Here we are at the holidays and some of you may be flying to visit family. I just visited my newborn granddaughter in Georgia. Her name is Lucy; I call her Lucy Belle because she lives in the south.
We are very fortunate to have CAK (Akron Canton airport) close by. They make it easy to get on your plane and with Atlanta being a hub for Delta, I could get a direct flight, there are not many of those left in the friendly or not so friendly skies.
The plane was a CRJ 700. (I got that off the info in the pocket by the air sick bag.) The seats are made for a thin 10 year old and there is just about enough leg room for a small dog. It is like flying in a VW beetle. They may be longer than a beetle but no wider and they try to stuff 62 clowns, I mean passengers in that small area.
I had what the flight attendant called the VIP seat, the last row, the aisle seat closest to the little out house. I was anticipating getting stuck with a passenger who hogged the arm rest or had garlic on his steak the night before. Well, no one showed up, great because I could work on my computer. The only way to do so on this jet is to have two seats and spread out across them so you can turn sideways.
All in all it was not a bad trip and after walking what seemed to be several miles I was able to meet my son in law.
It was the airport experience on the way back that was interesting. I took off the shoes and the jacket and placed them in a bin along with my quart bag of 3 ounces or less items. I placed my laptop in a bin and started sliding everything along the belt to be viewed by the “x-ray technician.” I walked through the metal detector without a problem and then a tall, stern man asked, “Whose bag is this?”
It was mine.
He said, “Please get your things and come over here with me.”
I did not think this was asking me for a date, I did exactly as I was told. I grabbed my computer, the bags and my shoes and jacket and walked in my socks over to the desk.
He said, “You are to stand over there and I am going to go through your bag and at no time are you to touch the bag or contents while I am looking.” He asked if there was anything sharp or that would hurt him as he dug through my unmentionables (he didn’t say unmentionables)?
I said, “No sir.”
He then asked if there were any weapons. I said that I did not bring them on this trip.
“The only thing that might bother you is the clothing that my granddaughter spit up on just before I left.”
He did smile.
I told him that what he was looking for was on the bottom in the middle. They were large salt and pepper mills my daughter had given me. I told her that they would stop me but she said they wouldn’t. Huh!
After x-raying the bag and the salt and pepper and checking them for drugs he repacked everything in my bag and I was released but not before he said, “The next time you bring your salt and pepper shakers take them out and put them in a bin for us to see. They look very suspicious on the x-ray machine.” “I don’t think I will be traveling with them anytime soon or ever again,” I immediately called my daughter.
