Those of us who like to fly and are intrigued by geography often find that the trip to and from our destination can be as interesting as the vacation itself. En route to Iceland today, we flew from St. Louis to JFK airport in New York. After circling over the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, we angled to the northeast, crossing the quilted farmlands of Illinois, central Indiana and northern Ohio.
Just past Cleveland, the flat terrain gave way to the heavily dissected topography of the Appalachian Plateau and, further east, its distinct, Eastern Front curved from northeast to southwest through western Pennsylvania. The waves of the plateau was now replaced by the alternating ridges and valleys of central Pennsylvania, the streams of which fed the two major forks of the Susquehanna River, which snaked southward toward the Chesapeake Bay. After crossing the Delaware Valley, the ribbon of the Hudson and the edge of the Jersey shore appeared in the distance and we were soon drifting over the northern tip of Manhattan; New York, the symbol of modern human culture, sprawled beneath us.
After passing over the city and its many famous landmarks, we circled south over the Atlantic Ocean and landed toward the north. For the next few hours, we'll camp out at JFK, have a beer or two, catch an early dinner and then board Icelandic Air for our second leg to Reykjavik and the natural wonders of Iceland. That flight will be in darkness and almost exclusively over the waters of the North Atlantic; the geography lesson will thus be on hold and I'll have to settle for a good book or a few hours of sleep. More to follow.
