I just heard this morning that new guidelines are being set for seats. Good. Although the flight to St. Petersburg was not long, the seat was so uncomfortable I spent the few hours twisting and turning.

Okay, flying itself is no longer fun. I love seeing other parts of the country but getting there – not fun.

I don’t have much trouble with security; they seem to have worked out the kinks. (Although my right ankle always rings. Why? I don’t know. I think the equipment gives a lot of wrong positives. The last flight, both my husband and I got tagged on the right ankle. Weird.)

But I digress.

The thing I really find annoying and strange is this. If there is a stopover at Newark or Dulles, the plan lands on the extreme opposite of the airport. To get to the other side, passengers have to walk to a door and go outside to a vehicle that looks like a subway car on wheels. At Newark passengers go down this tiny cement stairwell that is one person wide. At the bottom, an employee checks your boarding pass (because – sarcasm alert – we all know you can wander around the terminals without being checked in by security) before he allows you on the bus. Then the passengers are driven to the other side of the terminal and dropped off.

This doesn’t mean you don’t have a lot of walking at both arms of the terminals either. So an extra 20 – 30 minutes have to be added to the layover time just to cross the terminal. And then the passengers still have to reach their gates. On our way back from Florida weather delayed our plane by almost an hour. We were running!

I couldn’t help wondering what happens to a disabled person or someone who can’t run.

And flying is not so quick either. With all the stopovers and delays, the flight took almost 12 hours. This is why I drive whenever possible.