Voilà, a short travel tale ...

of what happened when I cleared security at Pearson Airport,  catching a connecting flight to Austin, Texas, recently.  I was the only person, along with two other gentleman, in that entire, HUGE security clearance area. They sailed through. Did I? Of course not!!! There were eight security people, all standing around doing nothing. All Jamaican Canadians, I kid you not. I am very good at picking up on accents "monn." They confiscated my sunscreen in my carry-on and APOLOGIZED for it. They were just so darn sweet about it, those two female employees. I hardly had time to notice that they also whisked away my white, plastic bin with my purse, jacket, etc. back through the screening a SECOND time. Slow day obviously. They were looking for something to do? My sunscreen had made them suspicious? They didn't find anything, but when I grabbed my jacket, I noticed right away that it was now extremely dirty, with smudgy, black streaks all over the front of it. I was a bit dismayed when I  pointed this out to the CATSA staff. That was a NEW Old Navy jacket I had just bought. Well ... new to me. I got it at the Sally Ann! :) 

 

It seems my jacket had fallen OUT of the bin and gone BETWEEN the conveyor rollers, while under that black box. There was no other explanation for it. The same two women assured me the bins were cleaned regularly, but they didn't know about the conveyor itself. They immediately tried to clean those stains, swabbing them with water and then some kind of cleaner. Can you picture a MALE security guy doing THAT? I think not.  Those two women were just SO, SO sweet and apologetic, AGAIN. I just may write the Canadian Air Transport Security Agency to tell them what g-r-e-a-t staff they had working that day. I bet they don't get many letters to THAT effect.

After that gauntlet, I had to go through US Customs, which can be a TOTAL PITA. However, this time it was a breeze. No one there again. I was questioned by a friendly, hunky American named YOW!!! That is what his name tag said.  How cool is that! His nickname?  WOW of course!