Tag: airport

Maryland 2025 Trip Report (Day 0)

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This trip did not start well. While packing yesterday, I couldn’t find my neck pillow. Fortunately, today’s flight is a short one, so I’m hoping my neck will be OK. On the drive to the airport, I had a collision. Specifically, the sideview mirror on the passenger side collided with a road construction sign that was sticking out from the curb. Lucky for me that my mirrors can be folded inward. I was afraid the mirror was damaged, but I stopped to check it out, I found it had just been partly folded inward. It was fine once I manhandled it back into place.

After two more near-collisions, I got to the Charlotte airport, where I chose to make use of the wheelchair service. My pusher got me to the TSA checkpoint and helped me unload all the stuff that needed to go through the X-ray machines. He then waited in the recombobulation area while I went into a private screening room for the full pat-down. Now that I have the pat-down down pat, it didn’t take long until I was back in the wheelchair. The pusher didn’t start pushing right away, so I figured he was just giving me more time to recombobulate. So, I got my belt, shoes, phone, etc. all in place and fastened. Again, though, no response from the pusher.

After waiting a moment longer, I formally announced that I was ready to head to the gate. The pusher asked whether I was certain; I confirmed, and off we went to the gate. Gate A24. Those of you who are frequent flyers based in Charlotte know what this means. Y’see, gate 24 is part of a recently completed extension of an existing concourse. This new area is a LONG walk from the terminal.

As I was de-wheelchairing, I went to grab my carry-on bag from the rack at the back of the wheelchair. It wasn’t there. A brief conversation with the pusher man revealed that one pair of TSA employees had been inspecting my carry-on while another pair was inspecting me in the privacy of the screening room. Apparently, the bag inspectors had not finished by the time I was ready to go.

Despite my morning mirror mishap, I still had plenty of time left before my flight. Wheelchair man undertook the long walk back to the TSA checkpoint, leaving the wheelchair with me as collateral. The TSA folks let him take the bag and haul it all the way out to gate A24 and a waiting Cedric. And so, I recognize that I have another…

PD Travel Tip:

Always keep track of your own bag(s). Specifically, don’t trust airport or TSA employees to track your bags for you, even if you are required to leave a bag in their custody.

I boarded the plane normally and, despite not having a neck pillow, I also slept normally.

After picking up my rental car, I made the 2.5-hour drive to Cumberland, Maryland. I found a Mexican restaurant there called El Rio Grande. This turns out to be a small chain, that has no relation to the small chain of restaurants in Colorado that use the same name. Unlike the Colorado chain, the one here in Maryland does not put insane amounts of alcohol in their margaritas. But they make up for it by serving HUGE margaritas. I could only drink about half of one. Oh, yeah. Food was excellent, too.

Tomorrow’s destination: A scenic train ride.

Mississippi 2024 Trip Report (Day 1)

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And just like that, my Mississippi state vacation is underway. Just like what? Well, like this…

The plan for Day One was to leave home at 4:00 AM for Charlotte Douglas International Airport, then fly to George H. W. Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas. Once in Houston, I was to change planes, then fly to Jackson, Mississippi. I would then rent a car and drive to Red Bluff. After photographing Red Bluff, I would then drive to a hotel in the city of Natchez. That was the plan. Here’s what actually happened…

I left home at 4:00 AM for Charlotte Douglas International Airport, then flew to George H. W. Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas. All good so far. Once inside the terminal, I checked the “Departures” monitor to see which gate I had to get to next. To my shock and awe, next to the gate number there appeared the word, CANCELED. This was a little concerning. I made my way to the listed gate anyway, to ask the gate agent what options they might have for me. As it stood, there was ONE more flight to Jackson today, for which they could give me “priority standby”. And there was an available seat on tomorrow morning’s flight. They gave me both of these, but the gate agent seemed to think it was rather likely that one or both of these flights may end up canceled as well. It occurred to me that I may be able to alter my car rental reservation to start at Houston rather than Jackson, so I asked about retrieving my checked bag at Houston instead of them flying it to Jackson. The gate agent suspected this may take 4 or 5 hours, as the baggage folks were facing serious issues due to a slew of cancelations the previous day.

And so I left the gate and headed for the baggage claim, to get the baggage department’s opinion on the matter. On the way there, I looked at Google Maps and found that a drive from Houston to Natchez would take about six hours. This would require eliminating Red Bluff from my itinerary, but I went ahead and called Enterprise and successfully changed my car rental. Fortunately, the baggage folks didn’t have any trouble retrieving my bag for me, so I had it within just a few minutes. I also had no trouble with the just-changed car rental, so I was on the road less than two hours after landing at Houston. I drove north out of Houston, then east across Louisiana’s, um, ankle. I only made four stops: one for nappin’ and three for caffeine. Well, and maybe about eight more stops to scream at the Google Maps Navigation app.