Where have you been all my life?

I have found traveling nirvana and it's located in Newburgh. No more will I deal with the chaos of LaGuardia, the parking expense of Newark or the Third-World experience of Kennedy. Back in the day, I flew in and out of Islip. Small, manageable, close to home. I even made an ass out of myself in front of a woman who I thought was deaf but wasn't. But the last 20 years or so have been filled with one bad experience after another at a major metropolitan airport. Until this time.

The parking wasn't perfect but it was fine nevertheless. It will cost $40 for the week, as opposed to $30 a day at Newark. It took less than an hour to get there. The people were both friendly and helpful, almost to the point of being too helpful. There were no loud annoucements. No crowds of harried flyers banging into each other. No rude car service drivers hogging up all the luggage carts.

The airline staff (go AirTran!!!!) was also friendly. They didn't look at the passengers like we were in their way. It was affordable. We got XM radio. And we didn't feel like we were "getting what we paid for". This is definitely an experience I'll try to repeat.

Of course, I haven't flown back yet. I probably jinxed myself. Stay tuned.