Columbus, GA > Atlanta > Hartford, CT

The drive to Columbus, GA was nice. Sunny spring day!

Got to the airport with no issues.

The issue upon arrival though was retrieving my luggage from the bed of that god forsaken truck! It was a scene man! I had to put the tailgate down and crawl up on my hands and knees and drag it back to the end of the bed.

After checking in with Delta, I went over to the TSA luggage drop. This airport is very tiny and they do not have x-ray machines for the checked luggage. So they have to hand inspect your bags.

Once it was my turn, the guy took my boarding pass and stamped it and wrote down my information in the log. Then hoisted my bag up on the table and riffled thru it. All the while his female co-worker was giving me the stink eye. Seriously, she either thought I was a terrorist or was mad that I was being nice to the man.

Once he was done inspecting my underwear, he zipped up the bag and said I was good to go. That’s when I told him he had never given me back my boarding pass.

This turned into a 15 minute ordeal. He couldn’t find it.

He was convinced he had put it in my luggage by mistake. I assured him he didn’t because I would of stopped him from doing so. Even so, he called Delta to bring back my luggage from the plane. (Oh dear God!)

He went thru every nook and cranny and what do ya know? He hadn’t put it in there.

I was very, very patient thru the entire ordeal. Even making jokes and being very lighthearted.

The boarding pass was never found.

I am convinced the female TSA agent had taken it while it was sitting on the counter, while I was watching the guy go thru my bag.

Anyway…. I had to go back to Delta to get a new boarding pass. Which was entertaining because they didn’t believe me when I said that the TSA agent had lost it.

Whew!

So now its time to go thru security. Just before it’s my turn, they do a rotation. Meaning all the screeners rotate positions and a few new people come and a few people take break.

Well the guy who had lost my boarding pass was now the guy at the walk thru body scanner – so being the smart ass that I am, when I handed him my boarding pass, I said, “Now don’t go loosing this one!” He looked at me as if I was totally insane.

Okay, whatever, he doesn’t think I am funny.

The man at the end of the Xray belt said to me, “Oh, I see Delta got you a new boarding pass with no issue. Sorry again.”

Oh no… did I really just do that?

At that moment the guy from the body scanner came up and said to other guy – “See we all look alike to her. It must be the uniforms”

I was BEYOND mortified!

I was so embarrassed, for obvious reasons, but also mad at myself. I am so observant about people and random things, I can not believe I didn’t realize they were 2 different people.

Whatever…. I have no qualms about admitting my hatred of TSA agents. They are quite possibly one of the worst wastes of our tax dollars. If they were actually effective, I would feel differently. But they are not.

I just feel bad because these guys were actually nice and I liked them for once. However, I committed quite the faux pas!

It’s safe to say, if there are TSA agents at the gates to heaven, I will not be admitted.

Moving on….

Got to Hartford in the mid afternoon and then settled at the Hilton. I went to my dinner spot – Morton’s and had a fabulous dinner. The bartender still remembers my order – which to me is worth the price. I eat there 2-4 times a year, and he knows what “the usual is for me”. Wow!

After dinner, I met my old friend and co-worker, Russ, in the concierge lounge at the hotel for drinks. We have known each other for years. I met him long ago when I did boxing. He is such a sweetie! We spent some time catching up and then parted as we knew we had a lot of work in the coming days.

On a side note, got word that my friend Paul passed away this evening.  So very, very sad.
My heart goes out to his family.