Travel
27/09/23 00:17
Today we are flying to South Carolina. Our flight from Seattle leaves at 8 am and we arrive in Charleston, SC a little bit before 7 pm. We have a one hour layover in Washington DC. Of course those times are local times. When it is 8 am in Seattle, it is 11 am in South Carolina. We will make the trip of nearly 3,000 miles in about 8 hours elapsed time, including the one hour layover. That is enough to impress me even after years of riding in airplanes and flying to many distant places.
In 2020 we drove to South Carolina. We took a week to get there and most days we drove for more than eight hours. I have read, however, that our carbon footprint will be larger flying on commercial airlines than it was driving our diesel pickup pulling a 25’ camping trailer. I haven’t checked it, and I am not an expert, but travel is one of the big consumers of fossil fuels and the overconsumption of fossil fuels is a major contributor to global warming. Our planet is in the midst of a climate crisis due in part to our penchant for fast, convenient travel.
One thing that is striking about this situation is that those who are most at risk due to the change in the earth’s atmosphere are among the poorest people on the planet. They are not the ones who have been doing all the traveling. And those of us who do travel often have the luxury of not having to endure much discomfort due to our behavior.
Several major studies have shown that those who are most at risk to airborne pollutants are far more likely to be racial minorities and impoverished. Most at risk are young children and older adults.
We have some awareness of the consequences of the choices we make. We decided to fly on this trip in order to save time and energy. Even with relatively expensive airline tickets it remains the least expensive way to make a long cross-country trip like we have planned for today. And as passengers, the trip is fairly relaxing.
On the other hand, in order to get the inexpensive airline tickets we did have to agree to fly out of SeaTac Airport. SeaTac is becoming renowned for its long lines at airport security. The facility was simply not built to accommodate the combination of increased airline security and increased numbers of the public flying out of the airport. One time when we took our daughter and grandson to the airport they barely made their departing flight despite the fact that they were standing in line for security a full two hours before their flight departed. When we told that story to a friend, the friend reported a similar frustration of waiting in line for three hours before getting through security.
There has to be a better way of screening passengers and assuring safety. However, at least so far no one had suggested that better way to the authorities who could make changes.
There are a couple of ways to get around the long lines. One is TSA pre pass which allows travelers to obtain a pre-screening and then pass through an expedited line at the airport. Another is a commercial service called CLEAR that allows passengers to pre-register and get screened so they can go through the expedited lanes at security. CLEAR has an annual fee that is quite expensive for occasional travelers like us. It might, however, make sense for business travelers. However, we bought a package deal on motel stays and parking at SeaTac because of our early departure and a late night arrival upon our return. We live a minimum of two hours from SeaTac and with traffic it often takes 3 or more hours to make the trip one way.
So we’ll be giving CLEAR a try. The problem is that we don’t know for sure how much, if any, time it will save us. That means that we probably will plan to arrive at the airport at least two hours before our flight just to make sure that everything works out OK. That adds a bit more to the elapsed time for the day. Also the elapsed time mentioned earlier in this post does not account for the time elapsed between leaving our home and arriving at our daughter’s home. We are flying into an airport that is a hour from their home and if we had decided to drive to the airport this morning that would be another 3 hours. That would be at least a 12 hour day.
Still, we can get to our daughter’s home in a single day, which is impressive to us.
We don’t know what the future will bring in terms of travel for us. For now we can afford to make trips to visit our daughter and her family. We’ll be able to travel more as we ease into our aging years if we fly. We will get to the point where driving is too stressful for us. We are already making a concession to our age by staying over in the motel at both ends of this trip. I’m quite confident that we will make multiple trips each year to see our daughter and her family, at least for the foreseeable future. But we know that the day will come when we will be dependent upon them coming to us in order to see them. As we age, we are less skilled at travel than once was the case for us.
It seems to us that the investment of time and energy in traveling helps strengthen the relationships that will yield visits from family as we grow older. At least that is what we hope. And as a bonus we get the fun of traveling by airliner. Despite frustrations with the whole passenger screening process, the aging fleet of aircraft in service years beyond their original design limits, and the challenges of jet lag and time zone changes, we are happy to be making the trip today. It is time. We’re so eager to see our South Carolina family face to face. For that we’ll endure a bit of discomfort even if it makes no sense at all to us.
