# 14

  .  .  .  and beyond  

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Our flight from Newark to Syracuse was lumpy and bumpy and not very comfortable at all.  Sitting right at the back of the plane, we felt every quiver, bump and bit of turbulence.  We got back to Syracuse some time after 11 p.m. and collected our bags.  Right away I felt the weird drag of my larger bag.  The wheel housing was broken off.  You've got to be kidding me.   This is ridiculous!

We stopped to examine our luggage and when we opened the one with the liqueur, I felt sick.  The plastic bag had been sliced open by a sharp object and everything was sticky.  The T.S.A. (Transportation Safety Authority) had opened the bottle of Sheridan.  I didn't mind that so much as the fact that they had NOT opened the screw cap, but had instead forced the whole top section off the double bottle, and it hadn't been put back on tightly.  There was a sticky mess all over our luggage, over Mike's suit and over our digital camera.  I was just lucky that most of our clothes were in plastic zipper packing bags, so the mess was localized.

It's amazing how far a couple of ounces of sticky syrup can  spread all over everything.  This pic shows the way the bag was sliced open and how the little dots of liqueur had spread out. Next to it is the other bottle that wasn't touched, thank goodness,  I was not impressed with how TSA had handled this.  I understand they have a job to do, but do they have to cause damage while performing their duties?  Because it was so late, there was no one to complain to, not that it would do any good.

The airline said they weren't responsible for the broken wheels on the suitcase either, so that meant we were S O L  (hope you know what that means, lol)  Unfortunately we had a pretty rotten end to a really nice vacation, but the drama wasn't over, not by a long shot!