Fly Muskegon! My experience shows it's a great idea.

There have been times we've had to fly from Grand Rapids. You can expect an hour to an hour-and-a-half drive, depending on traffic or weather. You can also expect another half-hour looking for parking and at least a 15-minute trip back to the terminal. Then there is the 15-30 minute line at the check-in, plus dragging your baggage to the security area. We won't dwell on the security line at the concourse!

Recently, we flew out of Muskegon. I had arranged for a shuttle to pick us up at home to avoid leaving a car outside the airport for a couple of weeks in the winter. Because of a mix-up, at the last minute we had to load the luggage into the car and rush to the airport.

At the airport, only about 40 minutes until departure, I stopped the car outside the entrance, carried my luggage to check-in as my wife stood by the car, showed the agent my ID and boarding passes, and told the agent I was going to park the car. My wife came in and I parked the car. By the time I got back from parking, we were checked in and the baggage was already checked by security, we still had almost a half-hour until departure.

There is more. While we were away, I started to hear about the terrible weather in Muskegon and was concerned about getting the car dug out when we got home. I e-mailed Dianne Hoofman at the airport and had the audacity to ask her if she could hire someone to clean off the car the day we got home, and that I would be happy to pay for it and explained where the car was. The next morning I got an e-mail that said "Don't worry, we already do that all the time."

When we got home at night, the car was cleaned off, the snow around the tires pushed away. Try and do better than that anywhere else! As I said, "Fly Muskegon!" It's just more comfortable.

-MK