Day Six: Mission Possible
As I get used to yet another 4 a.m. wakeup call for the 6 a.m. flight from Columbus, I’m ready to again trust a cab ride. The airport service for this Holiday Inn Express doesn’t yet have van service to the airport this early in the morning (it’s brand new) but they have a pretty friendly policy. They allow you to take a cab to and from the hotel and they then deduct that from your final bill. I find that quite nice. This time the cab is on time, no doubt with the prodding of the hotel staff (thank you), and I’m off to the airport. Never knowing what security lines will be like from airport to airport, I’ve learned to come early… just in case. I’m the only one in line for ticketing, which means in two minutes I’m facing the scanner and my morning security detail. Here I’m also the only one in line and checked out and through in less than five minutes, meaning I now have 1 1/2 hours until flight time. For some time we will all experience being too early or too late until these changes become more uniform in nature. Right now, I’d do anything (well, maybe not…) to get this extra 1 1/2 hours back and put them into extra wink time at the Holiday Inn. In Providence Rhode Island, security has no lines as it’s a relatively small airport and appears to be well run. Security has enough wide open areas that additional checks of passengers don’t seem to interfere with the flow of new people heading for their gates. There are only 6 of us passengers on the flight from Providence to Newark and 2 of us are searched at the gate. Amazing odds but all seem to agree it’s necessary and we had better get used to it. The other five are travelers with 5-14 trips per year, so they at least know something of what’s going on. Also, none are skeptical of the impact these changes have had on making things better for the safety of us all.