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Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Peanut Butter is a Liquid

Welcome to Travel Talk Tuesday, where we share travel stories, tips, or anything else related to travel!

Today, we'll be going back in time to January 2010. We planned a lovely trip to the US Virgin Islands to celebrate our 5 year anniversary, which was in Dec 2009.

We hadn't flown in several years, and this proved to be a bit problematic when we got to the airport.

Travel Talk Tuesday - Airport Security
"Seguridad" by Daniel Lobo is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Because we were staying at an environmental campground, to save a little money we decided to bring as much food as we could with us to limit the money spent in grocery stores once there - island prices and all.

What didn't fit in our checked bags, we put in our carry-ons. We had ramen packets, canned soup, peanut butter, crackers, chips. We also had a couple water bottles.

What we didn't have was knowledge of the {new-to-us} 3-1-1 rule.

A little background - Before we met, Jeff worked for a company in Oregon that was bought out by a company in Minnesota. He took a transfer to Minnesota {that's when we met!}, but there were many back-and-forth flights before he actually moved. During those many security checks, he was no stranger to getting pulling aside for additional screenings.

With that in mind, we arrived at the airport that cold January morning, checked in for our flight, checked the bags that we weren't carrying on, and headed to the security line.

We queued up, ignoring all the signs along the way.

Our conversation included something along the lines of:
Jeff: I just know I'm going to get flagged!
Clarinda: Why?
Jeff: Because I always do. Plus, my carry-on has a jumbled mess of cords for all our electronics.
Finally, we got up to the security checkpoint.

We both got pulled aside. No surprise!
TSA Agent: Is this your bag, sir?
Jeff: I knew I was going to get flagged.
TSA, with an hostile tone: I bet you did!
Jeff: It's because of the all the cords, isn't it?
TSA: No, sir, you cannot bring liquids on the plane.
Jeff: What?
TSA: You cannot carry liquids on the plane. You can keep your water bottle, but you'll need to dump it out first.
Jeff went to dump out the water bottles. When heading back to the checkpoint, he noticed all the signs we'd previously ignored. Back to the checkpoint, the TSA agents were still going through our bags.

Into the trash went all of the canned soups we brought as well as the... peanut butter. Peanut butter?!? Since when is peanut butter a liquid?!

Even with all of Jeff's clearly frustrated, yet appropriately controlled, attempts to convince the TSA agent of the absurdity that peanut butter is a liquid... That's right! The brand new, still factory sealed jar of peanut butter had to get thrown out, too.

Moral of the story: Always do your research before flying - especially if you haven't been in an airport in several years. Also, take the time to read the signs. :)

Note: Fast forward to our return trip. Someone carried on SIXTEEN bottles of rum?! Highly. flammable. rum. And though, one could spend a good deal of effort and money to fashion peanut butter (or a peanut butter looking substance) into an explosive device, bottles of liquor are without question historically well known incendiary explosive devices - favored by renegades and rioters for many, many years.

But we could not carry on our peanut butter. :)

Jeff and Clarinda

What is the most unusual thing you tried (or seen someone try) to get through airport security?
Have you ever been so behind the times when traveling through an airport?

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