I didn’t make the “2 hours before departure” window, but I also didn’t miss it by much. Sure, I was a tiny bit concerned about the timing (especially after I read in the Times that Des Moines was one of the airports experiencing large delays in security screenings) but all those fears were soothed when the fine folks at ATA gave me my boarding passes with a smile — newly switched to exit rows, bless ’em.

After saying goodbye to my loving mother, father, sister, and grandmother, I jumped on the escalator to ascend into what I guessed would be TSA hell. Except it was far from it: I was checked through security so fast, the longest delay was getting my shoes back on. Things were going swimmingly.

Of course that left me plenty of time to wait in the terminal, listening to 4 yuppie-wannabes (one of whom had a copy of O’Reilly’s No Spin Zone, natch) going on and on about the cruise they were going to take from Ft. Lauderdale.

I escaped the banal banter long enough to chat up a United Express gate agent, who agreed the “International” in “Des Moines International Aiport” is a joke.

“Sure it’s international,” she said. “If you mean Canada by way of Detroit.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 9th, 2003 at 10:21 pm and is filed under Travel.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.