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We're baaack! Arrived this morning after a long trip off the continent. Saw the sunset over the Pacific, and the sunrise just before landing in Houston.

We had many adventures (no, we never use tour guides -- people always ask us that question). However, some of the more intriguing adventures were during TSA screening.

When leaving IAH, I was selected to be patted down; evidently the sweat on my back from carrying a backpack was enough to set off their sensors....

When leaving HNL for Maui a week later, I was "randomly" selected to have my hands swabbed; this was prior to the screening zone. Gee, for once I'm glad it had been a few weeks since I was at the range, because what would they have done if they'd found something?

When leaving HNL for IAH (another week later), DynaBlue was having issues with the sensors going off, and they finally figured it was because she had also been "randomly" selected to have her hands swabbed (another screener replied, "What, another one?"). Also a few weeks since she was at the range, fortunately.

On the good side, the plastic-buckle hiking belts we picked up for the trip did their job.

Randomly selecting two in the same family/traveling group? I don't think so. If I didn't already have FBI clearances for my work, I'd think we were on someone's watch list....

OldSchool wrote:Randomly selecting two in the same family/traveling group? I don't think so. If I didn't already have FBI clearances for my work, I'd think we were on someone's watch list....

Precisely why you ARE on watchlists. Look, if someone IS out to get you...paranoia is just good thinking.

You know I have always figured that "random" probably isn't (nor do I think it should be) however until we stopped flying (after the TSA started sticking their fingers in childrens' pants and using useless strip search machines) whenever we flew my bag (the one that I check) was always selected for the TSA toss where they go into your back and disrupt your underwear and then leave you a nice little note. I have always wondered if it is because my Father in Law works on very very secret defense projects. Don't really know, but it never happened to me until I changed my last name and now it has happened every time I fly. Once even my car seats for my kids were checked with little notes on them

I think the "watch" list consists of all those who have U.S. citizenship. That way they don't have to offend foreigners and they can still round up all those dangerous Minnesotan grandmothers and Arizona cowboys before they do something drastic......like tell TSA they are full of crap.

The Annoyed Man wrote:I think the "watch" list consists of all those who have U.S. citizenship. That way they don't have to offend foreigners and they can still round up all those dangerous Minnesotan grandmothers

That makes sense if you're a bureaucrat. We all know those Scandinavian Lutherans are a bunch of radical extremists.

A year or two after the 9/11 attacks I was selected for extra scrutiny at the gate before boarding in Dallas. The ironic part was I was making a connection in Dallas and I was flying non-revenue as family of an employee.