Excerpt from CNN Travel article “The travelers who are turning their backs on airplanes”Francesca Street, CNN • Updated 10th November 2021https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/flight-free-travelers/index.htmlBetsy Thagard, 59, recently traveled from California to Chicago to visit family, and made the trip largely by rail.”Two years ago is when I first declared I would be flight free,” says Thagard. “Then, of course, we couldn’t travel anywhere for 18 months, because of Covid. So this trip that I’m in the middle of was the first one I’ve taken since I made that declaration.”While switching from plane to rail meant a longer journey, and more planning, Thagard says she’s enjoyed seeing the US by train.“It makes you start focusing on your local places – what can we do to keep our local places beautiful – instead of having to fly somewhere else, to see someone else’s beautiful local place.””I’ve been flying back and forth to see [my family] for decades now, and so deciding to go flight free meant a real change of life for me, but I love it.”
Joy, Alabama
Somehow this regular American girl wound up living all over the world. As a teenager I lived in Saudi Arabia, went to school in England, and visited p...