Items to leave OUT of your LUGGAGE

While I was in Maryland with Eric's,Avalon, a friend of Ashleys, graciously gave Carol and I a couple of small Christmas presents, neatly wrapped with appropriate paper and bows.  I chose to open the Potporri but left the other two small items wrapped.  The two small items were placed in my carry on bag with the few clothes and books that I wanted back to the lake.  As I was going thru security at the Philly airport early Fri morn, I noticed that the man on the X-Ray had called over an assistant to look with him.  I thought, "Crap!! I forgot to take out the small bag with liquids under 3 oz each"!!  But NO.  They had noted the small Christmas gifts.  So, I was asked to accompany my bag to a nearby stainless steel counter where it was opened and searched until he got to the two small gifts.  They were candles in glass.  Guess what shows up the same as gel explosives????   You got it!!  Candle WAX!!!  The TSA guy who did the search and find was very nice and even apologetic.  I assured him that it was no problem and I had plenty of time to catch my plane.  I did ask him what would have happened if the luggage had been checked for the underbelly storage.  He said they would have searched those bags, too.

Oh, I made it to the gate in plenty of time.  Loaded on time in the little cabin with 13 rows left and 12 rows right of 2 seats each.  You have to give your "carry on bags" to a guy at the end of the ramp, CAUSE the storage bins are DINKY and won't hold much more than a briefcase.  We sat for 20 minutes being assured that the valve which regulated heat in the back section of the plane would be noted and we would be on our way.  NOT!!  We had to deplane for an hour while the valve was replaced, reboard and get to St Louis an hour and 15 minutes late.  Carol was not a happy LIMO driver, as she had circled the area about 11 times before parking and going to the monitor to see that we were delayed.  One good time for having a cell phone.

Any body got any horror stories of luggage items on airplanes???