Good Morning!

It's a busy Scouting weekend; in about an hour, we'll be heading for nearby Gore Place and the annual sheepshearing festival. Troop 250 mans a concession stand, and it's our major fundraiser for the year. Tomorrow I'll be running a training course for about a dozen scouts, and it's the last thing I need to finish Woodbadge, so I'm rather pleased about that.

I had posted previously that I'm going to need blog coverage for Saturday, May 12. I'll be starting that morning in Smithfield, NC...on the way home from Florida. (Clint, you still want it? Otherwise it's open.)

It's the Florida bit that has me slightly concerned. But before I even get there, I have to tangle with TSA. The last time I set foot on a plane was almost exactly 9 years ago; again travelling to Palm Beach. While that was post 9-11, the aviation world hadn't quite gone nuts yet. I've spent the last week or so poring over my airlines' website as well as the TSA website, making sure that I'm not carrying anything remotely suspicious. I have no intention of giving anyone the satisfaction of being a giant dick and ruining my trip. Although I had considered bringing along a Koran as my reading material...and I wonder what they would think if I went all av-dork and printed out the sectional or an approach plate and tucked it into my carry-on?

Like every trip to Southeast Florida, we really won't be going out into "native territory"...my aunt is a snowbird, and lives in a really nice development that's mostly populated by New Jerseyites. Her neighborhood is surrounded by four other complexes just like it, all full of northerners. Hell, this is one of the few places outside New England that knows what "jimmies" are...there's an ice cream stand nearby and enough Mass natives cater the place that they've picked up some of the lingo.

But I must admit, I am concerned. Reading the news of late, I'm starting to get a picture of the wild west...am I going to get shot this trip? Suppose somebody I know down there needs a "lady procedure"...do doctors still do routine things, or must we travel out-of-state? And should I even mention a democratic principle outside the confines of the snowbird havens, will somebody go all "stand your ground" and open fire just because they think I'm a godless, commie, northeast, liberal, effete?

TSA has ensured that I can't protect myself once I get there, because I can only carry a "rounded, plastic knife" on board. I'm sure they must sell handguns at the airport, yes? Fortunately, I won't be there on a Sunday, bit I imagine it's like Amish country in that regard; they roll up the sidewalks and everyone spends the day singing the praises of Jesus, right?

Ah, well. The last time I was in Florida was 2007; but we drove. And yes, we did go far off the beaten path on the way to the Happiest Place on Earth. I was driving a Subaru at the time, which surely screams "NORTHERNER!" to the locals. We survived that trip, so I'm hoping we'll be OK this time around.

I wonder though, if the abutter next to my aunt's place still flies his Confederate Flag on the side of his house facing the northerners in their winter homes?