Dela Frijoles: Place Yer Bets

Lil’ Wai, my good friend and former travel mate, and I have a game that we sometimes play. We developed it many years ago while we were travelling in Europe. We stop what we’re doing and think about how in "x" amount of time (1 year, 5 years, 12 years, etc.) we’ll be talking about the moment that we are in and the memories we are creating right now. When that time arrives (provided one of us remembers!) we think about how we’re talking about a time in the past when we were thinking about the future, which is now the present. I find myself playing that game right now.

We are sitting in our living room (me, B-Rod, SAS & Nate-dog) getting ready to embark on our next adventure. In the winter, several months ago, in this same spot, B-Rod, SAS and I were talking about places that SAS and Nate-dog could travel to. “Go to London,” B-Rod said “We want to go there. We’d go with you.” We laughed it off because due to certain logistics at that time it didn’t seem doable. But then one thing led to another, which opened up the possibility. Now, here we sit getting ready to make our way up to Calgary hoping to catch a flight to London tonight.

The thing is . . . . . standby travel can be a b****!! Wednesday night there were 14 seats available on the plane we are hoping to catch. Today, it is down to 2 seats with 6 people listed for standby travel. Odds aren’t looking so good, but the major lesson to learn when flying standby is ANYTHING can happen (maybe today is the day a family of four will be too late for their flight!)