[meteorite-list] Bag checks...Tucson, my first

From: TMS/TNS/HRC <musnat_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:54:06 2004
Message-ID: <00b601c1b8b8$ea363980$1aa970d1_at_museumst>

I enjoyed your airport account! I was really scrutinized too, as I figured
I would be. They made me unwrap lots of things including a fossil belemnite
about 4 inches long to which the checker said "That looks very pointy" with
a raised eyebrow. After deciding I wouldn't take over the plane with an
ancient sea creature, he asked me to unwrap a cluster of vanadanite crystals
which I had wrapped in about a half a roll of toilet paper. So there I am
sitting in this giant heap of toilet paper holding my tiny red crystals
getting very odd looks from passers-by. The only other thing they checked
was a bubble wrapped agate slice. The semi-surly looking army guy who had
been standing silently nearby with arms folded piped up "That would look
really pretty hanging in a window!" After that, they let me go, and the
thing I worried about (my bag of meteorites) went unchecked.

Those poor guys probably had their work cut out for them that week! Glad
they're checking though!

Jeannie


----- Original Message -----
From: "Walter Sullivan" <wsulliva_at_ix.netcom.com>
To: <Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2002 5:10 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Tucson, my first


> This was my first Tucson show (for that matter, my first meteorite show),
> and it was great. I could only get away for last weekend, but I caught
> the highlights: the Birthday Bash and the Macovitch auction. It was
> great meeting the very friendly people that I have communicated with by
> Email and read on the List. At the Birthday party, I was new, had never
> met almost everybody, so I was put at the Table of Honor with the
> Birthday Boys, Bruno and Carine, Anne Black, and others. Everybody made
> a point to talk to me, make me feel welcome, and introduce me to
> everybody. Geoff was particularly solicitous. Thanks.
>
> I picked up some great Mars rocks, a slice of Gibeon, even a Triassic
> fossil. I got to use my trés mal French with a mineral dealer from
> Morocco from whom I got a few quartz spheres for my wife. My airport
> experience was amusing. I had no check-on bags, just a backpack and a
> small carry-on bag. As was the case for almost everybody, when my two
> bags went through the X-ray machine, they shouted "bag check". I knew
> this was coming. The quartz spheres were in my backpack and the large,
> thin Gibeon (sort of like a small guillotine or ax blade) was in the
> small carry-on with the Mars rocks and fossil. I was led over to the
> side where I joined the crowd. I asked the very serious "agent" to be
> careful with my carry-on as he picked it up. This made him even more
> serious and he asked me, "What's in it?" He looked worried expecting a
> Stinger missile launcher or small nuclear device, but I said, "There are
> meteorites inside, very fragile, very valuable". I swear that he had not
> the slightest idea what I was talking about. I could have been speaking
> Arabic. Anyway, he put my two bags next to me on a chair, and began to
> checkr over every part of my body and clothes with a metal detector.
> Don't you have to have a medical license to perform sigmoidoscopy? He
> was very unhappy with me as I had a few coins in the pocket of my pants.
> I had to take my running shoes off. They were run through the explosive
> sniffing machine and through the metal detector. A second man came over,
> the "bag man"; he picked up my backpack and took me and it over to a
> counter. I grabbed the small carry-on with the real goodies and took it
> with me. He asked me to take off my shoes, again. I said that I had just
> done this 3 minutes and 10 feet ago, but if he really wanted them, I
> would oblige, particularly in view of the soldiers with rifles standing
> right next to us, but the other serious guy came over and said that my
> shoes had been checked out. Middle age is wanting to tie one's shoe
> laces as little as possible. Okay, so now he is going through my
> backpack handling it like it was packed with scorpions. Immediately, he
> sees things big hard things wrapped in newspaper. As he intently and
> carefully unwraps the quartz spheres, he does not look at the newspaper.
> It is all in Arabic! The merchant from Morocco used it to wrap them.
> Lucky me. He might have asked what it said. I'm afraid I would have been
> tempted to be witty, and, no doubt, would have spent the night in jail,
> but he never noticed. So now he has a guy with a bunch of big hard heavy
> spheres filled with who knows what wrapped in Arabic newspaper. So he
> says, "OK, you can go". I wrap everything up, grab my small bag (the one
> with the guillotine-like piece of iron) and head for the gate. They
> never checked it! Amazing. Boy, did I feel safe getting on that
> airplane. Next year, I will take more time off, and definitely DRIVE.
>
> All in all, I had a great time. I have never been so warmly received by
> strangers. I have been involved with Astronomy for many years, and
> amateur astronomers are similar. Very passionate about their avocation,
> totally understanding and accepting of others who share their interest,
> and basically, kids who have grown up, but not grown old as they
> continue to pine for the stars.
>
> I can't wait for next year.
>
> Walter Sullivan
>
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Received on Mon 18 Feb 2002 03:14:45 PM PST