Travel Thoughts

Yesterday was the first time I had traveled on an airplane since the Christmas Day scare where a guy tried to blow up a plane with chemicals he had in his underwear (wonder who thought up that idea...). Anyway, here's some thoughts

• The security lines were LONG. Much longer than a couple months previous so be ready to stand in line for quite a while. The lines did move along fairly rapidly but it took about 25 minutes to clear the security checkpoint and be on our way to the gate.
• Travel with one bag. I make it a point to ALWAYS travel with only one carry on bag unless I am bringing supplies and need the extra 50 or 100 pounds that checked luggage allows. It is much easier to travel with only one bag to keep track of and getting into and out of the airport is much easier than schlepping two or three huge bags. If you really need another dress shirt at your destination, you can always buy one there.
• The only down side to airline travel is that I can't bring a firearm or knife with me. Obviously you can check these items if you really need to have them when you land. If I will need a knife, I often buy one in whatever city I land in then leave it as a gift to my host when I leave their city. I will occasionally check a firearm if I will need it at my destination (shooting events). Carrying a concealed firearm in a different city will require a bit of research so you can stay on the right side of the law. Bringing a firearm to a foreign country is much more hassle than it is worth--in these circumstances, I will hire protection before I will carry my own firearm to protect myself.
• Security at the airport, I thought, was less than stellar, especially when I went through the first check where they match your ID against your boarding pass. The lady looked at my ID and boarding pass, stamped it, then passed me along. Meanwhile the spouse was behind me with a boarding pass with my name on it and it took this little incident for the agent to realize that she had looked at my ID and the spouse's boarding pass then let me through. Duh.
• Checking in online is always a good idea. This along with carrying one bag will allow you to bypass the long lines at check in and go straight to the gate.
• Info that is always good to have with you: phone numbers for your destination (taxi company, hotel phone number, contact phone numbers, etc). When traveling overseas, you always want to carry phone numbers to contact companies that you would otherwise reach with a 1-800 number (banks, credit card companies, etc) as 1-800 phone numbers are only usable in the US.
• Check weather.com before you leave for information on your destination. And the corollary, be prepared for anything. We were supposed to have snow at our destination but all we ended up with was bright sunshine.
• Allow plenty of time when you travel. Getting connectingflights too close together, making appointments with clients for the minute you are (theoretically) supposed to land, and otherwise squeezing your schedule as tightly as possible is way too stressful. Leave plenty of time between connections, between appointments, and between events in order to keep the stress level down.