TSA – Ninasusan

Cats fed yesterday morning around 7…suitcases in our car…He started the car and the low tire pressure light was on. UGH…so we decided to take the loner car to the airport for our trip to Maine. I didn’t really want to drive it and leave it in economy parking for the week…I seriously have no idea why that concerned me. Traffic generally sucked at 7AM so we kind of traveled across country rather than taking interstate highways for our hour long commute. We got to Independence and the tire pressure light went on in the loaner car! WHAT.!?! Sure enough, he had to change the tire because of a sidewall blowout…WHAT?!?!

You know those stories about people missing a plane and the plane later crashed? I was totally freaked out knowing that I needed to listen to my intuition which seemed to be screaming STOP. I called my daughter and she told me to ask my spirit guides for one more sign….I did!

Since we were driving on a donut, we decided to leave the car at some friends house and use Uber to take us the rest of the way. He and I decided that if an Uber wasn’t available that would be our sign. A great guy named Richard in a red car answered our UBER call.

WHEW Ok.

……..and then there is TSA. As a back story…. I’ve packed Norwex powder laundry detergent on every trip I’ve taken including at least two international flights and it has never been an issue…no one has even asked me about it. Until TSA in Kansas City working the Delta airline. They held my luggage….they needed to go through it because of half a small bag of laundry detergent. I had a full pat down…then they had to use their super squirrel sheets to find contaminants in my backpack and my suitcase…she told me if they found a contaminant (otherwise known as laundry detergent) they would need to have the explosives unit come in to investigate. WHAT?!?! Well, of course it was laundry detergent and it wasn’t in my bags nor my shoes nor my cellphone after the second scan!

We didn’t listen to the third warning. We are in Maine.

Until next time…..

Because I always bitch about the TSA….I must start out saying #TSA Kansas City are awesome….not a hitch… Easy, organized and professional. US AIRWAYS also a great airline even though they are related to American Airlines! Customs in Rome was easier than the drive through at Taco Johns! We switched planes to Alitalia without a hitch….we had to board a bus at the terminal and take a “hold on for your life” bus ride to board the plane in the middle of the Tarmac. Dave mentioned that even when everything goes well, it is exhausting. The bus trip and boarding the city boat for the trip down the Grand Canal in Venice was stressful…but the sights made it worthwhile. You can rent a private boat to take you up the canal but 2 to 3 times the rate so we were willing to put up with a little bit of CROWD torture for the 15 euros…it was worth it.

Venice is in it’s full glory at night. It’s hard to top Venice!

After a great italian dinner, Gena had her first real gelato.

St Marks square had 4 string groups playing at the same time…it is that big.
It is breathtaking.

I can see us returning for a week in Venice…maybe closer to the end of a September some time to avoid the crowd. We will be here another day and night. It’s 1 am..everyone else is asleep. Must be about 6 pm in Missouri and Iowa.

Ciao.