Newsy Bits: The Airport--Not Very Interesting

So recently I was flying home again.  Yay!  Always wonderful to go on a visit but getting home again is such a blessing.

This time I had found a wonderful "businessman's carry-on" at a large thrift store. I had seen such a bag when a scientist was in one of the genealogy classes I teach.  He brought his computer and other stuff to class in it.  I always have such a struggle getting stuff from Point A to Point B.  This rolling bag really caught my eye. I started investigating on the internet to see what I could find.

WELL!  Every bag I saw seemed to be of inferior quality or VERY expensive. I kind of gave up on the idea of purchasing one.  Unless I found one in a thrift store....which I did.

On Thursday I mailed home all the books I had acquired on this trip, along with several other rather heavy items that would fit in the flat-rate box.

Packing was a matter of sliding my clothes and medical items, etc into the large bag that I was going to check.  I had purchased some WONDERFUL freezer containers which took up a large part of the bag, but which were so light as to make the bag only 46 pounds at the airport.  That was good news. I had hoped not to have to remove anything and carry it on.  Leaving stuff was not an option!

Putting my computer, watercolor paints, low-tack tape, cardinal painting still on the plexiglass board, along with my camera and lens into the "new" businessman's rolling carry-on made me very happy.

The second piece of carry-on was my black zippered duffle-sort-of thing.  Into that I put the small red zippered bag the nice lady at AAA gave me when I stopped in at their office for maps and tourist books some years ago.  In the red bag I had the food for the next morning since I did not want to have to buy food on Sunday morning even though my favorite airport food place (Currito---they have a fabulous Asian salad and dressing--probably 90 percent sugar) is at the arrival airport.  I also had my headphones and planned to add my purse so I could shove the whole thing in one piece under my seat on the airplane.

On the way to the airport we had stopped at Franz's Bakery Outlet to pick up some raspberry-filled cake donuts. Yes,  filled cake donuts.  I discovered these at a Franz Outlet in a different city and just knew Dear One would love them.   I purchased an extra box and gave to daughter and grandson who gave them a solid thumbs-up.  So far I have managed to avoid eating one.  Anyway, these were also stowed in the small red zippered bag.

Finally I am getting to the point.

The big bag was checked through.  I had my stroller, businessman's bag, black duffle, and purse.  The stroller was taken away from me by the TSA agent to be scanned manually at great length. I shot all three other items through the x-ray rollers and stepped  through the x-ray portal.  Surprisingly I stepped through and was not asked to go back through or step aside to be wanded.  Yay! That never happens.

My luggage was not so lucky.  Every. Single. Piece. caused problems!  That has never happened before.  I was TSA Pre-checked so I should have been able to just walk through with no problems BUT that option apparently closed at 5 PM.  At this point it was 8:30 PM.  The computer in the bag had to be checked for explosive residue.  No problem. I am glad they do it.  However,  the bag was seriously packed. It was a pain to get the computer out to check and even harder for the checker to put it back together.  The black duffle had the food, as I mentioned. I did not mention that part of the food was in an insulated bag with a bottle of ice to keep it cold.  The ice had melted.  That is a no-no, so that was thrown out.  I never did find out what the issue was with the purse, though as I am writing this it occurs to me that it might have been the small bundle of paintbrushes I got at Dick Blick's.

So, another exciting airport adventure.  Well, it does pass the time.  Two more hours until lift off...