I was awake pretty early again, and once again decided to skip driving over to the beach for sunrise. Instead I got up, had a Bobo for breakfast, watched the news (FL man had been stealing fishing poles) and finished packing.
Packed up, I think I headed out a little after 8. Checkout was quick, and then I hopped in the car and headed to a gas station. Unbeknownst to me, gas prices in south Florida were a sign of things to come, but I managed to find a gas station with a pre-Iran situation acceptable to me price, filled up the tank, and then legitimately got on the road.
I got to Flamingo Gardens around 9:45, after a reasonably uneventful drive down the Florida Turnpike. My flight tonight wasn’t until evening, but I’d paid attention to traffic patterns, and driving down to Fort Lauderdale midday was not high on my priority list. Morning traffic was surprisingly doable. Afternoon looked like hell. So I’d picked a tourist spot to visit that was close to the airport.
Flamingo Gardens was…fine. It was big, but a little confusing, with a few flamingos and a lot of free-range peacocks. There were some other animals there too. Definitely an old Florida roadside attraction.
After thoroughly exploring Flamingo Gardens, I headed back to the car and drove a pretty short distance to the Sawgrass Mills area. Here, I grabbed Chick-fil-A for lunch, which I enjoyed as usual. Then it was off to the Sawgrass Mills mall…after seemingly circling for a bit trying to find non-valet parking. But, once parked, it was into the mall.
This place was HUGE. I had come for two things: the Character Warehouse and my first Primark experience. I ended up spending a couple hours just exploring the different store options. And then I spent a little more time just killing time in the food court, because it was air conditioned and why not. I was very impressed with this mall. Also, I’m so not in NH anymore. I’d never seen such a big mall.
As I was getting ready to leave for the airport, I got the text from JetBlue that my flight would be delayed about half an hour. Cool. I did some searching, found out that the inbound flight was delayed…more than half an hour, but was on the way, texted Nick both the official update and my interpretation of the update, and then headed for the car.
I headed for the airport which involved a fair amount of traffic and some absolutely crazy drivers, plus a stop at a gas station I wasn’t sure I’d ever actually get to leave, thanks to the previously mentioned traffic, but I and the rental car made it back to FLL in one piece. Return was easy, and pretty soon I was joining the line for the shuttle bus to terminal 3.
The line was pretty long, so I had to wait for the second bus, but with a delayed flight, no biggie. A second bus came along surprisingly quickly too. While boarding the bus was easy for me, others had a lot of luggage, so that took awhile. Then we got stuck in the departure area traffic. And then we all realized that the air conditioning on the bus really wasn’t working. It was clear that most of us were headed to the northeast, so we weren’t exactly used to the heat. But most of us also recognized that the driver who was stuck on this bus had it way worse than those of us that would get off the bus when we arrived at the terminal. There was one guy though that was downright obnoxious about it, and he wasn’t exactly discouraged by his family. Needless to say, when we finally arrived at the terminal, there was basically a stampede off the bus, and I was happy to sit and wait to allow the obnoxious family to pass.
Getting off the bus definitely brought relief, it was significantly cooler on the sidewalk where the bus dropped us off than it was on the bus. And then I headed inside to air conditioning that was functional.
There was minimal wait to check luggage with JetBlue (although the people in front of me had clearly never flown before), so within just a few minutes of stepping off the bus, my suitcase was checked and I was headed for security, where I found no wait at Pre-check. So, security was also fast. I then spent some time debating what to do about food, finally settling on Pollo Tropical. The food options are not spectacular in this terminal. I got a chicken and rice bowl and sat down to eat with a view of the city and the tarmac. Dinner actually was pretty decent, so I’ll keep this spot in mind for future airport trips.
After eating, I headed for my gate, which was all the way at the end of the terminal, in an area designed for 2 gates max, but that actually held 4 gates. Needless to say, it was chaos, with 4 delayed flights in this area. I wandered in the general vicinity of the gate (no seats available) until it was clear that my plane had arrived, and then I headed to the bathroom to change into jeans for the flight home. It was still in the upper 80s here but would not be warm at all when I arrived in Manchester.
As I emerged from the restrooms, I saw a familiar face that was just as surprised to see me as I was to see her: one of the special ed administrators from my school district. We chatted for a few minutes, and then headed to our respective gates.
I returned to…continued chaos. And it only went downhill from there. They were actively boarding a couple flights in my gate cluster. Meanwhile, my flight was waiting on a flight attendant “but they’re making their way here from another gate”... Oh I’ve heard that line from JetBlue before.
Sure enough, it was probably half an hour before that final flight attendant arrived. No joke, the gate area started clapping when he appeared. And then we continued to wait. A solid 10 minutes later, the gate agent announced that maintenance was onboard the plane and she’d been asked to hold boarding. Uh oh.
About the time I started searching for seats on a flight to Boston, the gate agent re-appeared and announced boarding was beginning. She called another colleague over and they set up dueling lines to scan us on to the plane. There was just a couple minutes between each group being called. They were clearly on a mission to get us out of there.
I honestly have no idea when we pushed back from the gate, but it was well after our scheduled time. However, once we pushed back, it was pretty close to full speed ahead. I think we were about 3rd in line for departure when we reached the runway, which for a late night flight isn’t bad. Captain Ryan was also determined to be a leadfoot and ATC got their act together for our route, so we were told flying time would be 2 hours and 38 minutes. That’s shorter than most flights between MHT and MCO, and FLL is further south than MCO!
Upon take-off, I had a beautiful view of one of the next Disney Cruise ships I will be on. Those funnels sure are distinct at night! It was pretty awesome to see!
Once airborne, the flight was pretty uneventful. I texted and social mediaed and chatted with the girl sitting next to me, who is in school to become a special ed teacher.
Arrival in Manchester was uneventful. We pulled into gate 7 and were directed to the baggage claim area that I had forgotten existed. As is JetBlue’s MO in every airport I’ve flown to with them, baggage took its sweet time, but once the carousel started spitting out luggage, mine emerged fairly quickly. I headed outside, found an open patch of curb, and Nick pulled up a minute later. We loaded my suitcase in his car and headed home, where Gizmo greeted me like I’d been gone forever, and was even clearly trying to tell Nick I had come home, even though Nick and I had come through the door together.
Final thoughts:
I enjoyed this trip more than I expected. The Jupiter/Juno/West Palm area really are great.
I ate very well on this trip.
I did miss Disney.
Flying was not for the faint of heart this trip. I can’t believe how lucky I was with my flights!
Traffic in the Fort Lauderdale area is not for the faint of heart and has me thinking hard about my travel strategy for next April’s cruise…or rather…the days after it.
It was another great trip!
