The idea of me seeing more of the world is stymied by the fact that I’ll never be a frequent flyer. My last adventure is a good example of why.
I ordered round-trip tickets from Albany, NY, to Charlotte, NC, for mid-May 2026. Somehow, I didn’t get the flight I thought I got at c. noon and ended up with a 7:30 a.m. departure. This meant my wife had to take my daughter and me to the airport at about 5:30 a.m.
I went to the TSA machinery. Even though I got a Real ID, the machinery could not read it, despite repeated attempts. Fortunately, just before I left home, I had grabbed my passport, which did the job.
Then I went through the metal detector. The guy asked if I had a belt on; well, yeah. Then he got handsy around my waistband, which made me very uncomfortable. Later, someone told me they should EXPLAIN what they were going to do.
When my sister Leslie arrived in CLT, we had to go to the car rental place, which was visible from the baggage area but which involved an inadequate number of elevators up to the 5th floor, across the walkway, down to the Dollar/Hertz counter with a long line. It was substantial enough time that I returned to the baggage area to retrieve the sunglasses I had dropped, got back to the line, and found it still long.
The “deal” car they first offered was a pickup truck! We didn’t want our luggage out in the elements. Ultimately, with a price upgrade, we got a 2026 Buick Enclave, which was a tank. Also, shifting into reverse, for instance, involved pushing this button on the gear shift, which was non-intuitive.
CLT
Charlotte/Douglas Airport has changed a lot since I last flew into there in 2009, not all for the better. As we were heading towards the rental car return in the 2nd lane to the left, a large bus came out of somewhere into the far-left lane. Though both vehicles were in the correct places, the design made us feel as if the bus were going to crash into us.
We entered the parking garage that was the return vehicle location. But the turn to the Dollar area came up quickly, practically before one could read the sign. By that point, we had to drive out of the whole building – there was no turning around – and leave the airport entirely and come back to try again.
In this TSA line, I was in the midst of making my cane as small as I could, so it would lie flat in the bin, as it did in ALB. But someone said, “It’s good enough.” It went through the scanning machine and jammed it for everyone for about five minutes. While I was waiting near another passenger, we joked about who had broken the machine. If they had given me literally five more seconds, I could have fully retracted the cane.
Flying makes me cranky. It’s a necessary evil until they develop those Star Trek transporters.
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