Will Rogers World Airport

Souvenir Sunday: Will Rogers World Airport

Air Travel, Airport shops, Shopping, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs,

Oklahoma City Airport

The airport in Oklahoma City is called the Will Rogers World Airport, in honor of Will Rogers, a cowboy who became famous in the 1920s and 1930s as an actor, columnist, humorist, vaudeville performer, and world traveler who died, with his buddy Wiley Post, in a plane crash near Barrow, Alaska in 1935.

I like that the airport is named for this Oklahoma native and I’d like to think that he’d get a kick out of the souvenirs Clark Massad found for sale last time he was in town.

Massad told me he was looking for the Oklahoma Rose Rock that used to be sold at the airport, “but apparently they’ve mined them all and sold them all off.”

Instead he found “delicacies” – chocolates and candy – with classic names such as Oklahoma Cow Poop, Oklahoma Cow Patties, Oklahoma Oil and Tornado Seeds.

“I even managed to come across real Oklahoma Dream Catchers made by one of the local tribes.”

Next time you’re stuck at the airport, please take a moment to poke around the shops. If you find some great souvenirs that are inexpensive (around $10), “of” the city or region and, ideally, a bit offbeat, please snap some photos and send them along.  If your souvenirs are featured here on StuckatTheAirport.com, I’ll send you a special aviation-related souvenir.

(More) greetings from the airport bathroom

Bathrooms, , , , ,

My Well Mannered Traveler column on MSNBC.com last week was about some of the products and amenities I found at a recent airport conference.

Titled “Fresh Amenities for Pooped out Travelers,” the column mentions some nifty gadgets popping up in airport restrooms, including toilet seat covers that change automatically.

I was delighted to find two companies marketing these self-changing toilet seat covers. And pleased to learn that a dozen or so airports already had these electronic seat covers installed.

Then I got an angry e-mail message from David Jablow. I could tell he was mad because he wrote in BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS. UNDERLINED.

Although his company hadn’t exhibited at the airport conference, Jablow wanted to make sure I knew that his company, Brill Hygienic Products, is “the largest sanitary toilet seat company in North America” and “the only company in the USA which manufactures their own seats and plastic in the USA.”

He especially wanted to make sure I let folks know that the company’s “hands-free high tech electronic sanitary toilet seats” are in restrooms at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport, Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and in Portland, Maine at the Portland International Jetport.

Happy to share the news. And happy to know there are even more airports where sitting around will be sanitary.