Knowing Your Place

Sunset 7:34 PM Chicago, ILL

In order to say what the time sun sets it is necessary to know what time it is or where you are located. When traveling in an airplane several miles above the earth, it is difficult to know either (except for knowing your seat number which doesn’t help much). I have always enjoyed the challenge of trying to pinpoint the time and place of the sunrise or sunset from an airplane.

So when I saw that I would be in transit somewhere during the sunset hour on a recent cross-country flight, I looked forward to figuring it out. It turned out, however, that the sun set during a 4 hour layover at the O'Hare Int'l Airport in Chicago. No problem knowing the time or place of the sunset. Just business as usual on the ground, although someone on the PA did keep asking, "What's your 20?"