Either/or

I'm coming off a vacation, which has left me more tired than work leaves me. This wasn't one of our relatively famous "if it's Tuesday, we must be in Ripon, Wisconsin" vacations. Instead, it included a number of smaller missions.

The week started in the air, literally. I headed down to Florida on some personal business for a couple of days. It was a quick trip by myself. When I travel alone, I find I pay even more attention to the surroundings than normal.

I have concluded that there are two types of travelers. Some like to bring their lives with them on the airplane, and some like to pack them up and forget about them for a few hours. I prefer to be with the second group.

The first group, you see, is in too much of a hurry for my tastes. I'm sure there are some business travelers in that category, but it's not exclusive to them. It's gotten very easy to stay in touch on the road these days, with cell phones, laptops, iPads, etc.

But mostly, those people come across as nervous. They are on their laptops just before boarding, and on the phone until the doors close. I once saw a guy who was ordered by the flight attendant to turn off his cell phone and end a call NOW! three times before he finally got the hint. These personalities prefer to sit in the very front of the plane, of course, so they can get out faster. Those three minutes of a head start in getting to the baggage claim are crucial, I guess. And often they bring large carry-ons into the plane, hammering the luggage into the bins above their seats. Hey, pal, it's free on Southwest -- check it and save us all the congestion. Once the plane stops, these people are on the phone and ready to dash out the door.

Me, I kind of like that feeling of being in a cocoon. I try to give myself more than adequate time to handle any unforeseen difficulties in flying. I usually don't use the cell phone much beforehand, and don't carry a laptop on trips (although I can see that day coming, if only for logistical help). I get some overpriced, less-than-nutritious food, buy a newspaper and/or magazine I usually don't see, have a book at the ready, climb into a chair and relax. From there, I'll head to the back of the plane, continue the book or publication, and wait for the plane to clear 10,000 feet. That's when the bell sounds, the iPod comes on, and I can be in my own little bubble. I'll stay there until we get ready to land. In this case, I got two books read by the time I got back.

It doesn't work for everyone, but it works for me.

Difference of opinion

We just got back from a vacation that mostly took us through Virginia. Appomattox was a thrill, Jamestown was fascinating, Williamsburg was interesting, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was long. And it was all framed by the coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre, which dominated the news coverage for the week.

There was a lesson to be had in perspective during the trip. In Richmond, we visited Hollywood Cemetery, which has the graves of two Presidents (Monroe and Tyler), a Confederate President, and Generals Pickett and Stuart. Then we went to the Confederate White House and the Museum of the Confederacy.

Here's the important part. During those walks and tours, I really felt like a Northerner. And that's not something that happens all the time.

In the North, the Civil War is said to be a heroic struggle in which the North ended slavery by beating up on those stubborn rebels. In the South, though, history obviously had a different slant when it was taught in the years immediately following the war. There, the War Between the States was all about states' rights. (Extremists probably considered it a intramural dispute over labor costs in the textile industry.)

In the cemetery, Jefferson Davis has portrayed as a defender of the Constitution in his large family plot, while Monroe and Tyler are crammed together with some others in a small circle. Tributes to Southern generals are everywhere. Every town seems to have a tribute to a Confederate hero.

The most haunting of the historical pieces, however, came in the museum. There was an article written by a Southerner in 1865, saying that while the North may have won the war, but it's up to the South to win the peace. Considering that life for African Americans in the South was only marginally better once Reconstruction ended through at least 1955 and in some ways several more years, it's easy to wonder if that critic was right.

Sometimes traveling can make you at least see another side of the story when you aren't expecting it.