If You Are Planning on Flying Soon...

I am not what you would call a "frequent flyer." And having my first flight a few weeks after 9/11/01 did not exactly help any anti-airplane concerns. But this year, I have flown first to Seattle for Sean's wedding and then to Kentucky for Ward's wedding. (Luckily, it appears next year's weddings will all be relatively local. Unfortunately, it appears none of them will be mine. ) However, some new security procedures have apparently been put into place since the Seattle trip that caused some hassles for CRChair and me. On trips, we always bring a few film cases filled with quarters, for vending machines and the like. Last flight, no problem. The X-Ray guys did not even blink. This time, it apparently raised a serious red flag. They searched both of our carry-on bags, stem to stern, to find the film cases, check every quarter inside them, and dust the whole thing for explosives. We were clean.



It is not quite the shoe to hat search that I recieved on my first airport security check (being a man with a beard can be difficult in these days), but it definitely slowed things down. If you are someone who also carrys rolls of quarters, take it from me - put them into the X-Ray trays separately so the security guys can see them clearly and check them easily. It made our trip home much faster than our trip out.