Travel Today

On this trip, I will be changing planes in Denver. A BEAUTIFUL airport.

I always enjoy the Denver airport. They have wonderful restaurants, interesting shops...

With a three hour layover, I checked out the map to see what my options were.

I'm ashamed to say I LOVE THEIR moving walkways. GO DENVER...

I don't travel much nowadays -- and, of course, things are always changing.

One of the biggest changes about travel nowadays is that you will almost NEVER have a conversation with a stranger. I miss that. Over the years, I've had many memorable conversations with people I knew I would never see again...but I remember some of those talks decade later. I learned things. I saw different points of view...

But that simply does not happen in today's world.

Because, alas (you know how I love to use that word) -- everybody is on their smartphones. WHICH ARE MAKING US STUPID...

In this new individual, self-involved world we live in -- of pointless Instagram pictures, and time-sucking Facebook games -- people use their phones like body armor. They travel for miles and days without connecting with anybody or any place they visit...they never make eye contact with another human being long enough for a random "hello"
 

My lunch in Denver. I took a picture of the book I was reading...and the two people in that booth never said a single word to each other. She was on her laptop, and he was on his smartphone.

So, I traveled all day...through three airports, with hundreds, maybe thousands of fellow travelers within an arm's length of me....and never had a.single.conversation.with.another.person. When I went to buy a bottle of water in Denver, the clerk was texting... Yikes.

It is every man/woman for themselves. I get it. This is who we are now. This is how we roll. But I hate it....and I wonder what my friend Mark would think??

There is a lot of vegetating going on in this new world we live in...