Ok. I’ll apologize for my New KCI complaints. It’s nice. A couple of billion dollars gets you more than it used to. Well, that’s not true, but you know what I mean, right? Anyway, the airport is nice. It’s just like every other new airport built in the last few years. Half shopping mall, half air travel centered. Lots of “do/don’t signs.”
The “Kansas City region” theme is neat, but a bit overblown. Feels like a big, nice building with an inferiority complex. For example, there is “The Pitch” themed convenience-like store. Really, “The Pitch”? There is the Sporting KC-themed store that is apparently a draw to the soccer fan that is hungry for some peanuts and water. Not sure if American football fans are welcome or not.
It is NOT remotely close to as convenient to local travelers. No way. As I wrote last week, that’s ok, but please ask the city to quit telling me it’s raining out when they’re actually peeing on me. We avoided the on-site parking and went with Park Air Express and it was a fine process, but exposure to the elements and walks to and from gate to pick up are not going to ever be what locals were used to at the three terminals.
Overall, it’s a nicer feel. The Kansas City TSA group was the friendliest I had encountered in years. I suppose lots of new full body scanners and metal detectors can raise your spirits if you’re in that line of work. Kind of like when Foley gets a new keyboard. If airports help you feel better about where you live, this should fill that void.
Travel constantly reminds me all the freedoms we have lost. It is sad. I just look at the security checks, body scanners, rules and regulations that were basically started with 911 and accelerated dramatically with COVID and during my lifetime we have lost a lot. My grown kids don’t even notice, which is the scary thing about freedoms being taken from us.
We traveled to the Royals Spring Training in Surprise, Arizona. We’ve been going for about 15 years. When we first went, the atmosphere in Surprise was so relaxed. It was not uncommon to encounter players in the areas around the stadium, areas that have now been inundated with fence and security that seems overdone. The stadium now doesn’t take cash, because, “who knows,” it is just another COVID flex . Carry-in bags are limited and all the other stupid “security” flexes that are in play at regular games in the Major League parks are now in play, because you know, lots of people bomb spring training games.
I’d give up a lot of this “security” of today for the “freedoms” that were snatched from us, but I doubt that is the way it works.
I am glad that you can’t smoke a heater on planes anymore. I still think of that every time I get on a plane. When I traveled as a kid, my sister and I would have to put on some nice clothes and we’d get on a plane and the entire plane would become a huge “lung cancer” chamber as everyone lit up their favorite cigarettes. Our “good clothes” had to smell like a Legion bar floor by the time we got there. It seems almost unbelievable in today’s world.
(Guy Speckman can be reached anywhere but an airport)
