I spent a few days earlier this week up in San Francisco looking at colleges with the amazing new $39 Southwest Airlines fare from SAN to SFO. As I reached the San Diego airport, my mother noticed that I had my climbing chalk bag on the side of my backpack. Not wanting to get busted by obviously placing a bag filled with white powder on the side of my backpack, I hastily stashed the chalk into the main compartment and prayed that it wouldn’t make too much trouble.
Sadly, it (and a few undeclared liquids or gels that I didn’t know about) got me sent to secondary. I knew it was coming but the peculiar part about it was that the screener just sat their talking to me and pointing at things on her screen as if I knew what she was talking about. “There are a few things wrong here,” she said. “I’m very concerned about this… and this as well.” She handed the bag over to another man without giving him any descriptions of the items that worried her and we proceeded over to a side desk for further inspection.
As he went through the backpack, he did not look twice at the chalk bag but instead happened upon two very small tubes of sunscreen and lip balm. He then decided to rate my book choices, which happened to be The Collected Stories of William Faulkner and Americana by Don Delillo. He approved and I didn’t have too much more trouble. The thing is, I was extremely close to bringing a Hunter S. Thompson book which, I believe, would’ve put me in a worse light and possibly subjected me to more questioning. So thanks Faulkner, for making me look smarter and less like a crazy druggie.
SAN to SFO: I’ll drive. 2 hours longer transit time, but complete freedom in SF and no TSA. After taxes on the $39 airline ticket, gas works out to about the same price.