Finding yourself in the air

Doppelganger improves trip

That’s a beautiful sweater,” I said to a young lady standing near me as we waited to board the plane.

“Oh, thank you!” she beamed. “And from TJ Maxx, no less.”

“Style at a bargain. You have impeccable taste,” I said. “It’s my color, too, so if that sweater turns up missing, I know nothing about it.”

We chuckled and bid farewells for safe travels, only to find ourselves as seatmates moments later. We both had headphones draped around our necks and audiobooks queued up on our phones, so we nodded and settled in for the flight.

That lasted all of about 30 seconds. We began chatting again and didn’t stop until we were forced to go separate directions when we left Pittsburgh International Airport. With each sentence uttered, our eyes grew larger and smiles grew wider at the uncanny similarity of our lives, as though we’d encountered some sort of spacetime continuum. She was me, 20 years my junior.

We were both fair-complected brunettes of similar build. We were both lawyers, practicing in similar fields. We were born in the same state. Our husbands were both formerly in the supply-chain industry who now ran faith-based nonprofits. But the real kicker was when we raised our phones to discuss our current (and similar) reading selections, and a photograph of my late beloved dog, Baxter, showed up on the screen.

Her dog’s name? Baxter.

And because this wonderful doppelganger literally floated across our path, our trip to New England was that much richer, especially in her suggestions of points of interest to visit along our route.

Trapper John and I danced the Pennsylvania Polka through corn fields at Gobbler’s Knob to hear the prognosticator of prognosticators predict the coming of spring. And Punxsutawney Phil did not disappoint!

We waved at the Jimmy Stewart statue in Indiana, Pa. and visited the immensely well-done Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County, Pa. We took selfies in front of the Dunder Mifflin, I mean, Pennsylvania Paper & Supply Co. tower in Scranton (hello, fans of The Office?); Mark Twain’s house in Hartford, Conn.; and Emily Dickinson’s house in Amherst, Mass.

We played with seagulls on the shore in New Jersey; devoured strawberry pancakes at the Inn on Putney Road in Brattleboro, Vt. (where the caretaker’s bride is from Eureka Springs, Ark.!); and climbed through the historic ruins of the Madame Sherri Forest in West Chesterfield, N.H.

I took “a whole roll of film,” as we’d say back in the day, of covered bridges in Vermont and New Hampshire. We hiked through Sachuest Point Natl. Wildlife Refuge and finished our trip with a scrumptious seafood dinner at East Greenwich Oyster Bar in Rhode Island.

Our trip was absolutely delightful – even for Trapper who wasn’t originally excited about traveling 950 miles to see a rodent emerge at dawn. And I knocked off all but one state in my quest to see 50 states before I turn 50.

I might need a new sweater from TJ Maxx before the next trip…maybe with Pennsylvania polka dots?