Air Travel

It has been almost a year since the last time I have flown.  Generally we drive to our vacation destinations.  Last year when I flew, you just had to walk through a simple metal detector.  This time I got the full body scan.  I am not sure what I was expecting, it takes a little longer than a simple metal detector which causes a slow down at the security checkpoint.  Once through security I arrived at my gate with five minutes to go before boarding began. The flight attendants were wonderful and very friendly.  When I arrived at my layover destination I learned that my flight to my final destination had been canceled due to maintenance issues.  No big deal they were able to get me on the next flight out.

My three hour layover had turned into a five hour layover.  What does one do when traveling alone with five hours to kill?  I watched a movie, read a book and my favorite people watching.  I am surprised at what some people will do or say in public when they do not think anyone is watching.  I had a man who was traveling with his family, stand up across the aisle from me and readjust himself by putting his hand down his pants.  Really pulling your t-shirt down to try and cover up what you are doing did not help.  Although his wife was mortified when she noticed what he was doing.  I was shocked to hear how some of the airport staff were talking after flights came in.  There was one employee who came walking up the gate way right after the passengers got off.  This employee was complaining a little too loudly about how messy the plane was and he didn't understand how people could be such pigs.  One of his fellow co-workers was standing at the top of the gate way trying so hard to get the other gentleman to stop complaining.

There was a mother, her three grown daughters and infant grandson that sat sown next to me.  I loved the way they laughed and joked around with one another and took turns entertaining the baby.  Watching them made me smile and hope that someday I would be able to go on vacation with my grown children and have as much fun as they were.  I saw groups of school children traveling with teachers and parents.  I do not recall getting to take a class trip that involved flying, driving in buses yes.  My wish is that these children remember this class trip.

The University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) Women's Lacrosse team was there getting ready to play a game in Boston.  The team all sat together, some studying, some texting, others joking around and laughing.  Ahh, what it must be like to be a young again.  I wish them good luck on their game (I may need to check out the score).  As they were getting on the plane one of the girls, who doesn't look very good, says to another girl "I am so nauseous, I hate planes".  I was so glad that she wasn't sitting near me in case she got sick.

Traveling by plane was not all bad or good.  I had moments where I wanted to yell at somebody.  Shortly before boarding the plane to get to my final destination, which by the way I had waited five hours for, I get called up to the gate desk.  At the desk I was informed that I had been accidentally deleted from the flight, I am given a new boarding pass for the flight with the same seat assignment as my original boarding pass.  Not five minutes later I get called up again and this time I am told "oh, so sorry we gave you the wrong seat".  I pull out all the boarding passes that I have from this trip to show them that the boarding pass they gave me was the correct one.  Sorry, but I do not sit in the middle seat no matter where it is on the plane.  I did feel bad for the gentlemen that the airline had given my seat to, because they had to take it back and seat him some place else.  Now we are on the plane and everything is going wonderfully until we land.  Once on the ground we have to sit on the runway for 30 minutes because there is another plane at our gate that had not started boarding.  I have never been so happy to get off a plane in my life.

The airline employees were absolutely wonderful during the whole day, the did their best to accommodate everyone.  They were polite and respectful, for the most part.  I can't imagine doing their jobs, I did see people speaking to them with such disrespect and disregard it was unbelievable.

Looking out the plane window.

Another picture out of the plane window