Writer's Wanderings

 Here we are, back in Florida and ready to cruise again. It felt so good to be back in the sunshine and warmth. February was pretty brutal at home between cold temps and tons of snow. Our cruise doesn't begin for a couple of days but anytime we need to be somewhere on a specific date and need to fly, we make plans to leave a day or two early to have an edge against bad weather that might delay our departure from home in winter months. That said, we also wanted to take a few extra days to catch up with family and friends we have in Key Largo who are also snowbirds. 

Our trip started out rather hectically. First Bob had scheduled an Uber ride to the airport for between 6 and 6:15 am that would have given us plenty of time to check luggage and have a quick bite of breakfast before boarding. Six o'clock came and he began tracking our ride. "He's heading to the airport!" We were confused. He was supposed to be heading to pick us up. That driver dropped us and another picked up the request but his estimated time to arrive was going to be another 40 minutes. For a moment Bob considered trying to change drivers but instead he said, "Let's go! We're driving." We grabbed luggage, threw it into the car and made it to the airport with just enough time. Thank goodness for Premier Access and PreCheck TSA.

A little breakfast, boarding and a pleasant flight to Fort Lauderdale followed by securing the rental car we had reserved. All went smoothly. And then before pulling out of the rental lot, we tried to register the rental car to the temporary Sun Pass for the Florida toll roads. Florida has electronic readers set up at intervals on toll roads that either read your window pass or your license plate to charge you the toll. There is no longer any toll booths that take cash. 

We entered all the information and the response we got was that the license plate was already registered to another account. Sure enough, we could see where the Sun Pass had been in the window. The sticky backing hadn't come off the window cleanly. We gave up and decided we could get something to eat first and then figure it out. Maybe the previous renter's time on the pass would run out by then.

The McDonald's not far from the airport where we often eat after a flight surprised us by being open to dining in. We took our lunch to a table and enjoyed the view of sunshine and blue skies and green trees. Then back to the car and the challenge of the Sun Pass. Bob dialed the 800 number and we were put on hold for almost a half hour. The lady told us that yes the car was registered to another pass and we would have to dispute the error we kept getting by emailing a picture of our car rental agreement. She walked us through the email response on the website telling us what to write. The problem came when the picture was too large to send. Yikes!

FBCKL has unique communion
cups.

We tried several ideas to reduce it by emailing it to each other. When that didn't work, Bob fished out his laptop, connected it to the hotspot on his phone and went into the photo editor on the computer to edit it and finally get it to send. We both agree. That probably won't be the end of it. Somehow the charges are going to get screwed up for sure. We'll deal with it then. All in all, it took us about two hours to get everything settled and put us on the way to our son's house to visit.

Saturday night was a great Mexican meal but we just missed getting a table for eight by about five minutes. A large group walked in the door as we approached. The restaurant was packed. We waited an hour to eat. Worth the wait but way to late for old folks to eat.

Sunday found us in Key Largo at the church we attend when we spend the winter here. We met our Michigan snowbird friends there and then had brunch at our favorite spot followed by a round of our favorite card game with plenty of catching up along the way. The trip was beginning to get much better.