First day of winter and I’m at the airport heading to Richmond, Virginia to visit a good friend. Winter jackets, sweaters, socks and closed toe shoes for this Floridian.

My experience at the Sarasota/Bradenton Airport is worth blogging about. The airport is busy with travelers at almost every gate. Flights going north mostly, although I see one going to Key West and its delayed. What is most notable at the airport these days, besides everyone wearing masks 😷, is the number of people traveling with DOGS!

Truly, it is amazing how many people have their dogs in carriers (or not until they board the plane). What in the world is going on? I know, your are thinking, people need their ‘support’ animals and traveling makes them stressed. Or maybe they can’t find a dog sitter?

All I know is that on my Allegiant airline flight, there were 10 people boarding who needed wheelchairs and three of them had DOGS. One couple traveling had two carriers with dogs, one for each of them of course. But inside were two dogs in each carrier. FOUR dogs. And there were 6 people who boarded with dogs after the wheelchair people! Once on board, a woman’s dog sitting behind me started barking. Remember crying babies? Now barking dogs? Truly this flight was like a Greyhound Bus trip, another story sometime.

Thankfully, although the flight took off 25 minutes late, because of boarding the wheelchairs and dogs, it arrived close to planned. My friend picked me up at the airport and she drove us to Wyndham’s Patriot’s Place, a timeshare condo in Williamsburg. Tomorrow we will venture into old town of Williamsburg and enjoy the decorations, shopping and eating for the day. The joy of this experience will allow me to forget the airline experience – oh, wait, I have to go back!