Today did not start like my vacations usually do. I was not up before dawn for a sunrise flight. Instead I let a very clingy Gizmo have a little extra snuggle time, then got up, got ready for the day, watched the US vs Canada men's Olympic hockey game, and wrote an IEP. At some point I also discovered that Trump’s crony had shut down the TSA precheck lines, in light of the partial government shut down, so I had to research what standard security looks like too, since it’s been almost 10 years since I’ve done that in the States.
About the time that I finished the IEP, and that it appeared there was no way the US was winning this hockey game, I got the text from JetBlue that my flight was delayed about 20 minutes. Ok, I can deal with that. Gizmo clearly knew and parked himself near my suitcase so he could go on the trip too.
Shortly after a missed shot on goal in early overtime, we headed out the door, fully thinking the US was losing this hockey game. But, by the time we hit the main road, facebook was lighting up that the US men had won the hockey game in overtime. Clearly they just needed me to stop watching the game!
It was an uneventful drive down to Manchester, albeit with heavier traffic than normal. It was the end of February vacation week for Massachusetts plus they were about to take the brunt of this incoming blizzard, so they were all heading south from the NH mountains. But we got to MHT about half an hour after leaving the house, as expected.
Nick found a spot along the curb and helped get my luggage for me. We said goodbye and I headed inside where…I found a line. I quickly discovered it was the line for JetBlue. Cool. After a few minutes, I figured out that it was actually the line to check bags, after tagging them at one of about 3 kiosks. This was sort of my fear. Manchester only has a few JetBlue flights, so I expected minimal resources. I was correct. I was just glad I was learning this now, rather than before my 6 am flight out of here on JetBlue in April.
There was no line at the bag tag kiosks, so I got my bag tagged and boarding pass printed, then stepped into the bag check line. This actually moved relatively quickly, despite only having a couple of staff working, because so many family groups were flying. So pretty soon my bag was checked and I was headed for security, where I was very happy to find that the pre-check line was still open (and SIGNIFICANTLY shorter than the standard line). Because who wants to pull all electronics out of the backpack?!
After I had cleared security, I scoped out the food situation and settled into a seat at the bar at the Local. I got a margarita because it’s National Margarita Day after all, and a cheese flatbread. The margarita was excellent (and the most expensive margarita I’ve ever had, and yes, I’ve celebrated this holiday in Disney) and so was the pizza. The bartenders were great too.
Lunch and margarita consumed, I worked my way toward my gate, stopping to buy a Holy Donut because they sell them from vending machines here!! Holy Donut is a Maine based donut company. They make donuts from potatoes and they’re excellent. This was the most expensive donut I’ve ever bought, but I suspected it’d make for a better breakfast than whatever the hotel would be serving the next morning.
Then I settled into my gate to wait for my delayed flight, happy that it was just delayed, knowing if I’d been flying out of Boston instead I probably wouldn’t have made it out. Eventually the delayed inbound plane arrived, and even more eventually, boarding for my flight began.
Boarding was efficient enough, minus a father-son duo who couldn’t seem to find their assigned seat at the end of boarding and we pushed back from the gate about 2:00. We taxied most of the way to the runway and then stopped. And then after a couple minutes, where another plane left ahead of us, the captain came over the PA and told us that we had missed our departure window by approximately 5 minutes and so now we would have to wait about half an hour until the next departure window opened up for us.
5 minutes later, the captain came back over the PA and said that ATC had canceled the delays out of Manchester and so we would be powering the second engine back up and headed for the runway shortly. And that’s exactly what we did.
It was an uneventful but long flight down to Fort Lauderdale. And the magnitude of the incoming blizzard was really recognized when I realized the plane was over the Carolinas before I could see something other than clouds, although it had certainly gotten brighter once we reached cruising altitude. Landing in Fort Lauderdale also seemed to involve dodging thunderstorms, but I had some great views of the last of the cruise ships of the day leaving port and south FL water is just stunning even in less than perfect weather.
Once on the ground, deplaning was unremarkable. What was not unremarkable, however, were the masses of humanity and the amount of red on the flight boards throughout the airport. I got so lucky making it out of New England.
I made my way to baggage claim, where I probably waited 10 minutes or so before my suitcase emerged. Then it was full speed ahead to the shuttle to the rental car center. This ended up being a 15 or 20 minute wait. Something about needing to clear people out of the center before they could bus more people in.
When a bus rolled in, it was somewhat controlled chaos getting on board. Another solo woman and I snagged seats at the front, which was kinda nice, away from the rest of the chaos. The ride to the rental car center was a glimpse at my very near future. Traffic around FLL is something else!
Once at the rental car center, I headed straight down the escalator to Alamo and then right out into the garage (do the skip the line online paperwork people!), where I was directed to a Nissan Versa by an employee that was clearly sweating what to give the girl who booked a compact car, in light of all the travel disruptions.
I got settled in my car, dealt with checkout and hit the road. It was chaotic trying to get off airport property and the first several northbound miles were…an experience, but eventually people’s driving calmed down, and I reached my hotel about 8 pm.
Check in was very quick, and after being called back to the desk for my complimentary bottles of water, it was full speed ahead to room 234.
I inspected the room and balcony, locked up, showered, caught up with people at home, and then crashed. It had been a long day.
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