Going, Coming Home, 1989

(March 10 to July 2)

At the Lufthansa counter we found the 3:30 flight now listed as 4:15. There is an air controllers “slow-down” going on in Europe, so the incoming flight was late. Tail-winds on the way to Europe should make up for some of the lost time, but we will see. The 747 was only about half full, so we had four seats to try and use as a bed, but still didn’t get much sleep.

When we arrived in Frankfurt we boarded a small plane for the short flight to Saarbrücken. It’s the first time we have seen this, but at the boarding gate, there were bag lunches, with a sign saying, “Take One.” (However they say that in German.)

As much as I like to travel, I say there is nothing more stupid than spending half a day like toothpaste in a metal tube, in this case called an airplane. Counting almost weekly business travel for 20 years, I have been on 1200 to 1500 flights, up to now.

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When we were ready to return home this year, we used the return portion of the Pan Am tickets we bought in July 1988. A couple of times in the past 30 years airport security was very good, but usually it was — at best — casual. For this flight, we flew Pan American Airways from Frankfurt to Los Angeles just a couple of weeks before the terrible Lockerbie disaster.

I was carrying a lap-top computer that could, of course, turn itself off and on at any preset time, which means it could have been used to detonate a bomb anytime during the flight. We had telephoned a few days earlier and were told to put the computer in one bag, and the battery in another. At the Airport I identified myself and mentioned the computer, but no one cared as we checked our luggage and boarded the plane.

For reasons we don’t understand, but like very much indeed, while we were still waiting for our many bags at the baggage carousel at the Los Angeles Airport, a lady customs agent talked to us for a moment, asked a question or two, then stamped our customs declaration, and sent us out “that door.”

Again we by-passed the long lines where luggage and passports were being checked. Sure helps to look so honest and upstanding. Or do we look so forlorn and confused the US Customs people don’t think we could cause a problem.