Like every good fairy tale, my adventure began early one morning in a land far, far away. A t about 5:30 in the morning to be specific; when my eyes refused to stay closed and I reluctantly admitted I was awake. Well, actually I did have a good excuse for waking up so early – beside having to visit the bathroom.
See, the wonderful Cobra discount initiated by President Obama had just run out, and I had JUST received a notice in the mail that my new premium would be… (wait for it) $800 per month! OUCH! Great news to get on the day before you’re leaving town for a week! Visualize me screaming through the house for a while until it occurred to me that they were quoting a rate for both Al and myself! Well, he went onto Medicare in September, so with bated breath I phoned the administrator… who had already gone home for the day. Their offices opened at 8am central time the next day and I was ready to get on the phone at 6am my time to be their first customer, so eager was I to correct this –ahem- little misunderstanding. Okay, but first to dress, throw my toothbrush, clothes and whatnot into the suitcase, wake up the birds and feed them – you know – the ordinary morning stuff – except today it started before daybreak.
Happily, I WAS the first phone call of the day for the Cobra people, who assured me it would cost me a far more reasonable $375/month for my health, dental, and vision insurance. Whew! Much better than the $611 the nearest competitor offered! Plus, there’s a program called Cal-Cobra which will keep me with the same insurance for quite a number of additional months, thank-you-very-much. So, I wrote a quick check and put it in an envelope, finished feeding the birds and getting myself ready, and lo – exactly on time the Shuttle showed up to take me to the airport.
The driver was a very pleasant fellow, and luckily for me, I was his only passenger! Anyone who’s ridden airport shuttles knows that a trip that would take you 20 minutes alone can take nearly 2 hours when you’re sharing a shuttle with other bleary-eyed travelers. So, the day started out luckily! Airport security was a breeze for a change, and I even found a place that sold semi-edible food for breakfast. On a roll, here!
This being Southwest, you may already know that there’s no assigned seating, but having checked in online the night before, I was one of the first passengers on the plane and took an aisle seat (from which I’m typing this as we fly toward Orlando) in the 2nd row. I don’t like the first row, despite the added leg room, because there are no tray tables on which to put my Netbook.
Resigned, I sat back. Why resigned? Because there are no direct flights between Burbank, California and Orlando, Florida. Today’s flight actually started in San Diego, and from Burbank flew to Oakland (one hour’s flight), then to Denver (2.5 more hours) and finally to Orlando (another 3 plus-a-little hours).
As I type, we have perhaps one more hour to go to reach Orlando, and though I haven’t done much beside read, nap, and write this, it’s been a tiring day. Plus, my culinary experiences have lacked a certain luster…an egg and bacon sandwich for breakfast (minus one of the slices of bread), then some complimentary peanuts and crackers on the plane, followed by one granola bar, then a small bag of ritz cheese crackers, and TWO complimentary packets of peanuts (be still my heart!) and a few cups of water. Think of the weight I’ll lose!
Well, so I’m looking forward to one final, draggy hour here on board the airplane – and then into the welcoming arms of my family! And THEN the fun will begin!
----- and time passes -----
----- and time passes -----
Okay – it’s now Wednesday morning in the hotel room and I can now finish telling you about Day One.
As the plane taxied to the terminal the flight attendant sang to the kids, welcoming them to Orlando (and thanking them for flying southwest) in a Disney tune (I forget which one – hey, I was TIRED!) Then he described how Tinkerbell would visit the kids in their hotels but they’d have to stay up ‘til midnight, and she’d only visit the kids who made the most noise. I’m surprised none of the parents beat him up as they left the plane!
Anyway, once off the plane everyone sort of drifted in the direction of the baggage carousels and there I found my sister "H" and my sister in law "N" smiling at me! What a nice sight – I hugged them both simultaneously, and then found my sister's husband, "B", who had already been watching for my luggage. Thankfully, it DID arrive (whew) and off we went.
I had NO idea that The Villages was such a long drive from Orlando! A bit over 50 miles, according to "B"! Yeow! Happily the roads are very good and of course, it being after 11pm there was no traffic. They brought me to the hotel, came up to have a look at the room (decent, fairly typical room) and staggered back to their place (tired, that’s all).
As to the hotel, it has some amount of charm – lots of wicker furniture, very coarse TP and tissues (do NOT attempt to use if you have any conditions that leave your skin delicate!) and no complimentary mouthwash. Darn. I had been looking forward to that – oh well. The bed was large and fairly comfortable for a person who’s slept on a waterbed for 30 years…and naturally I didn’t sleep very well. Of course, that’s typical of all travelers – first night away is the worst, and it gets better night by night. Actually, since I didn’t get to bed until 1am (eastern time) and had to wake up at 7, I’m still kind of tired this morning. Jet lag, no doubt. To me it isn’t quite 5am as I type this…
So, in another half hour "B" will meet me downstairs and drive me over to their house where we’ll breakfast and figure out what else we’ll do with our time.
The adventure has official begun! (why do I feel like Hewell Howser when I say that?)
No comments:
Post a Comment