America the Beautiful....and the Ugly

A Journey Across Mid-America

I recently spent seven weeks on my homeworld, to steal a term from Science Fiction.  I drove in and out of 13 different states and spent a week in Los Angeles, which is a state of mind as well as a location.  I've lived in Hong Kong for the last 13 years so spending time in the U.S. is close to but not quite akin to visiting a foreign land.  The impetus for this trip was a phone call from my son saying that his mom, Mary Ann, my first wife, was close to succumbing to the cancer that had tortured her for the last year.  He asked if I could help him get things squared away after she died.  I will be writing about the 12 day trip Michael and I made from Colorado to Wisconsin and back to bury his mom. The Ugly I immediately made flight reservations for the next day and was on my way to Los Angeles at 4:30 P.M., December 30th.  I had hoped to fly from LA to Cortez, Colorado, my final destination, in a friend's private plane but the weather was too unpredictable so instead I made a reservation on Southwest Airlines from LA to Albuquerque, New Mexico, the closest major airport to Cortez.  I had my first surprise when I tried to pay for my plane ticket with my usual U.S. credit card and was rejected and referred to the issuer.  When I called them, I found that somebody had been using my card to buy thousands of dollars of merchandise just before Christmas.  Fortunately, I have another card so I used it with Southwest.  The whole incident was handled with admirable dispatch and professionalism by the credit card people.  Makes me think this happens a lot.  It also made me feel very vulnerable as I couldn’t figure out how the crooks got my credit card number.  They had actually made up a card to use in the stores plus used the number on the internet.  Not an auspicious start to the trip.  I use this card almost exclusively when I’m in the U.S.  It accumulates United miles.  Credit card fraud on the internet is increasing exponentially like Spam and  may cause people to hold back from using their card on the internet - killing the goose so to speak. The Beautiful I got lucky the next day and was upgraded to business class on the Hong Kong-LA leg of my trip and arrived in pretty good shape.  I had a three hour layover to deal with.  I needed it to check in at Southwest.  You can’t check your luggage through on Southwest.  I also learned that Michael was not going to be able to meet me so I used the time to arrange for a one-way rental car in Albuquerque and grab a few beers.  Made the time pass rather quickly.  I appreciate how easy it is to get things like this done in the U.S.  I dealt with the airline on the net and Hertz by phone and never had a moment of concern that things weren’t going to work out.  For those of us living in a foreign land, this kind of confidence is priceless. The Ugly Yes, going through security at LAX was ugly.  Fortunately the lines weren’t long but I wish someone would explain why traveling on a one-way ticket, automatically gets you in the special screening line.  Does the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) imagine that any traveler who was intent on making trouble doesn’t know about this policy  and would not buy a round trip ticket?  Do they not understand that a round trip ticket is often cheaper than a one-way ticket?  It boggles my mind.  I’m also continually puzzled by the fact that there are often two or three people standing around doing nothing but talking to each other while the passengers they serve stand in line to pass through the screening.  Mostly, I wish I felt safer for having gone through the process. (Continued)