Just flying back through the Boston-Logan on the way home.
This long journey has come to an end for a moment or two.
In just a few days I will be back out on the road, but I’m in need of rest and a recharge.
Oh, my frayed and weary mind, my shoes need a break, my bag and all that I travel with is groaning with each time I must shoehorn it into an overhead bin or pry it back out. I fold into the middle seat of a 767 and pass out, only the meal sees me awake for a moment, then the plate is miraculously gone when I wake back up. Not even the take-off or landing I remember.
So many miles, so many security queues. The young lady at CDG security check that has to poke around in my camera bag after I’m pulled aside becomes apologetic after asking why I didn’t take the “battery operated” things out of my bag: “Because in the last 30 flights these past 2 months I only had to once or twice. I took my chances you wouldn’t either,” I say calmly without a hint of sarcasm or meanness. She fumbles with the cameras and lenses, not knowing where they go back to in their puzzle of the bag. She’s just doing her job. There’s no reason to get upset or be rude even if it is inconvenient.
I can’t believe it people are so freaked out by these back-scatter x-ray things. When I rarely get pulled to go through it – only a couple of times ever – and they give me the option, my question always is: “Which one is faster and easier for you, I don’t care.” They usually send me through the x-ray thing. They don’t want to frisk anybody any more than they have to. People who are freaked out by somebody seeing through your clothes must have missed that part in junior high gym class when you have to change in the locker room. Some random security professional in a remote viewing booth who has seen 1000 people today or a dozen hot, sweaty teenagers in their awkward phase in a concrete room…? Not that hard of a decision. Get over it. Don’t be immature.
I have discovered that human decency must check out when it comes to boarding and leaving a plane. People boxing out old men and pregnant women to be the first off the plane. Or people who push and shove to board the plane as if part of the plane is going to leave before the rest of it and get anyone there faster than anyone else. Of course, its always the guy next to me who I’m going to have to ask to get up so I can get to my window seat that ran all over everyone to be first in line in Zone 3.
It is true, having an upgraded Skymiles status is kinda cool. But, friends, just because that couple has a baby and a stroller and an over-sized carry-on and they get to board before you due to “Special Assistance”… that’s no reason to get huffy and indignant because they haven’t earned the “right” to get on a plane first.
If you travel internationally more than a couple times per year, the Global Entry program is one of the best things I’ve ever done to enhance my travel experience. I come off a plane, walk up to the kiosk, scan my passport, fingerprints, and done. I don’t travel with checked luggage, so I’m through security and to my next gate within 10min of landing. Ten minutes on an international transfer? Yes, my friend. When I buy tickets for international flights, I don’t even check the transfer times anymore. As long as the plane isn’t late, there’s no harm in tight schedules.
I travel with a lot of photography equipment, no secret there. But I use a LowePro Classified 200AW packed with 2 professional camera bodies, and upwards of 7-8 lenses. Absolutely the best bag I’ve ever gone through security with and it fits just right under the seat. Then, my backpack which has everything else – all clothes, toiletries, computer, iPad, books/paperwork, chargers, everything – is a Chrome Brigadier. Bar none, the best bag I’ve ever traveled with, duffel-style, Velcro roll-top, super durable and not very expensive if it gets mauled. It fits in almost all the overheads except those tiny CanadAir commuter jets and the twin turbo-prop regional planes. And I do all of it self-contained. Nothing checked. Yes, I just got through 2 months like this. Laundry done only 4 times.
Astoundingly, absurdly, ridiculously, insanely… a one-way flight from Nasvhille (BNA) to London (LHR or GTW) is close to twice as expensive as the same flight on the same day at the same time with a return. And, to make it worse, most transportation systems are like this – including Eurostar (Chunnel).
Some people have qualms about traveling. I think more excuses are made for not traveling than getting married, taking a new job, buying a car or going to one university over another. Travel is a lot like ice cream: it doesn’t really matter what flavor you chose, and some people actually like certain ones better than others… but its all ice cream and whichever you chose its gonna be good.
Stay tuned…
-Noah D.
