En Route to the Bahamas

The fun began at the Toronto airport. I had been concerned about my checked baggage weight because I thought you were only allowed a total of 50 lbs and my dive and camera gear weighed 45! (I later found out it was 50 lbs per bag so 100 lbs total.) So I took the heavy stuff out of my dive bag and threw it in my carry on. When I went through security, they asked if they could open my bag. Yes. The guy asked if I had a camera. Yes. So he got that out and checked it. Batteries? Yes. Check. What else? Flashlight. He takes that out and scowls. It’s my dive flashlight and “apparently” it looks a bit too much like a gun for him. What? So he’s talking like he is going to take my flashlight away. I’m thinking two things – no night diving! And the money required to buy a new one. It’s not as if it’s a $20 flashlight! He ends up calling his supervisor over. The supervisor says it’s ok. Phew!

Then the guy decides there is something else in my bag that he’s concerned about. Just about the only thing he hasn’t pulled out and spread all over the place is the tray/arm for my underwater camera system. However, he isn’t happy that it’s wrapped up in an old T-shirt. It was as if he was afraid to touch it. Finally he takes it out. Now he is totally baffled by what this is. I try explaining to him, hoping he’s not going to want to start taking things apart. I guess he decided it was okay after running the swab test on it. However, he didn’t let me go without telling me to put this type of gun look-alike stuff in my checked baggage next time.

I had an amusing flight from Toronto to Miami. I slept for the first hour. When I woke up, the two women next to me were giggling like schoolgirls. But they were 55-60 years old. I noticed the number of empty vodka bottles right away. They let me in on their secret – they’d been drinking since 8 am. When they first asked the flight attendant for vodka, they thought she wasn’t going to serve them. Not only did she serve them, she gave them a thumbs up! They were going on a cruise. One of the women had a time-share in the Cayman Islands and her husband had been an avid diver. They had returned from a trip 3 months earlier when all of a sudden he died of a massive heart attack. The women decided to go on a cruise that stopped in the Caymans so they could spread his ashes there. They’d have one day of remembrance and the rest of the week would be FUN FUN FUN. What a riot!

While killing time (metaphorically speaking of course, I never drew any of my weapons) in the Miami airport, I kept hearing the “Welcome to Miami” announcement. It drove me crazy because it reminded me of Will Smith’s song “Miami” which kept running through my head for the 4 ½ hour layover.

Travel conclusions… Toronto – worst airport for security hassles – I always have problems here. Miami – most disorganized airport I think I have ever been to.