids and it was my outer limit. I had to give my son Benadryl to make him sleep at one point.

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  5. I’m no expert, but I imagine jet plane travel these days is not as elite as when John Denver wrote the tune. My English buddy Neville thinks American planes are crammed to full and less than a comfortable way to travel. I may be just numb to it. Thanks for starting the discussion and posting. Cheers.

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