In 2020 we drove to South Carolina. We took a week to get there and most days we drove for more than eight hours. I have read, however, that our carbon footprint will be larger flying on commercial airlines than it was driving our diesel pickup pulling a 25’ camping trailer. I haven’t checked it, and I am not an expert, but travel is one of the big consumers of fossil fuels and the overconsumption of fossil fuels is a major contributor to global warming. Our planet is in the midst of a climate crisis due in part to our penchant for fast, convenient travel.
One thing that is striking about this situation is that those who are most at risk due to the change in the earth’s atmosphere are among the poorest people on the planet. They are not the ones who have been doing all the traveling. And those of us who do travel often have the luxury of not having to endure much discomfort due to our behavior.
Several major studies have shown that those who are most at risk to airborne pollutants are far more likely to be racial minorities and impoverished. Most at risk are young children and older adults.
We have some awareness of the consequences of the choices we make. We decided to fly on this trip in order to save time and energy. Even with relatively expensive airline tickets it remains the least expensive way to make a long cross-country trip like we have planned for today. And as passengers, the trip is fairly relaxing.
On the other hand, in order to get the inexpensive airline tickets we did have to agree to fly out of SeaTac Airport. SeaTac is becoming renowned for its long lines at airport security. The facility was simply not built to accommodate the combination of increased airline security and increased numbers of the public flying out of the airport. One time when we took our daughter and grandson to the airport they barely made their departing flight despite the fact that they were standing in line for security a full two hours before their flight departed. When we told that story to a friend, the friend reported a similar frustration of waiting in line for three hours before getting through security.
There has to be a better way of screening passengers and assuring safety. However, at least so far no one had suggested that better way to the authorities who could make changes.
There are a couple of ways to get around the long lines. One is TSA pre pass which allows travelers to obtain a pre-screening and then pass through an expedited line at the airport. Another is a commercial service called CLEAR that allows passengers to pre-register and get screened so they can go through the expedited lanes at security. CLEAR has an annual fee that is quite expensive for occasional travelers like us. It might, however, make sense for business travelers. However, we bought a package deal on motel stays and parking at SeaTac because of our early departure and a late night arrival upon our return. We live a minimum of two hours from SeaTac and with traffic it often takes 3 or more hours to make the trip one way.
So we’ll be giving CLEAR a try. The problem is that we don’t know for sure how much, if any, time it will save us. That means that we probably will plan to arrive at the airport at least two hours before our flight just to make sure that everything works out OK. That adds a bit more to the elapsed time for the day. Also the elapsed time mentioned earlier in this post does not account for the time elapsed between leaving our home and arriving at our daughter’s home. We are flying into an airport that is a hour from their home and if we had decided to drive to the airport this morning that would be another 3 hours. That would be at least a 12 hour day.
Still, we can get to our daughter’s home in a single day, which is impressive to us.
We don’t know what the future will bring in terms of travel for us. For now we can afford to make trips to visit our daughter and her family. We’ll be able to travel more as we ease into our aging years if we fly. We will get to the point where driving is too stressful for us. We are already making a concession to our age by staying over in the motel at both ends of this trip. I’m quite confident that we will make multiple trips each year to see our daughter and her family, at least for the foreseeable future. But we know that the day will come when we will be dependent upon them coming to us in order to see them. As we age, we are less skilled at travel than once was the case for us.
It seems to us that the investment of time and energy in traveling helps strengthen the relationships that will yield visits from family as we grow older. At least that is what we hope. And as a bonus we get the fun of traveling by airliner. Despite frustrations with the whole passenger screening process, the aging fleet of aircraft in service years beyond their original design limits, and the challenges of jet lag and time zone changes, we are happy to be making the trip today. It is time. We’re so eager to see our South Carolina family face to face. For that we’ll endure a bit of discomfort even if it makes no sense at all to us.
