Notes from the road

Well, winter has raised its ugly head just as we thought it might be gone - or at the very least sulking in the basement. I'm in the sprawling city town of Wainwright Alberta - a town so small it doesn't even have its own Tim Horton's Donut shop. What's up with that? More amazingly, it has its own public Internet access (for a mere $4 an hour) - witness my ability to post this entry today. I outran a major snowstorm to get here and now am just killing time until my reason for being here tomorrow morning. Which I guess brings me to my point:

I am really hoping and looking forward to the day when we can 'fly' where we need to go using a designed-for-the-consumer, van-sized aircraft. Popular Science has been touting this kind of technology as being 'just around the corner' for years, with highways in the sky created for programmable auto-pilot controlled trips to the destination of your choice. This is something I sure could use in a part of our country where the places to go are separated by vast distances and snooze-inducing scenery (besides the glorious Rockies). I know I will be spending 42+ hours on the road over a 2 week period and I'd much rather be soaring over the landscape at 300+km/h. And I'm also aware that there are people (in the oil patch for example) who spend even more ridiculous amounts of time on the roads who would appreciate this option too.

Honda - I'm looking to you to surprise us and pull this off. You now build planes and this is just the next logical stage of our commuting evolution.