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In my travels there is one thing about airport security that is consistent…  that one thing is that it is inconsistent.  Sure, there are a few things that have BECOME consistent… you now have to take your shoes off at virtually every airport and you get two chances to pass through the metal detector before you have to be manually searched but there are many more things that I have found to be variable depending on the airport that you visit.  

Is the rule supposed to be liquids and gels?  Where do pastes fit into the mix?  When I’m not in a hurry I will keep a tube of toothpaste or a deodorant in my carry-on bag… about 50% of the time I am stopped and my bag is searched and I am told that I can’t bring a paste through security.  You can check out what is permitted at the TSA website.

I also always carry a computer through security.  We all know that our computer has to be out of the bag and scanned with no additional articles.  Again about 1/2 the time I am also asked to put my external CD/Floppy drive into a bin for scanning.  Apparently at these airports that device is considered to be in the same category as a video camera or a DVD player.  I guess the rest of the time it doesn’t matter.

At many airports on the initial screening (when they check your ID and boarding pass) I simply show them my boarding pass and id and I am pushed through.  Other airports the screener is writing stuff on my boarding pass.  I can only assume that the boarding pass marks are to keep people from bringing their 3 ounces of gel through screening, then leaving and bringing 3 more ounces and leaving, etc…

Other things I’ve noticed… 

• Very different procedures / processes for doing a manual check.  I’ve only had my “zipper cleared” in one airport.
• Settings on the metal detectors vary from airport to airport and within airports.  I’ve learned at my local airport which are more sensitive and will require me to take off my belt and which ones will not sound if I leave my belt on.
• Jackets and sweatshirts - some airports make you take them off, others will let you keep them on.
• Do they want my boarding pass AND id after I go through the metal detector?  Some yes on both, others yes on just the boarding pass.
• Corkscrew… I’ve had one in my computer bag for months… On my last trip an airport screener asked me to check it or surrender it.  You can take scissors as long as the blade is no longer than 4 inches…
• Sports Equipment… you can’t take a hockey stick on a plane but a cane or an umbrella are allowed.  Go figure!

Have you found consistent inconsistencies?

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As a Montana native born and raised just a few hours from Yellowstone National Park I don’t think I really appreciated what we had.   I remembered going to Yellowstone as a kid.  I also remember my “Landform” class in high school that had us visit the park for its geologic wonders as an end of year trip.  It wasn’t until I had graduated highschool and decided to accept a summer job with the park concessionaires that I really fell in love with the park but more importantly I fell in love with the geysers.  I worked at Old Faithful each of my summers in college and between 1982 and 2004 I would say I probably only missed visiting Yellowstone during the summer on 5 or 6 occasions and I made up for those by staying longer in the years that I did get to go.

My weeks in the park were predominately spent watching the geysers… for hours on end I would sit at the same thermal feature and watch the subtle changes that led up to the eruption.  And with each year and with each thermal feature I would learn something new and notice changes in behavior from prior years.     I think it was my wife that told me that it was boring and didn’t understand how I could watch a hole in the ground with boiling water for hours in hope and anticipation of an eruption.   Over the years and after meeting many other “geyser gazers”  it became quite apparent to me that we come in all shapes, sizes, colors and commitments… There are gazer purists where everything is “black or white” and intervals and durations are tracked to the closest second.  There is also the other extreme with the casual observer who thought the eruption was pretty cool and if he happened across another one he would sit and wait.   I would guess that most “gazers” are somewhere between the two extremes.

When I can’t be in the park I rely on what others have to say about the features and their observations.   The Internet has helped this tremendously with websites like GOSA (Geyser Observation and Study Association) , and email lists that keep me updated.  I have also found the webcam to be invaluable… You can see below the first image is what we’ve had for many years… clicking on it will bring you to the page that updates every 30 seconds or so…. but if you have the bandwidth I recommend you click on PLAY in the media player… A live image from the boardwalk at Old Faithful will begin.   I’m not sure who has control of this camera but it has incredible zooming capability and they can zoom right up to the boardwalk at Lion…they can also direct this camera down basin so you can see the steam clouds of Daisy, Grand, Giant, etc…

 Enjoy and if you have other links that might be of interest or comments let us know!!!

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I’m sure many of you are members of some airline mileage program and I would hazard a guess that if you do a significant amount of traveling that you are probably a member of more than 1 plan.    A number of years ago I decided that I wasn’t going to be able to accumulate enough mileage on any single airline so I started consolidating my mileage into two different plans. 

 Alaska Airlines has, in my opinion one of the best if not the best mileage plans in the industry.   They have a number of partners that I fly, so at the time it seemed to make the most sense to me to accumulate my airline mileage in their plan.  Over the years I have booked 100s of thousands of miles with Alaska Airlines and its partners… (predominately Delta, Northwest and Continental)

Over the past couple of years I have tried to use my mileage on Northwest Airlines.  On 3 separate occasions, one with over 1 year advanced purchase notification I could not get tickets at any time (I had the reservation agent search 30 days plus or minus my desired travel date) on Northwest Airlines because there were no available ”mileage” seats to their HUB city of Minneapolis.   I could connect out of Minneapolis to virtually any city I wanted to go to but getting from Spokane to Minneapolis was impossible even if I chose to go through other destinations like Seattle, Los Angeles, or Salt Lake City.  

The moral of this story for me is to absolutely stop flying on Northwest.  I would also suggest that everyone else stop flying Northwest as well.   Alaska Airlines should dump them as an airline partner.   It is one thing to accumulate mileage but that is only 1/2 of what the program is about… You need to be able to use the mileage as well.    

Other problems I have personally experienced with the Alaska / Northwest program…

• first class upgrades are non-existent to partners even if you have certificates for them.
• no preferred boarding at the airports unlike other Alaska partners
• club access problems

 I’ve decided Northwest Airlines isn’t worth the trouble…  I’ve complained to Alaska MVP Gold Customer service about them as well… Are you going to jump on the bandwagon?  What has been your experience?