Like a good little traveler, I was up and moving early. I had my two cups of coffee, brushed my hair
& teeth, put my toothbrush and meds in my carryon, put the coffeepot in the
dishwasher and started it, and headed out the door.
Because it was so cold that morning, I wore black cargo
pants, fuzzy socks, fuzzy black & white leg warmers from Sock Dreams, a
black t-shirt, a white cotton shirt, a black jersey cardigan and my navy
“spring” windbreaker. It was very cold
and very dark when I left at 6:15, and the roads were icy. I was lucky in the first half of my trip,
because I was right behind a salt truck, but once I got on 77 South, I was on
my own. Thankfully, traffic was light,
so I did a steady 60 mph, and only had one scary moment. Somebody thought I wasn’t going fast enough,
so he or she passed me on the right and then zipped back into the middle lane,
cutting me off. My only thought as I
tapped the brakes was “If I die, I hope my family goes on the cruise.”
Clearly, I didn’t die, and I made it to the airport in time
to park and take a shuttle in and go through security and get to my gate just
as they were boarding. J We took off a little late after de-icing, and
arrived in Charlotte at 9:30 instead of 8:40, but the flight to Orlando wasn’t
leaving until 11:25, so I had time to walk the entire length of the airport,
buy a yogurt on the verge of sentience and what I thought was a bottle of water
but which turned out to be Sprite.
The woman Mom had hired to cover the phones had tried to
call both of us, but since I was the
one who turned my phone back on first, I was the one who got to tell her that
if she was sick, she should go home.
Eventually, Mom called me, and I told her that, then asked if the
Jeeves-Margo family were in fact flying from Charlotte to Orlando with
me. She said yes, but their plane was
landing around 11. :o
Thus I spent the next 90 minutes both worrying and wondering
why my carryon bag was so darned heavy.
I finished one book and started another, and was in the last group to
board the plane. I was chatting with my
seatmate and worrying, and they were just about to close the door when I saw my
family heading down the aisle.
Yaaaaay! They were all flushed
and a little breathless, because they had run from the same terminal at which
my flight had arrived (reserved for “small airports” like Columbus) after being
late owing to de-icing.
After that, the 90 minute flight to Orlando was a piece of
cake, and we arrived only about 30 minutes late. The Crossword-Mathgeek family was at baggage claim 5, and the
shuttle was going to pick up their party and then come to baggage claim 20 and
get us. There was a joyful reunion and
then a 1 hour trip to our hotel in Cape Canaveral. During the trip, there were several different conversations
going on. At one of those natural
pauses when everyone was quiet at once, the driver drifted over some rumble
strips, and little Princess Minnie yelled “Road farts!” This is one of the many lovely sayings passed on to the next
generation from Grampa Scary Bear.
Mom met us in the lobby, we all got check in and dumped our
bags in our rooms and then gathered in Mom & Dad’s room for snacks. After some discussion, we decided on an
early dinner, which we had at a decent tourist trap called Fishlips. At dinner, Captain Crossword announced that
Bookworm Mathgeek had gotten the highest possible grades in her two MBA courses
for that semester, so we all raised our glasses to her. Then we went back to
the hotel and celebrated Super Doughnut’s birthday in Mom and Dad’s
room. Mom had gotten vanilla ice cream
and a personalized cake, and because we were in a residence hotel, there were
plates and forks in the room. Captain
Crossword did a killer dance to “
Ice Cream and Cake” and then was begged to
repeat it 3 times until he was captured on video. Even though it’s been 20 years since show choir, my little
brother still has the moves.
After ice cream and cake, Mom took me on a drugstore run, as
I was constipated and painfully bloated. She came to my room to pick up some bills I'd brought for her, and that was when I discovered that my carry-on was so heavy because I'd brought the two pounds of mixed nuts that arrived at the house after Mom and Dad left! I happily handed over the nuts and took some OTC meds and read in my room for a while, then just happened
to visit the fire pit for a cigarette at the same time Annabel, Captain
Crossword and all four kids were visiting.
It was a gas fire in a huge stone surround, and while pretty, it wasn’t
really something that encouraged sitting around it. Plus, we’d apparently brought some chilly Ohio weather with us,
as it was 57º F when we landed and kept dropping. I went to bed early, after taking a long hot
shower and watching 2 episodes of Say Yes To The Bridesmaid’s Dress.
*blush*
