Love-Letter from the TSA

I just love traveling with boots and leather gear in my luggage.

Well, not specifically just for that reason, but let me 'splain.

I just took a quick trip to Orlando, Florida, for a business meeting. Man, I despise that town more and more each time I have to go there. It's just so fakey! I stayed at a hotel with a Polynesian theme, and I was "aloha-ed" and "mahalo-ed" all over the place. The food was, well, undescribably inedible. But let me say that I don't eat cold or raw fish! Frankly, I wasn't able to eat very much at all of the food served during our meetings for risk of becoming ill. That's okay, I survived.

I brought two pairs of boots with me, including a pair of Dehner Patrol Boots. I also had a leather shirt that I wore in my off time. Just 'cause it was a bit cool, and I like how it feels and keeps me warm without having to wear a jacket.

Today when I got home and unpacked, I found one of those love-letters from the TSA in my luggage, saying that the contents were inspected.

As I say in my Air Travel with Leather Gear Guide on my website:

It's perfectly okay to travel with leather gear. Don't worry about the TSA boys getting all uptight. They have lots of other things to worry about and mostly just don't care what you pack or carry on, as long as it is within the limitations and allowances as described on the TSA website.

I betcha those TSA boys had a little fun figuring out the mix in my luggage -- dress shirts, pants, a tie, and Dehners, leather shirt.... socks, underwear, toiletries. Not much really, just a mix of this Leatherman Bootman Meeting-Goer. I just giggle about that, and not much else. I don't get incensed at my luggage being inspected. I have nothing to hide. But I still find it so disappointing that this has to happen at all. But that's not my war. I have other battles to fight locally, and I'm more successful at those, anyway.

Life is short: wear your boots and leather! (and don't worry about the TSA boys. If they get uptight about a little boots and leather in a piece of luggage, that's their problem.)