Janine: Maybe I have bad luck, but even though I always plan on being at the airport two hours ahead of time, I have often found this barely enough. The change to daylight saving time is past, so you won't suddenly lose an hour when you turn on the car radio, so to speak, as has happened to me (at least three times over the years, you would think I would remember), but so many things can happen between here and there that I now plan three hours and EXPECT wierd things to happen so that, when they do, I am more or less prepared. For instance, on a flight to NYC from Hartford I watched 2 hours 30 minutes disappear at an increasing velocity as my suitcase was searched at the counter and my backpack searched three more times with the last as I was the only person left, the plane full and waiting, and eventually losing its takeoff slot, and all of this without an opportunity to sit down. Maybe it was because of my peculiar skin color (English, Irish, German, Lituanian blood), or maybe because the security people detected one or another moral flaw, or maybe I had simply suffered a coincidence that would much better have been associated with the purchase of a lottery ticket. In any event, I think the best way to reduce the many compounding stresses of air travel is to build in plenty of time and expect the unexpected, move through each checkpoint as soon as you are able. Also, get a seat towards the front of the plane, where the air is much better, there is less bouncing and noise than towards the tail, and you can get off sooner. Finally, I'm not sure if the better travel literature advice should have been Steinbeck's "Travels With Charlie".
