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Massachusetts. But air travel was still far from ordinary, and Amy, like most women of her generation, saw planes as unsafe.
    In an impressively generous gesture, Amelia made a choice that must have been wrenching: She sold the Canary. With the money from the sale, she bought a flashy car - a Kissel with a retractable roof and wide running boards - for the cross-country trip she would make with her mother. Putting a brave face on the undertaking, Amelia playfully named her car the Yellow Peril.
The Long Way Home
    Amelia and Amy’s leisurely trip across the continent set no records for speed or efficiency. The path they took suggests they went out of their way, more than once, to enjoy scenic spots, such as Yosemite, Crater Lake, and Lake Louise.
    After installing her mother safely with Muriel, Earhart tried to pick up her medical studies once more, spending another semester at Columbia before deciding that she could not see herself in a career in medicine. She went to Boston to be near her family, knowing that Amy would welcome having her close by. For Amelia, the move to Boston meant having to find a new job.
    At the same time, Amelia had to deal with a health problem that she had been minimizing, ignoring, and all but denying for several years. She had started showing signs of wear from all those hours of flying. The planes she flew had open cockpits, which left her face exposed. She wore goggles, of course, to protect her eyes, but the goggles didn’t did not cover much else. All that wind had a drying effect that hurt her already sensitive sinuses. Because Earhart was stoic – by nature, upbringing, and conviction – she rarely spoke about the ailment and certainly not in public. But sinusitis and related sinus trouble plagued her for years. Pain and chronic headaches were now severe enough to interfere with ordinary life and sleep.
    In the 1920s, remedies were few, inconvenient, and only sometimes effective. That left only surgery. Amelia went to Massachusetts General Hospital for a small operation that provided relief.
    Sinus issues abated, Amelia concluded that her experience working in a wartime hospital in Toronto made her a good candidate for social work, a field that was attracting some of the best and brightest women of the day. That’s exactly what a career advisor had recommended. At that time, educated women in cities could find work to help alleviate the suffering of immigrant families who kept pouring into American cities.
    Denison House in Boston, where Amelia found a position as social worker, had been set up a generation earlier by well-off, educated women who hoped to share their many privileges with people who had few. Inspired by Chicago’s Hull House , founded by Jane Addams , it was founded in 1892 by three Wellesley professors and offered a clinic as well as classes in English, among other subjects.
    A Denison supervisor took note of Earhart’s playful personality and assigned her to work with children. But Amelia’s leadership qualities also made her stand out. She was quickly placed in a supervisory position. Promotions meant an increase in pay, which Earhart clearly welcomed. All those years of having very little money had taught her how to make the most of small income. Careful management plus thrifty habits let her save enough money to buy a new plane.
    Aviation helped Earhart supplement her income. She had stayed in touch with W.G. “Bert” Kinner, owner of the California airfield where she had her lessons with Neta Snook. Now Bert wanted Earhart to help him; he asked her to find someone to sell Kinner planes in Boston. Identifying the right person proved more difficult than either of them expected it to be, so she decided to try selling airplanes herself. The bonus for her: She got to fly the plane for prospective buyers.
    Meanwhile, at Denison House, Earhart was becoming a favorite with the children. They loved when she would take them for a ride in her