Day 1 - To Miami

All ready to go? As many times as I’ve traveled and as many times as I’ve packed, I promised myself I’d be all set and get a good night’s sleep before the trip but… there I was still packing at midnight and I spent the whole night packing and repacking my suitcases in my dreams. We decided to leave early to make sure our chauffeurs made it back home before the predicted snowstorm, so there was an intense flurry of last minute activity. This was not helped by the fact that the zipper busted as I closed the carry on bag I had so carefully packed and weighed to make sure it met airline requirements. A quick switch to my knapsack and we’re off.

Arriving early at the airport we shop a bit (have to practice for Mexico) and buy a dressy watch for moi and a life changing book (Secrets) for my travel partner, grab a bite to eat and check in for our American Eagle flight to LaGuardia and on to Miami. A great trip with a flight attendant who had been flying since 1967 (began with TWA) and gave us a wonderful aviation history. He was an absolute scream and got us so wound up that we were breathless by the time we landed in New York. We met one of the Trailer Park Boy’s mothers as she was enroute to Nicaragua via Miami to visit with another son who runs a feeding program there. Was she ever spry for her age and gave us hope of a graceful retirement.

A quick transfer at LaGuardia and on to Miami. An hour spent in the steamy baggage carousel area but... all the suitcases made it! A shuttle to the Wyndham Airport Hotel and we were deposited with a group of disgruntled airline passengers who were stuck due to weather. If you have to be stuck, Miami is tops on our list - just feel that warm air hitting you in the face instead of hail! We had a bell hop from (can you believe it?) Santiago de Cuba so we caught up on the Cuban news. Wow - what a room - great value for the $. Down to try to get something to eat (1½ hr. wait we’re told) while we sip our very expensive drinks so we try room service with a 20 min. wait - go figure. Good thing the pizza wasn’t long arriving as we crashed unconscious by midnight.


Now contrast the above to the reality of a rotten work day where everyone was needy (myself included) I had to take Mom for dental surgery at 9:30 a.m. (she did very well but is getting much frailer physically) and I had myself convinced today was pay day (boy was I disappointed - it's next week) the phone rang off the hook and my do list was longer than the accomplished one. Errand running after work, photos of the boat (it MAY come out of the boat shop tomorrow and it's been in over a month after a 2 wk time estimate - remember that twice as long, twice as much theory?) then supper and the usual chores. The dog and I made it out for a long walk, she sure missed those outings with me it seemed and I actually didn't have to wear gloves as it was 10c. Then the life partner decided he needed some administrative support - this included me taking a red neck photo for his firearms certificate (the last one made him look like PeeWee Herman so I did at least that well) which had to be sized and printed, his application for the moose license draw (had to be researched online) and two applications he wanted my legible printing on but.. they weren't the correct forms so with a loud arrghhh he retired to his historical novel. Ahh, back to life in the fast lane.