"The Long Way"

Our family was relocated from east to west coast, many years ago, when Dad bid for a Captain position based in Miami. We were lowly airline employee dependents, and would be traveling with medium-priority standby tickets, which gave us less priority than all paying passengers, but put us slightly ahead of other airline dependents who were traveling for fun. There was a worldwide airline mechanic strike occurring at the time, and many paid passengers were queued up on standby for the reduced number of flights that were still operating, so we were told we had no chance of getting on a flight across the US without being "bumped" by higher-priority passengers, and spending weeks at the airport, trying to get on a flight. They said we had a much better chance, by going "the long way," around the world, since those routes were more likely to have less-than-full flights. I believe this 'round the world westward route had the distinction of being labeled "Flight One."

My older sister went around ahead of us, and she has her own harrowing story! Mom took me and my younger sister with her, a little later. We made a big adventure out of it - selling our house, finding a welcoming home for our dog, getting our passports and visas and vaccinations, buying new suitcases, storing our household possessions, and then we were off!

Our first flight stopped in Anchorage for fuel, then continued on to Tokyo. We spent a month with Dad, who was on temporary assignment there. Dad captained our flight to Hong Kong, where we spent a week exploring. Then we put our heads down, and headed east, hoping to make it all the way to New York and Mom's family, without getting bumped. I think our entire round-the-world itinerary was planned to include Anchorage, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, New Delhi, Tehran, Beirut, Istanbul, Frankfurt, Paris, London, and finally New York, where we planned to stay with Mom's relatives, while she went house-hunting in Miami.

My memory's a little fuzzy, but I think we were only bumped off the plane twice - once in Beirut for a week, and then in Paris for one night. Both of those potential nightmares turned into fun adventures, with two amazingly helpful and protective taxi drivers, who took us under their wings, and gave us tours of each area. They did take us off in New Delhi, on a dark night in the middle of a huge thunderstorm, but then they decided we could get back on, and I think the same thing happened in Tehran. Getting from Paris to London, or even straight to New York, was a deal-breaker, with too many paying passengers competing with us for seats, so we went with the flow, and got on a flight that they offered us to Boston. That flight was diverted by fog to Windsor Locks, CT. They bused us to Boston with box lunches, which was nice, and we got help from Mom's brother.