Introduction

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<H3>Introduction</H3>

<P>Every year, from late November to early March, I must travel south for the winter. If I fail to drag myself away from the comforts of home -- 45 West Virginia acres euphemistically described as "rolling," some of which are so steep that I, with my bad knee, have literally never been able to set foot on them -- I am reminded of my need to go by a reactivation of my chronic bronchitis. If I do not go -- and this actually happened for five years running before I began my annual migration -- the bronchitis becomes pneumonia by February.</P>

<P>Normally, I spend my enforced exile in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. But last year was unusually cold in Myrtle Beach -- snow even fell, and stuck, on the beach itself. And I thought of all the money we had been saving for "travel" -- all but unused ever since 9/11. And I thought, "Australia?"</P>

<P>In the end, it wasn't Australia I chose to visit, but New Zealand. New Zealand offered a far better exchange rate, simpler public-transportation options, and friendlier-sounding hostels. (I should explain at the outset that I do not "party" and I only drink medicinally -- half a shot of Scotch,straight or on the rocks, relaxes the muscles around my artificial collarbone when they go in spasm just as well as Skelaxin, and it's non-prescription. So the youth hostels in Australia (for mine is definitely a backpacker's budget) sounded distinctly alarming. New Zealand's seemed to have more of a family image.</P>

<P>The trip as booked involved a 13-hour international flight from Los Angeles, USA, to Auckland, New Zealand, bookended by domestic flights in both countries. On November 1st, the U.S. Transportation Security Authority suddenly announced that it would be doing invasive pat-down searches rather than simple wanding, which would include officers' actually touching passengers' genitals and probing between their hips, not to mention patting them all over "firmly."</P>

<P>Aside from the obvious civil liberties issues, and even aside from the psychological ones (which those of you who know about my anti-bullying website can well imagine), any such patdown is going to <I>hurt</I>. I have a raft of medical issues, enough to guarantee that I *will* be patted down, and most of those can be exacerbated by being probed or poked. And all my airline tickets were non-refundable. On the day before Thanksgiving, I was expecting to face not one but two such invasive searches as a part of my trip, since I planned to spend several days in L.A.before my international flight.</P>

<P>Then a miracle occurred. Frontier Airlines suddenly changed the times on both my flights. They called to ask whether I would reconfirm the new times. I said, "Wait a minute! I've been really worried about this TSA thing. If I don't reconfirm them, can I get a full refund?" Frontier said that yes, I could. I did. </P>

<P>I wouldn't have liked the new times under other circumstances; the layovers were much too short for someone who walks as slowly as I do. But I would probably have accepted them and made the best of it, if not for my fear of the TSA. But as it was, I chose to take the train.</p>

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Comments

[MaryN]

Trip still on?
Yikes, I can imagine how upsetting the idea of these "firm pat-downs" must have been to you. So, does this mean your NZ trip is still on and you're just doing the cross-country part by train? Or have you totally canceled the NZ trip?

[bbaggins]

Yes, the trip's still on!
As you surmised, I'm just doing the cross-country part by train.

[K. Freeman]

Thank God for miracles!!
Meredith! Don't know why I didn't get to your blog before now but I am so excited to read it! So glad that God was with you right from the beginning. I will be curious to read about how you avoided these "pat-downs" flying overseas, assuming you didn't swim... :)