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So — the good news is, Connor and I reached his home in Boston safe and sound last Friday! Or, to be more specific, the airport in Beverly, MA, just north of Boston — although we felt as close to Logan's traffic pattern as Beverly's as we negotiated our final descent around the airspace there. (Connor, for anyone just joining us, is my boyfriend's 17-year-old son and aspiring pilot, who came along with me as a co-pilot on this cross-country journey.)

The trip was, as we expected, a grand adventure. Which means, of course, that things did not go exactly as planned. The trip took exactly, precisely, to the tenth of an hour, 30 hours of flight time, over seven days. We spent a total of 3 ½ days waiting out weather, we had a several small equipment failures, one in-flight emergency, and there wasn't a single easy, smooth leg, due to a strong cold front we danced with all the way across the country. But Connor proved an astoundingly good first officer, IT manager, and handy fixit-man … as well as very good company. Which is, when all is said and done, the most important characteristic of anyone you take on a flying adventure.

Connor learned a lot about flying on this trip. And I not only learned a lot about Connor — I also had a bit of a "coming of age" adventure myself, as I looked for the first time beyond my own experience and satisfaction, in an attempt to hand a torch off well to someone much younger than myself.

Along the way, Connor and I also shared many memorable moments and made many noteworthy discoveries, including:

1. That you can do amazing things with a band-aid, tissue, and a Leatherman tool.
2. That, as Connor said wearily after days of turbulent air, "it's no fun being a basketball for Mother Nature to dribble."
3. That South Dakota has a really interesting idea of what constitutes a "mid-size" rental car.
4. That there's a mysterious penchant in the Midwest for naming really tiny towns after really exotic locations.
5. That Park Rangers are better than Google.
6. That lakes at 10,000 feet are really, really, really cold.
7. That there's an astoundingly wide variety of personalities and cultures in the U.S.
8. That if Montana had just developed an outbreak of plague, it would have had all four riders of the Apocalypse.
9. And, finally, that there's also an astoundingly wide variety of sights, interesting people and places between the two coasts of the country, for those who take the time to look.

For the details and stories behind all those observations, stay tuned for upcoming columns. But in the meantime — thanks to all the kind folks at Corporate Jet in Billings, Montana, who fixed the plane the first time, to Al at Jet Sun Aviation in Sioux City, Iowa, who fixed the plane the second time, and to all the other terrific people who extended hospitality and greetings along the way. Without the family of aviation on the ground to help and support us, flying would be a very lonely endeavor, indeed.