It’s Not Me, It’s Him, Right?

Airport Roll Call

Some blogs I occasion (rather than frequent) had a list of airports they have been to. Sounds interesting enough (and these are roughly in order of usage):

• Detroit-Wayne County Metro Airport: An airport already obsolete by the time it was opened in the late 50s, the new terminal for Northwest/Continental/Delta isn’t bad other than there’s much more taxi time involved. The terminal for the other airlines, which I commonly refer to as ‘the leper terminal’, will be replaced in 2009. Even though I went several times as a kid to pick up/send off stray relatives, I never actually went onto a plane until I was 18. My first flight was to:
• Logan (Boston): First flight was just to Boston, although most people on the plane were continuing on to Gatwick. Due to the steep landings, the people on either side of me lost their lunches.
• Midway (Chicago): Was driven to Chicago, had to get back somehow. This was done on Midwest Express, the only airline I flew on that no longer exists.
• Jacksonville: My only charter flight (band related). Had to board the staircase route, which was odd even for 1990.
• Stapleton (Denver): No longer in existence. One of its runways was a bridge over I-70.
• LAX (Los Angeles): I believe I’ve actually spent more terminal time here than any other airport due to the 11-hour wait I had once. I try to avoid this one like the plague.
• McCarran (Las Vegas): The slot machines are a little jarring.
• Washington (wasn’t Reagan yet) National: One of two times I’ve flown for work. Nothing exciting here, other than its the only time I’ve been in a airline club.
• Baltimore-Washington (wasn’t Marshall yet): It sucks now that the rental car locations are off-site.
• Denver International: The luggage often beats you in picking it up, due to the fact that the terminals are actually in Kansas.
• O’Hare (Chicago): Only for connections. Many, many connections.
• Memphis: Only for a connection.
• Chattanooga: First small airport I’ve ever been to. Only 4 gates.
• Manchester (New Hampshire): Often the airport I was assigned when trying to fly into Boston when using Priceline.
• Green (Providence): The other airport I was assigned when trying to fly into Boston when using Priceline.
• Kennedy (New York City): I was carrying a pocket knife on my key ring at the time, I was able to talk my way into keeping it. That would become moot 16 months later.
• Sky Harbor (Phoenix): Mostly again for connections. They have free Wi-Fi. Also the only airport I was given a food voucher because of a late plane.
• Long Beach: A three-gate airport. Small, which was good, since I was still able to get my rental car returned, through security, and onto the plane despite the fact my plane was leaving in 35 minutes.
• Pittsburgh: Only connections as well. Both times nearly missed the connection due to a slow McDonalds.
• Philadelphia: Pan-handled at the gate.  I don’t think this can happen now.
• Nashville: The Southwest gate attendant gave me a pre-board card once because it was my birthday.
• St. Louis: Pretty good. Nothing remarkable in either direction.
• Hartsfield (Atlanta) : Huge.  Having boarding lines outside doesn’t help because of the humidity.  Nice setup with MARTA.
• Seattle-Tacoma: I believe I am banned from this airport. Both times I’ve left the airport on a departing flight (September 10, 2001 and August 25, 2005), the world has gone to hell the next day.
• Kansas City: First time through, a third class dump. After forced renovations due to 9/11, it has been upgraded to second class.
• Salt Lake City: During the 2002 Olympics, I was waiting for my flight home. The Sweden-Belarus hockey game (the Tommy Salo game) was on. What were all the TVs showing? Golf.
• Myrtle Beach: Couldn’t get much of an impression, was there a very short time. Nice, though.
• Minneapolis: Long concourses.
• Bismarck.  A two-gate airport.  Rental car clerk had to get my car personally because “they were not allowed to leave cars idling in front of the airport due to security concerns.”  I think my house is higher on Al-Qaeda’s list than the Bismarck airport.
• Montréal: Only outside-the-U.S. airport on the list.  Hopefully that will change soon.
• Bush (Houston): Eh.  You don’t like it at first then in retrospect it didn’t seem that bad.
• Dulles (Virginia): Never been taken to the terminal in a troop transport, before.  Or since.
• Dallas: The train thing is pretty freaky.
• Bob Hope (Burbank): Another tiny airport.  Much preferred to LAX.
• LaGuardia (New York City): Apparently I got real lucky because I had no delays and my trips to and from the airport were at non-peak times.