Traveling with Dirty Engineer Boots

Photo of my boots courtesy of Bamaboy
I flew home from Alabama yesterday. I decided to wear the Chippewa Engineer Boots that I "played" in during my visit with Bamaboy. Because it was so blasted hot, even though the boots got a bit wet, they dried quickly. The dust created a fine "dirty" patina on the boots, which attracted some attention.

One of the staff at the hotel asked me as I was leaving, "do you work construction?" She was obviously staring at my boots. I just smiled and said, "yeah, sometimes."

When I got to the airport, Bama came by to give me something I had forgotten and left in his truck (I swear, if my head weren't screwed on, it would fall off.) He also noticed the boots and gave me a compliment. LOL!

As I went through airport security, two ramp agents also were going through behind me. They both watched me take off my 17" Chippewa Engineers, put them in a plastic tray and send them through the x-ray. On the other end, I sat down to put them on. They both sat next to me to tie their work boots and each said, "nice boots!" One asked me where I got them, and I was happy to refer them to Stompers. These are the non-steel toe variety, which are light on the feet and feel great.

As I walked down the hall, a shoe-shine guy looked at my boots and said, "I can clean those up for you! Have a seat." I politely declined by saying, "Man, I like 'em this way!"

I wandered down to the gate, and caught up on the news on the TV. An older gentleman sat down next to me. He looked at my boots, then at me, and said, "do you ride a bike?" We talked for a while about motorcycle riding. Turns out he was a motorcycle racing team member back in the day. I enjoyed our conversation -- initiated by the boots.

I boarded the small regional jet, and actually slept all the way to Charlotte. The connection was quick; no waiting. I read a book on the way home to BWI. While I was waiting for the parking shuttle at my home airport, a guy walked up to me and said, "man, those boots are cool! What kind are they?" I had a short but pleasant chat, with yet another referral to Stompers.

Dirty boots seem to get a lot of attention. It's what guys wear!

See the full gallery of photos from our visit on my website, here.

Life is short: wear your boots!