National Transportation Safety Board, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, warns the keeper not to get carried away in his reassessment of the recent traveling that he and Phyllis experienced: an Amtrak train, like the one they rode, recently derailed, killing and injuring riders; one of the special glacier-mounting vehicles they were on, tipped over last year, killing and injuring passengers; guided motor coaches are forever crashing with calamitous results; cruise ships have a history of unpleasant incidents including a recent 60-person melee over cheating; cancelled flights is the least annoying aspect of current airline travel; contacting covid while mingling with the shuffling masses is practically guaranteed, and was not something the keeper and Phyllis escaped.
Now, as their recovery is completed, however, they agree that their mountain/glacier travel adventure was worth the chances they took, including the one with odds against the keeper getting in and out of an Amtrak “roomette” upper bunk without personal injury or train-crew rescue.
It is the keeper’s feeling that most human travel is a convoluted combination of murmuration and migration, and he plans to stay home until he sprouts feathers, and the cost of gasoline drops out of the price range of good brandy.
That’s his story, and he is sticking to it, even as Phyllis casually previews a travel folder for a float down the Mississippi!
Good, Bill. Our sentiments exactly! 🙂