We are anticipating security hassles as we have everything a terrorist might need: various equipment to navigate Africa, fix a failing Land Rover, make a good cup of coffee, supply a school and a soccer team.

Electronics include a Garmin Nuvi GPS, a netbook with GPS receiver, plus the standard electrical stuff including flashlights and cameras. Then we have the cords, wires, plugs, and accessories to recharge from any socket anywhere, car lighter, even solar. We have a first aid kit with enough prescription pain killers to anesthetize a plane-load or enough laxatives to keep everyone “busy.”

Then there were the unusual nondescript liquids — sunscreens and repellents in various liquidifications and colors. Together, we must have had the ingredients for a nuclear bomb, or at least something flammable, or at the very least a good try at Hogwart’s Vanishing Potion. And that was just our carry-on’s!

In our checked bag was a roll of duct tape, straps, pliers, Leatherman multi-tool, and knives. Plus, just to confuse TSA, eight deflated soccer balls strapped tightly together along with eight steel tube hand pumps. Certainly, flying into New York on 9/10 and out on 9/11 would trigger extra security. I rehearsed it in my head, very calmly explaining our trip to TSA, and I braced to be repeatedly patted up and down and questioned. Nothing could have prepared me for TSA’s reaction: Nothing. We glided through security without a hitch, question, frisk, or bag search!

Either TSA’s personnel and equipment are incredibly advanced or we should all be very scared.