Row 26, seat...

   I recently traveled to the West Coast, Los Angeles to be specific. It has been a while since I have had to travel that distance. Do I drive, take a train or plane. The answer was obvious since I didn't have a great deal of extra time to spare. Plane! With someone else paying the travel and hotel bill, I just needed to get there, so I called the travel department of the company where I am working, told them from what city I would like to depart, morning or afternoon flight, whether I preferred an aisle or window seat and I was good to go.

   Within a few minutes I had my electronic ticket with flight times and seat assignments. Seat 26C. I assumed that the plane had to have at least 26 rows of seats, but to be honest, when flying out of Bangor, Maine, you are never sure what you might get.

   Another interesting note though. Looking at my tickets...three of the four flight seat assignments were in row 26. The fourth assignment was 13C. But I am not superstitious... too much.

   There was a time when flying was fun, but since September 11^th a great deal has changed. I can remember walking up to the gate at Newark airport, buying a ticket and flying off to Boston. Total trip time? A bit over an hour. The shuttle to Boston traveled between the two cities almost every hour. It was convenient and enjoyable. It took me longer to get to the airport than it did to get to Boston, Those were the “good old days of flying” and sometimes you even got free food.

   I arrived at the airport in Bangor two hours before my flight as directed, checked in, paid my luggage fee and went through screening. I really had not anticipated so many people would be at the Bangor airport at 5:00 in the morning.

   It was everything into the plastic tray, through the scanner and move to the yellow footprints painted on the floor, Put you hands above your head and..... “Sir! Please step over here.” I had forgotten to take my wallet out of my pants pocket. Oh well. It could have been worse. I am not going to describe the pat-down, however.

   Row 26, seat C on this flight was the last row in the plane and it was across from the bathroom. The flight to Philadelphia was not going to be much more than an hour, so being across from the bathroom wasn't going to be that bad. At least I had the opportunity to say “good morning” to a number of sleepy-eyed travelers like myself.

   The plane to Los Angeles was of different design, a bit larger, but seat 26C was in the last row of the aisle, the last seat before the bathroom doors. Two bathrooms on this flight and the flight from Philadelphia to LA was scheduled to be five hours, twenty minutes. 

   Let me assure you I believe I saw just about every passenger on the plane, not once, but twice! And it always seemed that the plane bounced or rocked a bit as the they tried to navigate their way to the rear of the plane. Several, attempting to steady themselves by grabbing the back of my seat ended up momentarily grasping at the top of my bald head. “Well...excuse me!”

   For a moment I had actually considered making a sign. 'Bathroom Use...$2.00'. But no one seems to have a sense of humor any more, especially the airline personnel.

   The time in Los Angeles was packed with meetings and training sessions and soon it was time to return home.

   The plane from west to east was very large, quite understandable as most probably wanted to escape the rush of the West Coast as quickly as possible. And the good news? This plane had many more rows and seat 26D was not near or across from the bathrooms. Things were looking up.

   With a brief layover in Philadelphia, it was time to board for the flight to Bangor, seat 13C. You guessed it! Last row, aisle seat... across from the bathroom.

   All in all, the trip was quite uneventful and being near the bathrooms did provide me with some entertainment, but it's not the best seat to try to catch a quick nap.

   Next time, I think I may be a bit more specific with my seating requests (and remember to take my wallet out of my pocket before going through the scanning machine).