Trips to BHM

Most locals know that BHM is the Birmingham Airport, about 60 miles and one-hour from our home.  We have made this drive many times.  Typically it is a joyous occasion.  We are joyously leaving on a trip, or we are joyously picking up someone who has been away.  Sometimes we are coming back from BHM, joyously returning from a trip.

It’s Interstate Hwy all the way, and though the shortest route passes through downtown BHM, it is seldom a traffic problem.  We have made this trip several times in the last few months.

In days gone by, about 20 years worth of them, Tuscaloosa had an airport located in Northport, probably about 10 minutes from our house.  It had one gate, free parking, and if you got there about 15 or 20 minutes before the scheduled takeoff, you were fine.  The only flight was to ATL, but from ATL you can travel the world, and it was often cheaper than flying from BHM, regardless of direction of travel.  There was also NO TSA in those days, pre 9-11.

Andrew in the Security queue.

Yes boys and girls, there was a time before you took off your shoes, before you were patted-down, before you took your laptop out, along with 27 little bottles under 3 fluid ounces each.  Ah, I hate to speak of the good old days, but there once were far fewer steps to get airborne.

The world is a fallen place, and all of us pay for its fallen-ness. 

The remarkable thing to me is that it is even not more fallen!  G^d’s common grace is the only thing keeping us from total self-destruction.