We smell a conspiracy

After four days adrift without the better half, who was in Chicago for a seminar, we joyfully showed up at Tulsa International Airport on Monday, actually watching her plane, one of those small, express jets, waggle its wings on its descent to the runway.

We parked in the short-term "Your first 30 minutes is FREE!" parking, for once getting a parking spot so close to the terminal building we could have hit it with a rock (in the event we were suicidal, of course).

Mrs. Oklahomilist arrived about 15 minutes later in the baggage claim area. Happy to see her, and almost as happy that we would easily be back at the car before the end of the 30 minutes. But the carousel remained silent. A large crowd of anxious, travel weary Okies began to gather.

Minutes ticked by. No bags, luggage or wheeled carts. No boxes secured with duct tape (there's always at least one on every flight, you know).

Finally, at 5:30, the alarm sounded, and the carousel creaked to life. A couple of minutes later her cart arose out of the purgatorial reaches below us, we grabbed it and walked the short distance to the car.

It was, naturally, too late. It cost $2 for 36 minutes of space rental in a half-empty parking lot. For those of you keeping score at home, that's the equivalent of $80 per day. The actual day rate for short term is $8.95. Suffice to say that the airport authority does not believe in accurate pro-rating.

Which leads to the natural assumption that the airlines, perhaps as a condition of their terminal rights, have probably agreed to delay sending baggage to the newly arrived just long enough to make sure that their husbands, wives and significant others get stuck with $2 parking fees, especially now that You Absolutely Cannot Park adjacent to the terminal. There is a sign explaining that these security procedures are FOR YOUR SAFETY.

The $2 fee is just a coincidence, isn't it?