About a month ago I found out that I would be attending a week-long meeting in Washington D.C. — approximately 1,400 miles away. I’ve driven that distance before, but covering 1,400 miles over two days makes for two very long days. Had I driven I would have been completely worn out by the time I had arrived. Add the fact that last week I drove 1,100 miles (each way) to Vegas and back, and, both physically and mentally, I just couldn’t do it again. From the moment I got the original e-mail, I knew I would be flying to and from D.C.
For some people, their fear of flying begins when they actually board their plane. For others, it begins when they enter the airport. For me, it begins when I know that I’m going to have to fly. For the past month, off and on, I’ve had a pit in my stomach just knowing that at some point in the near future I would be on an airplane.
Fortunately for me, I still have a small stash of Xanax set aside for just such days. After about the third time of going to my doctor and getting handed three or four pills at a time, they finally wrote me a prescription for 20 and said, “use accordingly.” I’ve found that 1mg calms me down, 2mg for the most part puts me to sleep, and 3mg, causes me to loudly say inappropriate things in the airport terminal. It’s actually not uncommon for me to say inappropriate things in any location, but the difference is the volume. Actually, sometimes I say inappropriate things loudly when completely unmedicated. Who knows, maybe 3mg has no effect on me at all.
When I agreed to go on this trip, I knew it took place Labor Day week. What I didn’t realize is, Labor Day week translates to “the week before the 10th anniversary of 9/11.” You know, that time those guys crashed those planes. AWESOME. Of course that meant that the airwaves were flooded last week with news stories and footage of 9/11. “Hey Rob, did you see the new footage of the plane that went down in Pittsburgh?” No. No I did not. I am specifically avoiding watching video footage of planes crashing this week, thank you very much.
Of course the plane ride from OKC to D.C. was uneventful. There were no lines to speak of at the ticket counter or the security check points, and we sailed through to our gate. Susan sat next to me the whole time, and shortly before takeoff, I was zonked out. I was told the flight lasted around 3 hours, but to me it seemed like 15 seconds. Allow me to give another shout out to my man, Xanax. You’re number one, pal.
In Washington D.C. on Friday, before we left the hotel, we could see security ramping up. A couple of police officers were hanging out in the lobby of our hotel. Outside the hotel, we could see police cars and SUVs, parked in plain view. Rumors of road closures and detours were circulating throughout the lobby. One person told us that he had heard from someone else that the terror level had been increased. There was definitely concern in the air as we waited for our shuttle to pick us up and whisk us away to the airport.
The fun really began when we arrived at Dulles Airport. When you are greeted curbside by a bomb-sniffing dog who is taking an interest in your crotch, you know it’s going to be a fun day. Guys in various colored uniforms (black, blue, and camo) patrolled the front of the airport, along with those dogs.
“I’ve never seen this much security at this airport before,” Susan informed me. And in a weird way, that made me feel better. I’m all for more security at the airport, especially on the last working day before the 9/11 anniversary.
I was amazed to see how long the security line was until Susan informed me that this wasn’t the security line, but rather the line to get to the security line. It went back and forth and back and forth and at some point I was glad Susan got us to the airport almost 3 hours before our plane was scheduled to leave. Susan said the line would have made a great picture and there was no way I was going to take any pictures in the airport yesterday. The last thing I wanted was some TSA agent sticking his magic wand up my butt looking for terrorists like it was some sort of Pakistan cave.
One new fun thing I encountered on both legs of my trip was the fact that something inside my CPAP machine “no longer looks right”, so it has to be manually checked for trace explosives and whatnot. The first time it happened, a TSA agent told me that something inside “was crooked”, which makes me think at some point I probably dropped it and something looks weird inside of it. The second time it happened, I informed the agent that this already happened once and that I wasn’t surprised. As she snapped on a pair of blue latex gloves, I could only hope they were for handling the machine, and not me.
The flight home, of course, was also uneventful. The plane was so empty that everyone got their own row. Susan slide across the aisle from me and did “something” as I sat, slept, drooled, and apparently snored. I remember taking off, turning on my iPod, and then being woken up by the stewardess to inform me that it was time to turn my iPod off because we were landing. Good times.
Now, with the trip behind me, I’m glad that we “got out” when we did. I hope everyone stays safe and secure this weekend and tolerates the additional security measures that are in place, especially in D.C. and New York.
Great post! I, like you, am usually nervous when flying. I would have been even more nervous with all of the security. But like you said, the more security the better.