Saturday, February 1, 2024
Pumpkin was sleeping peacefully in his cat condo until he heard the bags rolling across the floor at 7:45 a.m. He knew then that it was going to be a bad day for the kitty. His trained staff was leaving. He glared at us from under the bed as we said our good-byes. I take great pains to be sure that the cat sitter has everything he needs to take good care of Pumpkin, including detailed instructions, but I get no credit from Pumpkin – only complete disdain. Sigh.
We battled patchy, dense fog as we drove to the shuttle office. I was happy that there was little traffic. The shuttle left promptly at 9:00. The driver had to deal with more dense fog and had to make one stop along the way to pick up two passengers. We made it to the airport at 11:15. We dropped off our big bags at the curb-side check-in.
Using CLEAR and TSA-precheck, we were at the front of the security line quickly. Usually either Chuck or I have one of our carry-ons go through the “naughty” line. This time, we both had a bag. His backpack and my roll-on were both flagged. However, neither bag was opened when it reached the TSA person. He just handed them to us. Okay. On we go to the gate.
Once we got to our gate, we decided to have a Wendy’s lunch. Note – the airport Wendy’s does not offer the special “Biggie Bag” menu option. The fries were cold too. Pitiful. Dave would have been disappointed in that franchise.
We were supposed to board at 1:15 and leave at 2:00. Our plane was at the gate. At 12:30, we got notified that we were missing our flight crew. The flight crew that was on our plane had ended their shift and were leaving. Our flight would be getting a crew coming from Boston. That plane had not yet landed. Since having a flight crew is pretty important, we settled in to wait. They arrived at our gate at 2:00 to cheers from the waiting crowd. We were soon allowed to board, and we finally took off at a little after 3:00.
Chuck started a movie but I just listened to music and kept reading my book. I hate starting a movie on flights that are less than 3 hours. I didn’t see any series I wanted to watch either.
Once we landed and got our luggage, an Uber Comfort took us to the Hyatt Place Plantation. I thought I had messed up by choosing Comfort over XL when I saw the Tesla that pulled up. I didn’t think it was going to be big enough for the luggage. However, the driver was able to get the big bags in the trunk but the carry-on, he had to put in his front seat. The ride was very nice but I need to stick to Uber XL when we have luggage.
This Hyatt Place is not the one I normally choose in Ft. Lauderdale, but it was much less expensive than the Dania Beach one this time. I was even able to use Hyatt points. The accommodations were fine but there are very little food choices within walking distance from this location. We ended up at a KFC down the block. It was surprisingly good. The Colonel would have been proud.
Once we were back to the hotel, we got our bags tagged for tomorrow and settled in for some TV time. No hurry to get up as we don’t plan to leave the hotel until check-out time at 11:00.