Travel on the Fourth of July Holiday...........

Those of you who know me well, know that I do not travel on the major highways and I thoroughly enjoy puttering along to my destination by taking the scenic route.

Nothing - and I do mean nothing - could make me take a highway and be one of these cars pictured below. Just look at that backlog!

This Holiday week-end has many people traveling on the highways around the United States.

The entrance to the Peace Bridge to Canada is at the end of the road that I live on and

for the last couple of days there have been warnings that there may be a 90 minute wait to go over the bridge.

I was really happy to learn that very soon we may have another alternative to car travel. Did you know that there are plans underway for cars that can also fly AND have approval from the Federal Aviation Administration?

Here is the : The Terrafugia Transitio

This private aircraft – odd looking car has been in the news before. But the announcement that it's going into production has been greeted with excitement.

The news reports explain that the FAA's special exemption allows the vehicle to function as both a "light aircraft" and a car. Normally, for a plane to meet the "light aircraft" designation, it can weigh no more than 1,200 pounds. The Terrafugia Transition weighs 1,320, due primarily to the number of car-related safety features, like airbags and crumple zones. The "light aircraft" designation is key, because licenses for planes with that label require only 20 hours of flying time.

How does the plane-car work? So far, 70+ people have placed a deposit. The total retail cost: $194,000. Expensive, but really, can you put a price on skipping commercial flights?

I have decided to start saving so that I can be one of the first people to own a Terrafugia Transitio - no matter that I currently drive a 12 year old car with 140,000 miles on it. I could take off from my garden and soar over the Niagara river to Canada in just 4 or 5 minutes. Hmmm... would I need a passport to arrive that way? Who would be up in the sky directing all of the little flying cars ? Will there be traffic signs telling me to stay in my own lane and how about double yellow lines? Will the traffic cops be attached to their own little flying parachutes?

Well, I will let them work all of that out! Meanwhile I am staying here in my own garden for the holidays and all I have to do is look up to the sky to watch the downtown fireworks right in my neighborhood.

Hmmmmm.....what would little flying cars do if the fireworks entered their path of travel.....not to worry I won't have that $194,000 saved for a while yet - I will think all of the details through when I have the money and can purchase the car- will it come in the color blue - until then good luck to those of you who will be a dot on the highway like the cars in the pictures above.

This 4th of July week-end I am going nowhere - a cookout in the back yard is fine with me.

Happy 4th July to all - unless you are in England and, of course, we do not celebrate the fourth of July in England for some rather obvious reasons - we usually choose to ignore the whole thing :-)

peacesojourner