smaller personal item

in an effort to increase my carbon footprint, i have been doing more flying during my "year of simplicity" than ever before. we've all learned that frequent flyer miles are just a perk of the necessary evil that is living in a state with a practically non-existent highway system. i'm 17,000 miles in to my goal of 20,000 to get a free trip on alaska air. i do it all for the free beverage service and snack.

4 of our merry crew just got back from a long weekend in juneau on monday night- chelsea stayed in anchorage to have a week-long vaca capped off with a wailing jennies concert on saturday. our sixth man, courtney, is headed home to springfield, ill by way of st.louis to spend some QT with the Adams clan. during our 4 hour layover in the ted stevens international airport, we proved just how inept we have become at interacting with modern technologies when we made the waitress at "chili's too" reconsider her career choice and took over brookstone to sit in the massage chairs- for about an hour. after a while, i pretended to look around like i might buy something, just to make the employees feel a little better. i'm sure it helped...




now there are some unique features of alaskan air travel. when traveling in-state you can check three bags- i dont really know of any other state where travel is common between cities- or any that have their own airlines- but, the three bag rule is pretty fantastic, particularly considering what people check and carry on to the planes. most people that live in bethel, go in to "town" (read: Anchorage) to go shopping. all that is required for this venture is: a costco card, a huge rubbermaid tote, a sharpie, and some duct tape. repeat the following steps as many times as necessary: go to costco, enjoy free samples, buy in bulk. place foodstuffs in large rubbermaid tote with name and po box written on top of box in sharpie. proceed to duct tape rubbermaid tote and take to your nearest baggage handler. it is helpful however, to use a bathroom scale to ensure that your tote is not over the 50 lb limit. after our fall retreat in anchorage, the rest of the jv houses (anchorage, sitka, and juneau) watched in amazement, or amusement, as we sat on the anchorage house's porch and taped 2 30 packs of toilet paper together for someone's third checked item.

but, what if you have more things- and you have already checked 3 items? never fear, that is the beauty of the "smaller, personal item." in airports all across this great land, business men are traveling with laptop bags, young parents with their diaper necessity, and everyone and their mother has a fashionable purse- in addition to their carry-on- that is used as a smaller personal item. those, in fact, are specific examples of the spi as defined by tsa. however, in alaska, particularly in during bethel flights, i have seem some pretty creative smaller personal items including- kaela's carry-on of a 25 lb bag of kidney beans, a 20 lb bag of potatoes, 5 lb bag of pancake mix, cats, dogs, fishing poles, and pumpkins. traveler beware though- when i traveled back from baltimore/dc area- a layover in anchorage allowed for the ever necessary costco trip where i purchased trashbags and peanut butter. when our tote proved to be 5 lbs over the weight limit- i decided that i could just carry on the peanut butter. but, tsa had other plans- when they confiscated the jiff as a threat to air safety because it is "a paste". life lesson- always pick the trashbags.