Michael: 4 Security Checkpoints

The flutter of the quails

In the wild oak chaparral

Is country music.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

I thought 9/11 would be a safe bet for a day of travel back to the states for a job interview. I thought I’d go through the usual 2 security checkpoints; one at the small airport in David and another on the flight from Panama City to LAX.

But I was way off. I ended up going through 4 screenings and wound up having 3 items taken from my possession.

The first screening in David wasn’t a problem. But in Panama City I threw in an extra screening and Copa airlines also tossed another one at me for no additional charge.

My mistake was turning into Copa’s domestic terminal after landing in Panama City. At that screening my heating oil I use before races was taken. It had made it through two previous trips, but it was larger than the limit so that wasn’t too much of a surprise.

Once I got where I was suppose to be headed straightened out, I went through a screening at the international terminal. There they took away tweezers and a nail file from my toiletry kit. They had made many previous trips without so much as a questionable pause from any screener. But this security dude made the sharp pointy thing gesture to let me know why they were no longer acceptable transport items.

The final checkpoint was at the boarding gate. That was unexpected and if they had found anything there I would’ve been dumbfounded.

I’ll replace the tweezers in L.A. and buy a cheap emery board to replace the metal nail file. I’m guessing the tweezers will make a bunch more trips without any problem, but in the future I may avoid traveling on 9/11.