Buck’s First Plane Ride

Once the bags were packed the only thing left to do was drag them down 2 long flights of stairs to the subway.   The designers of Toronto’s infrastructure apparently never thought of travel in terms of luggage and so lots of subways do not provide ‘all access’ and the station serving the manor made good use of old fashioned stairways.  The ambassador huffed and puffed while transporting each of the bags to the next available landing then running back for the next one.  Buck decided that if he were mayor he would install elevators in all subways.  The lady decided the ambassador was a good egg. The ambassador decided they’d all over packed.

Once at the airport they received the news that their flight was delayed  90  minutes which at first was troubling news to get and then became an opportunity to have a beer.  They just had to get through security first.  At the checkpoint, the lady was re-routed to a special line as her boarding pass had this on it “S  S  S  S”.  No one explained what those letters meant but when they saw them they frowned slightly at the lady and said ‘the airline has selected you for special screening” and when they discovered the ambassador was her travel mate they took him aside and checked his hands  for explosive powders and such.  

The lady was given the choice of a pat down or body scan which seem to trouble her and then before she could answer a small but stern woman appeared and told her to step into a scanner.  She was directed to put her hands over her head in a pose of total surrender while encased in a clear plastic container like a big Tupperware item.  There were no sounds or lights during the scanning and then she was asked to step out and wait for the results.   The lady looked worried like her body would come up on the screen that they were all staring at ( the ambassador ran over for a peek too) but all it showed was a cryptic note and the security lady said ‘You may go now’.   The lady nearly ran from there dressing herself all the while.   It was clear that she was troubled by the whole event and it wasn’t  a great start to the trip but once they made it to the bar,  she seemed to quickly recover. 

Finally, they made it on to their flight and were greeted with 120 children and babies coughing, sneezing, crying and preparing to visit a place called Disney world.  Harried looking parents spent  the next 3 hours trying to keep control of their offspring and the lady turned the volume to ‘max’ on her earphones.  The ambassador was happy to partake of the complimentary wine served by the airline to compensate for the delay and Buck was just thrilled with all of the excitement.