An Odd Day

The itinerary told it all: it would be an odd trip. Louisville to Phoenix via Detroit City. Made me want to sing some Motown.
My flight from Louisville was at 8, so my brother-in-law got me to the airport a little before 7. I checked my bag curbside, no line, and proceeded to security, also no line. I tossed my bag and shoes into the plastic tub to send them through the scanner. Walked right through the metal detector. That’s when the fun began.
“Got a random,” shouted the smiling man. Now, I have been called many things in my lifetime, but a random?
I was sent to a secondary security checkpoint where I expected to be gone over with a wand or sent through the machine that allows someone to see me naked. But no. A nice woman approached me clipping a little piece of fabric onto what looked like a small rubber mallet. She had me hold my hands palms up and told me I was being swabbed for traces of explosives.
Ah. A random explosives check.
When I told my sister what had happened, she said she was glad I was out of the house. Just in case I really was a secret explosives  expert.
Boarded my flight to the north country and settled in. We got there in plenty of time but had to hover over the airport awhile due to storms. As we landed, the sky was thick and dark and I couldn’t see the ground until we’d almost touched down.
I deboarded and found my next gate. Merely steps away!  When I land in Dallas, I usually have to hop the train and cross two time zones to get to my next flight, all in the space of forty-five minutes.  But there I was in Detroit with a nearly three hour layover and had to spend only a minute to get to my next gate.
I walked the entire A terminal, which must have been close to two miles round trip, and settled in for a nice lunch before my flight. It was a nice lunch, but with the world’s worst waitress. I left the poorest tip I have ever left, and almost left none.
When I got to my gate, we were told our flight would be delayed as the plane had not yet arrived. Although it arrived a short time later, there was then trouble with the boarding ramp which men spent half an hour trying to fix. The plane was finally moved to a different gate where we boarded over an hour late.
This meant I would miss the Phoenix-Tucson shuttle and would get to Tucson an hour later than I’d planned.
I had a beer on the plane once it finally got off the ground.
I’d made Long distance arrangements to change the time I’d catch the shuttle, so of course when I got to the shuttle check-in, the van was just loading and I got on, which meant waiting an hour on the Tucson end for my ride there.
Most interesting part of the day? In the Phoenix airport, I saw a quite burly man with arm, neck and leg tattoos. He was wearing a skirt.