"Up, Up and Away, Stillwater Style" - Time Out #63

Well, folks, Our Town has definitely arrived in the big league of modern day America.

No, I'm not talking about another fast food restaurant, a new convenient store, or another financial institution.

The big time difference maker here is now alive and well since late August.

That would be American Airlines (AA), and their two daily arrivals and departures from our north side airport (SWO, Stillwater's airport designation).

My bride, Debbie, and I experienced it recently, and what a neat, neat, neat thing for our little piece of paradise in north central Oklahoma.

Since moving back home in 1981, I'll wager we've driven to mostly Oklahoma City, sometimes Tulsa, rarely the Wichita airport over 200 times. From all 3 of those airports, we've made airline connections to destinations all over Planet Earth.

In 35 years, we've taken that extra hour-plus of variable traffic and hassle driving, have paid to distant park and all the other myriad of worrisome factors associated with getting "there" from Stillwater.

For the most part, all the former hassles are now a distant memory because of our new scheduled Stillwater airline service non-stop to its major AA hub, Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW).

That's not to say we will never return to our former driving to an out-of-town airport, but my current guess is it will be reduced considerably.

Folks, the last time I was a passenger on a commercial airliner from our Stillwater airport was in 1970 when I flew to my army active duty basic training location in a nearby state. I am able to honestly tell you I wasn't nearly as excited about that flying experience then as I was with my most recent event.

To be totally forthcoming with you my readers, I started getting pumped up for the recent flights when I purchased the tickets on-line about six weeks ago. As I pushed that final computer button, officially buying the tickets, I realized it wasn't just a dream. The reality was we drove only a few miles from our home, complimentary parked within a baseball throw from the terminal, quickly checked in at the AA desk inside the terminal, got through the TSA screening process without any major hassles, then boarded the small jet aircraft via an old-fashion portable metal ramp..

Summed up, the entire process from/to our home roundtrip was almost effortless on our part.

Now, let's talk about the thrill of the actual flying part, i.e., being airborne over our city.

As previously stated, Ms. Debbie and I have made commercial flying part of our lives for our 38-year relationship. In fact, I've always told people if the distance we want to travel is over about 400 miles one way, we almost never drive. Therefore, we have been airborne many, many times. In fact, she is somewhat a white knuckle flier by frequently falling asleep before we even officially take off.

Not this time out of SWO!

Since it was before sunrise on our departure flight, Debbie was wide awake, and took several photos of Our Town, as the early morning lights twinkled below. I recognized many of our land structures far below. I personally felt like a young kid in a candy store looking at my tiny world thousands of feet down I had called home since 1953, It really truly a great feeling, and somewhat surreal.

Blink twice, and 35 flying minutes later, our small jet aircraft landed on a massive DFW runway.

On the return flight two days later, we laughed as we flew near Oklahoma City, and said to each other, "We're not landing there tonight", and touched down at SWO only a short time thereafter.

It's only a little over a month now until we are scheduled to make the short pilgrimage to our local airport again to go up, up and away.

I already suspect this local routine is going to be habit-forming for our future air travel.

Oh, well,,,,,,,,,,,,,