Death at 30,000 feet

It was a self-fulfilling prophecy. You know, that mumbo-jumbo about travel trauma.

I love flying. In fact, I would prefer to fly anywhere and everywhere than ride in a car. Hop a jet to Detroit (a 3 hour drive)? Don't mind if I do! I feel much safer on a plane than in a car. After all, I've been in several car accidents over the years but despite my hundreds of thousands of air miles traveled, I've never been in a plane "accident." Yes, I know those are usually called plane "crashes" but I haven't been in one so there.

Last week I flew to Salt Lake City on a business trip. I knew there had been a lot of storms in that part of the country so I anticipated some turbulence. Generally, turbulence doesn't bother me. As I mentioned earlier, I completely believe I am safe on a plane so a few bumps are nothing to worry about.

There's turbulence and then there's TURBULENCE. I am talking, shaking back and forth, dropping what feels like thousands of feet at a time, the flight attendant says, "For those of you getting sick, remember the bag in your seat back pocket. To avoid nausea, do not look out the window and put your neck to your chest" type of turbulence.

Yes, a flight attendant said that and no, I have NEVER been on a flight where an announcement like that was made.

Sitting next to me were some way cool ladies from Elmira, NY. They are bowlers, flying to Reno for a bowling convention (and some gambling, of course) then on to El Paso for a bowling tournament.

One of them asked the nun across from us (yes, there was a nun on the plane, as well as at least four babies - yet another sign that plane would not make any unplanned contact with terra firma) to pray once the turbulence started.

The turbulence was rough, but I lost it when, during descent into Salt Lake City, the pilot suddenly pulled the plane up. In seconds we went from rapid descent to rapid ascent - and suddenly I was praying "Hail Mary" - repeatedly. When the pilot came on and told us he had to "abort" the landing because of a sudden storm over the airport I prayed faster!

The storm passed and we eventually landed safely. I was literally shaking all the way to baggage claim, in the cab and during check in at the hotel.

All is well that ends well, thankfully!

Salt Lake City is beautiful - it's surrounded by snow capped mountains, it is clean and safe and though at one point I was the only woman in a six block radius wearing jeans (as every woman I saw was a Mormon wearing a skirt), the people are very friendly. However, after a couple of days, Salt Lake City got pretty boring and I was ready to move on.

Tomorrow it's off to New York City - with it's grit, skyscrapers, traffic, noise, congestion and people who are not friendly - I believe it is the most beautiful city in the U.S. if not the entire world...and a couple of days is never enough to take it all in. I can't wait to get there!