So this entry has little to do with my blog’s general theme. But I felt compelled to find a way to thank a fellow traveler on a recent airline flight from Minneapolis/St. Paul back to Bozeman.

I was on vacation on the east coast and was weary getting on my second flight the other night. Confusing my chosen exit row (row 9) with the bulkhead row (row 4), I took my designated seat but in the wrong, roomier row 4. When the man whose seat I had erroneously put my butt in got on, he told me not to worry and said he’d come back if nobody showed up to take one of the other three then vacant seats in the row.

He put his suitcase in the overhead compartment and headed back to the front of the plane.

As the plane began to leave the gate, the man had not returned and the other person in my row began to worry. That man had left his bag on the plane and left the plane, he said. We should tell the flight attendants.

When I stood up to get a flight attendant’s attention, I saw the man five rows back smiling and waving at me. He signaled to me to sit back down and enjoy the flight with the added legroom he should have been enjoying.

Later, when I told a flight attendant about the incident laughing that we thought the man might be a terrorist, she informed us that he was actually a pilot and “a really nice guy.”

No doubt.

I never got to thank that Delta pilot on flight #1542 the other day mostly because I paid it forward helping the man with the broken leg sitting next to me off the plane.

I hope that pilot is enjoying Bozeman.

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