Contrails

I was buying gas on the way home, when I looked up to see this sight. These are contrails, backlit by the setting sun. In the middle of the day, they would be white against the blue sky. Contrails are exhaust from turbojet engines at high altitudes, where the air is so cold it freezes the moisture in the exhaust into ice crystals. Contrails usually occur at above 26,000 feet where the temperature is below -40°F. What I feel when I see these, is a sense of wanderlust - the airplanes today were headed east. East to Europe and beyond? I look up from the ground, and then imagine the view out of the window at the earth below, and at the sky above, usually blue-black to the zenith. And the sense of being headed somewhere. Somewhere new, to see new things. And in those moments I forget what a hassle it is go actually go to the airport and to go through security to get on the aircraft in the first place.