From JuJu with Love

Some of my most memorable travel stories haven’t happened at my destination at all — they’ve happened somewhere around 35,000 feet in the air.

Airplanes are funny places.

Sometimes you sit next to a quiet business traveler who never says a word. Other times the entire plane becomes a Michigan pep rally, with strangers singing “Hail to the Victors” before the drink cart even comes down the aisle.

And every once in a while, you find yourself holding hands with a member of the Fab Five during a turbulent flight.

My first memorable flight was in the mid-1990s when I was flying home from Washington, DC to Detroit to visit my family.

The first thing I noticed about the man sitting next to me in seat 2D was his hands. They were enormous. Honestly, everything about him seemed enormous.

Then the flight attendant leaned over and said,

“Mr. Webber, what can I get you to drink?”

That’s when I realized I was sitting next to Chris Webber, one of the legendary Fab Five Michigan Wolverines basketball players. At the time he was playing professionally for the Washington Bullets.

I was far too shy to say anything.

That is… until the flight became extremely turbulent.

Like a gentle giant, he reached over and held my hand to comfort me. As soon as the turbulence subsided, we released our hands and quietly returned to being seatmates who didn’t say a word.

My second memorable flight was from Los Angeles to Detroit after visiting my best friend J when he was living in Ventura County.

During boarding I started chatting with the very nice man sitting next to me. It turned out to be Scott Hamilton, who was on his way to Detroit for an ice skating event.

He was delightful — warm, friendly, and completely approachable. We talked while the plane was boarding, and once we were in the air we both put on our headphones and spent the rest of the flight quietly listening to music.

Two totally different kinds of encounters.

One dramatic. One just a pleasant conversation.

Two flights. Two sports legends. Two very different experiences.

Turns out on my next memorable flight… I was the celebrity.

I was flying to Las Vegas to meet some girlfriends for my 40th birthday. While chatting with one of the flight attendants I casually mentioned that was the reason for my trip.

The next thing I knew, an announcement came over the loudspeaker:

“We’d like to wish Julie a happy 40th birthday as she heads to Las Vegas!”

The entire plane started clapping.

Meanwhile I was sitting there thinking:

“Oh no… everyone is looking at me.”

Everything else that happened in Vegas that weekend will, of course, stay in Vegas.

Another memorable flight happened on the long journey to Kenya and Tanzania a few years ago.

I was flying in Premium Economy, while my friend Janet was seated in Economy Comfort — literally the row right behind me.

While I was enjoying warm towels and the white tablecloth treatment with my meal service, Janet had a very different experience.

Because she was right behind the premium economy curtain, every time the flight attendants came through the aisle with the service carts, she was the first person to get bumped.

Over and over again.

Meanwhile I sat comfortably in front of her with my neatly set tray table.

To this day Janet still teases me about how luxurious my flight was while she spent ten hours dodging the beverage cart.

Sometimes on a flight all 250 passengers suddenly become your best friends.

When I flew down to Dallas for the Cowboys Classic football game between the Michigan Wolverines and the Alabama Crimson Tide, about 95% of the people on my flight were dressed in maize and blue.

As people boarded the plane we were high-fiving each other and shouting “Go Blue!”

And then someone started singing “Hail to the Victors.”

Within seconds the rest of us joined in.

At that point the plane basically became a flying Michigan pep rally at 35,000 feet.

Last year I flew to Washington, DC for the funeral of a friend. I boarded the plane feeling sad and very much in my own head.

Then I started noticing something.

Almost everyone else on the plane was wearing Detroit Lions jerseys.

I was dressed in a black suit, heading straight from the airport to the visitation. But as I started talking to the people around me, my mood slowly lifted.

They were all flying in for the Lions football game against the Washington Commanders the next day.

Before long, that plane had turned into another pep rally at 35,000 feet.

Of course, not every memorable airplane encounter involves a sports legend or a pep rally.

One time I was flying from Queenstown, New Zealand to Melbourne, Australia, and the man sitting next to me decided that shoes and socks were apparently optional for the flight.

Not only was he barefoot in his seat, but when he got up to go to the bathroom he walked all the way to the back of the plane — completely barefoot.

My friend Dan was sitting across the aisle from me and found the whole thing hysterical. He kept taking pictures while I sat there wondering how anyone could possibly walk around a plane with bare feet.

Thanks to Dan and his photographic evidence of that flight it now appears on my blog.

Another airplane story still makes me laugh eight years later.

I was flying to South Africa with my friend Susan. The tour company we were traveling with had prepared us for everything.

We had malaria pills.

We had a Z-Pak in case of traveler’s diarrhea.

We were told not to drink the water, to brush our teeth with bottled water, and not to open our mouths in the shower.

We were extremely well prepared.

So as the flight attendant came down the aisle on our flight from JFK to Johannesburg offering drinks, Susan asked for water.

Then she paused and said very seriously to the flight attendant:

“Wait… the ice isn’t from Africa, is it?”

We were literally leaving JFK.

The ice was definitely not from Africa.

Susan and I still laugh about that to this day.

Sometimes you meet the most interesting people when you least expect it.

My friend Elyse actually met her husband on a plane years ago.

That hasn’t happened to me yet.

But I’m still flying.

And who knows what story might be waiting in seat 2D on the next flight.

Flying has a way of bringing out the best, the worst… and the funniest in all of us.

And somehow, at 35,000 feet, complete strangers—and close friends—always seem to leave you with a story you’ll never forget.

Apparently I’ve collected more than a few stories up there over the years.

I’ll save a few of the funnier ones for another flight.

From Juju with love 💙✈️

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