As I said yesterday, we just took our first flight since 2019. It went smoothly and here we are. But……I would rather have driven, even though it would have taken more time (which, for this trip, we did not have).

Let’s look at the difference.

When you take a road trip, you decide when to start. You put your suitcase in the car and you go. Some things don’t fit in the suitcase or you want to keep handy? No problem. Throw them in the back seat or the trunk. Want to take something to eat or drink? Take it. Want to be warm? Turn the heater on. Cold? The air conditioning. Want to talk to someone? Bring your phone. Loud radio? That’s OK. Stop and get a snack? See a site? All that is fine. Forgot something? Buy another.

How different when you fly. You must calculate when you need to get to the airport. You must pack and take “only one personal item and one carry-on”. Everything must fit. You cannot bring certain items per TSA rules.

You must get to the airport. We went by Uber. You must make a reservation. When your driver comes, you must take your suitcases to the car and put them in. When you reach the airport, you must take them out of the car and bring them into the terminal.

Then, even though you have already checked in and received boarding passes on line, you must check in using machines that want to confuse you. The machine spits out luggage tags, which you attach to your suitcases (making sure not to attach them to your hands). You now take your luggage and stand in another line. This one leads to a man who asks you to put your suitcase on a scale to see if they weigh less than 50 pounds. Then he asks you if you have lithium batteries or atomic bombs. He stamps your luggage tags and points you to the man down the way who will hopefully put your suitcases on the correct plane.

Now you must go to the gate. At Reagan National, this means you must turn the corner and take an escalator down. Then you must walk a bit to security, and stand in a long line after showing someone your boarding pass and picture ID. When you get to the start of the line, you must empty your pockets and take off your shoes and belt and put all of that and your carry-on on a conveyor belt and see them float away out of sight, while you stand in another line to go through a metal detector and raise your hands. Then you retrieve your possessions and put on your shoes and belt.

Now you need to find your gate. To do that, you first must walk through a shopping center with stores and restaurants. Then you must turn into a hallway where you walk past fast food restaurants. When you finally get to the gate, you see hundreds of chairs, virtually all filled. You finally find one, sit down and look at your watch. You see that you will be sitting for almost an hour. You look around you and realize that everyone has COVID.

A loudspeaker tells you that it’s almost time to board. Another loudspeaker tells you there will be a delay. A third tells you it’s time. You get into another line to board the plane. You show your boarding pass again

The line on the plane moves slowly. It’s because everyone has COVID, I think. Once in your seat, you settle down for a couple of hours. The lady next to you is wearing a mask. That’s because she thinks it will keep her from spreading her COVID. You appreciate that.

The plane lands and you reverse the boarding process, but don’t show your boarding pass. When off the plane, you follow the sign to the baggage claim. It is about 5 miles away, but you break up the trip by going to the bathroom.

You reach the baggage claim and have to find your carrousel. No line, but people milling around wondering if their suitcases will appear. Eventually they do.

Now you follow signs telling you where you can get on a bus to get your rental car. It is only 3 miles away and you go out the door, across one street and look for the Alamo sign. A bus comes. You lift your baggage into the bus and sit down and drive halfway around St. Louis to the rental car station. You retrieve your bags. There is only one person in front of you. He only takes about an hour to get his car.

Then it’s your turn. You have already done everything on line, so you get finished in about 30 minutes. You decline everything they offer you. You initial wherever they tell you.

They point to the parking lot and tell you to take any car you want. We choose a Nissan Altima. We lift our luggage into the trunk. Carry-ons in the back seat. We drive to the exit. We show our rental contract and drivers license. The gate goes up.

If we had driven from home, we feel like we’d be in San Diego by now. Or on Oahu.