The Divine Mrs. M and I recently returned from a trip to Cancun, Mexico. In and of itself, this is hardly earth shattering news and I would not ordinarily report it. We had a fine time and contributed moderately to Mexico's balance of payments account. The interesting thing about our vacation was the travel to and from the resort and our house.
Thanks to airline rapacity there were no non-stop flights within easy driving distance of the north country, so we opted for one stopover flights to and from Burlington Vt. This involved timing our arrival at the airport to include a 15 minute ferry across lake Champlain in the middle of the night. The security at the airport was not too onerous and the trip to Cancun was uneventful. Coming back was another story.
Security was a breeze at Cancun international airport. After a 4 hour wait for a tardy plane, we flew to JFK in New York which is where the fun began. Airport security in NY is among the most dehumanizing experiences I've ever gone through. The TSA's motto should be, "give us your huddled masses so we can reduce them to the shedding of bitter tears". After gathering our disheveled belongings and putting our shoes on (yes, they are still wary of shoe bombs in NY) we proceeded to our gate and then to an hour long tour of the back runways at JFK. Once airborne, the flight lasted less time than we spent on the ground. We finally got home approximately 18 hours after leaving out hotel.
I know most travelers have far more horrible experiences to report on, but the needless inconveniences visited upon us by the travel industry are very discouraging to future trips as far as I'm concerned.
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