This is the 13th of a series of posts dealing with
my fourth trip to South California. I’ve made minor corrections to these
reports. Also, I’ve added additional thoughts with the hindsight of a ¾ year
later or to add further clarification.
These are indicated by “NOW”. After I booked the trip I unexpectedly had
to move and during that had an Eastern Canada trip that didn’t go that great,
so I was already pretty tired before the trip began.
Last night I gave Smokey a final tummy rub. This
morning I took the 47 OCTA bus one last time to near Disneyland Resort and cut
across the resort including Downtown Disney to Disneyland Hotel; Downtown
Disney was putting up their Christmas displays. After about a half hour wait I
took the Disneyland Resort Express bus to LAX.
[NOW: Smokey was the dog at Orange Mango Hostel in
Santa Ana. I walked to Orange to catch the Orange County Transportation
Authority bus. Disneyland Resort is in Anaheim. An earlier Disneyland Resort
Express bus driver heading elsewhere seemed surprised I was willing to wait
half an hour at the stop. LAX is of course Los Angeles International Airport.]
There my luck finally ran out in the body scanner
issues. I was forced to do the opt-out option, not willing to do the scan. The
pan down was very professional but still felt like molestation. Areas you don't
want touched do in fact get touched. I was very shaky after and had a bit of a
quiet meltdown. At the same time I would
have still have made the same decision had I known what it would be like. I can
see why people would take the body scanner option. It definitely would have
been the easier and faster option. But sometimes you have to take the more
difficult option as a matter of principle and would make the same decision
again.
If I was going to fly to Disneyland again that is.
Again, the pat down was a little too thorough for my tastes and I refuse to fly
again to Disneyland until those machines are taken down forever. I don't want
to endure that horrible pat down ever again but my principles aren't for sale.
So it's either Greyhound or not at all where Disneyland is concerned. I had
breakfast at Ruby's. Surprisingly there are very few eating places in this area
of the airport. I considered getting a blu-ray at Hudson News but I'd already
calculated out my declaration amount.
[NOW: Ruby's has closed.]
Sorry there probably won't be further Disneyland
trips to report on but this has turned me off the process completely. I am
proud of myself though for taking the more difficult option so I could keep my
principles intact.
[NOW: I’m mulling over the idea of at some point
doing another trip to Disneyland via Greyhound and/or BoltBus, with overnight
stops along the way. We’ll see. The above was written at LAX in the morning.
The rest was written in the afternoon.]
I'll probably have a few final thoughts but I need
time from thee LAX incident before I can formulate those. To clarify there was
no skin to skin contact, but there was inappropriate contact through fabric. It
was professional but still a form of molestation in my mind; definitely there
was contact of a sort that friends led me to believe would not happen. Feel
emotionally sick right now.
On both flights I gave the flight attendant a
head's up in terms of what happened so there would know there was no cause for
alarm if I was emotional. The flight attendant on the LAX to SeaTac flight in
particular seemed top appreciate getting the heads up. A kid behind me was
prone to kicking the seat. As before no maps on the planes. Mostly clear until
nearing SeaTac. This time no trains needed to switch gates, which was good
because I much preferred the walk especially since I needed to work off some
steam. Had lunch at a place whose name escapes me. For some reason Boise and
Victoria flights were being loaded from the same gates. Some Boise people tried
to get on the Victoria plane. Don't know if the reverse happened. I filled out
the Customs form while waiting for take-off.
[NOW: SeaTac here refers to both SeaTac
International Airport and the municipality it’s in.]
The flight from SeaTac to "Victoria" (North
Saanich) was surprisingly clear. However it was the most dramatic turbulence I
ever experienced on a flight. No drinks were served on the flight and I agree
with not doing so. It was more of a thrill ride than then Disneyland or
Universal rides, though those probably did give me an edge over other
passengers. I had accidentally hidden my bus tickets and I was rather anxious
to get home, so I took the YYJ Airporter to Embassy Inn, which proved to be a
really good stop.
[NOW: North Saanich’s airport is Victoria
International Airport. By no drinks I mean, not even non-alcoholic. The woman
sitting next to me was clearly feeling ill from the turbulence while I managed
to get into the headspace of it being one last thrill ride.]
Sorry to have to report that the trip ended on such
a sour note, but it would be insincere not to acknowledge that the LAX was a
pivotal moment of the trip and definitely a game changer. I'll still fly
domestic for now as the scanners don't seem to be as much of an issue that way,
but internationally I'd only consider airports that didn't have the scanners.
That's now a deal breaker for me after today, if I miss out on some
opportunities as a result, well, I'll just have to look harder for other
opportunities.
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