Day 1: Airport Survival Manual

February 9th, 2013

In all appearances, today was a day spent waiting at airports. Those who wish to leave it at that may do so; (I would have skipped the 7 hours we spent at airports too if I could have.) But those who wish to dive in and learn tactics for navigating the carpeted jungles of terminals, spelunking the labyrinths of jetways and coming face to face with blinking mustard bottles, read on.


Flying over the Rockies, 2:07 PM:  That's the first time I've ever looked down on a mountain! The Rockies are as rugged and majestic as ever. Only shorter. They're a field of jagged pyramids and interconnected valleys...some of their peaks are rising from a low basin of cloud like bits of food floating in a bowl of soup.

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Survival Tip #1: Eat well. Straight from your carry-on.

11:49 AM: I'm waiting at the airport, post-security, eating a square meal. Literally. A square energy bar, granola bar, fruit bar...

For those who enjoy more variety in their diet, there are, of course, meal plans that do not come in the form of a rectangle. Pack dried fruit, jerkies and meat sticks, baking (especially if it involves protein: peanut butter, soy products, nuts, seeds...), sandwiches, trail mixes, candy, crackers, cheese...or just Google "airplane snack recipes" if you're really stuck. Beyond that, there's always the post-security coffee shop.

Survival Tip #2: Free Drinks at Airports:

Cold Drinks: Take an empty bottle through security and fill it up on the other side to avoid paying big bucks for bottled water from post-security venues. Walk toward a bathroom or food court, and you'll likely run into a water fountain or bottle-filling station. If you prefer flavoured beverages, brink powdered drink packs.                                                           

Warm Drinks: Bring packs of hot chocolate or cider, or bags of tea in your carry-on. When you order a meal or buy a snack at the airport, ask if it would be okay if you could have a cup of hot water with it.

Survival Tip #3: Time Killers:

• Hike. Much of our time in Seattle involved walking up one terminal and down another for kilometres. I mean miles.
• Take advantage of your media, and airport wifi. Watch a movie, listen to music, catch up with email...
• Take advantage of your books, ebooks and notebooks. Study, read, journal, catch up on work assignments...
• Hobbies: Sketching, photography, writing, sudoku and word puzzles, crocheting (isn't that a survival skill?), people watching... (For our hobby, we practised string figures and their Spanish titles.)
• Discover that normal aspects of survival, such as eating and sleeping, are excellent time-killers.

***

When we arrived at the Seattle airport, our home for the next five hours, I was at first confused by the northern-flavoured decor there. Didn't we just travel south to get here? We walked on, and along the way encountered some incredibly bizarre merchandise. Think of Space Tower-shaped pasta, three-foot-high sculptures of Bigfoot, and mustard bottles that blink. I'm serious. For proof, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/Kikkerland-Blink-Ketchup-Mustard-Bottles/dp/B004GUNYO4

Four hours and several kilometres' worth of walking later, we were still no closer to Mexico.
"You'd think that after all this we'd have gotten at least halfway down there by now!" I moaned when we finally sat waiting for our general boarding call. Before long however I found myself in the backseat of a plane, mounting through streaming rain into the night sky. When the beam of light that shone from the planes' wing through the rain disappeared, I knew that we had emerged above the storm clouds. And there I was in the sky, the dull roar of the engines sounding in the background and rows of orange "seatbelt on" signs streaming down the length the plane's interior ahead of me. This is so cool, I thought, but travel itself only does so much. When it's just a part of following God to the next step, whatever it is, that's where the adventure begins.