In May 2010 I was tasked with my first solo business trip, which was to Lake Placid, NY. Â As a seasoned traveler, planning a trip isn’t hard. But I ran into a road block. To get to Lake Placid I could choose between 3 different airports to fly into and then rent a car and drive 3+ hours to Lake Placid or I could fly to Boston and then take an expensive regional flight into a nearby town, and then take a 30 minute taxi to Lake Placid. Both options were expensive. Â As I was under 25 so it would be hard to rent a car and then I’d have to pay extra for “underage insurance”. But if I took the regional flight that would be expensive and I would be without a car while in Lake Placid. After doing every possible route, it looked like if I did the rental car I would have to go a day early and stay a day later in order to have time to drive. (Plus I hate driving in places I’ve not been to.) So that is how I ended up choosing to fly into Lake Saranac regional airport.
My flights from Denver to Detroit and Detroit to Boston went smoothly. Boston airport is a mess, but I made it to terminal C to check in with Cape Air, my regional flight. The young guy at the terminal asked me for my weight. I had a moment where I thought to lie since he was cute, but decided against it. I figured it would be a puddle jumper flight, like a 30 person plane.
After getting through security  my curiosity grew. Cape Air has only one gate, but they had flights scheduled to take off every 10 minutes. I didn’t see any planes from the window. When they called my flight 9 people got in line. I was thinking “Great not a full flight!” That was until he said “Okay people, its going to be a full flight!” And had us walk down a flight of stairs and walked across the tarmac. As soon as we hit the tarmac I saw a fleet of small Cessnas. And I thought “Oh crap!” I remember my dad use to fly these planes a lot. And I knew they were really small.
As I got onto the small Cessna and watched as the luggage was loaded into the nose and wing lockers. (And I was very thankful I packed extremely light for this short trip!) As I got in the pilot said to me “We’ve got a full flight, so Miss please come sit here.” He motioned right next to him, the other cockpit seat.
I tried not to hesitate as I got into the seat in the cockpit. I tried to stretch out my legs and hit the break pedals. I couldn’t lean forward as there was a steering wheel, and I had to angle my legs strangely to not hit buttons on the dashboard. On one hand I was terribly frighten, to see the takeoff from the runway, other planes, every tilt of the wings, frighten me. I’m slightly afraid of heights and hate roller coasters. I focused really hard to not get frighten of the turbulence to reach out and grab the steering wheel.
However it was an amazing view. I wish I could have had my camera, and it was interesting to see all the dials and try to figure out what each one was for. I did get scared when he turned on the autopilot and took his hands off the controls as it took me a few minutes to realize what was going on. I also tried very hard not to focus on the fuel gauge that was inching closer towards empty. After a little while I was able to focus on the ground outside (and wishing I had sunglasses that were in my bag in the wing.) But I could see Lake Champlain, see Lake Placid and even my hotel. And then see Lake Saranac come into view. And then all too quickly, our hour and a half flight landed.
It was the most amazing and frightening experience I’ve ever had, and I wish I could do it again!
Travel Missteps is an every-other week series on how sometimes part of the journey is making mistakes and getting lost.
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