The first trial of the journey began at LaGuardia airport. 

Since modern travel requires strictures of the most fiendish sort--waiting, and waiting again, all 73 of our young travelers set up an informal camp much like a vast party of pilgrims, squatting on the floor of the United Airlines reception area, sprawled amongst the scattered luggage, chatting and whiling away the time with that boundless 8th grade cheeriness so unique to the tribe. Meantime one travel agent called our young passengers up one at a time so that, much in the fashion of toothpaste being reinserted into an emptied tube, we were squeezed anew into another trial, the long line outside the TSA tables where backpacks with alarming substances like a forgotten container of apple juice were edited into acceptability.

Finally, at our temporary destination Gate A2, since lunch was only just over, it was clearly time for a tide-me over snack and the various food vendors around our area profited by the sudden descent of the locusts.

Our flight has been uneventful. Gashes of Western light enter through the bottom of the window shades and when I walk to the back of the plane, little shimmers of noise and chat, card games and banter, enliven the Berkeley Carroll section. Several girls waggled their stuffed toys at me in greeting. Unaware that their bedroom companions since infancy were on the trip as well, I examined a a couple of the animals whose smooth faces have been worn over the years into the smooth texture you would find from river bottom stones. These totems, much like the amulets favored by travelers over the centuries surely are an omen of good fortune for this airplane winging its way four-and-a-half miles above the great terrain that lies below.

We are on our way to Denver . . .