Around South America in 80 Days

January 2, 2019

Home to Fort Lauderdale

The day started very early – actually it was a continuation of Tuesday. As some of you already know, I am a night owl. Since I had to leave home at 3:30 am, I decided not to even try to go to sleep Tuesday night. I left home and drove to my friend, Carolyn’s house. Once again, she was nice enough to offer to drive me to the airport (even at 4 am!). I left my car at her house where my daughter and son-in-law will pick it up later.

We arrived at the airport about 4:20 and since I had already checked-in and printed my boarding pass at home, all I had to do was print my luggage tag. I had taken a number of items out of my suitcase and was able to get it to 48.8 pounds at home but it weighed 52 pounds at the airport. Luckily, they did not charge me extra.

Getting through security was a breeze since I have TSA pre-check with my Global Entry. Boarding was supposed to start at 5:25 but it was about 10 minutes late. Even so, boarding went quickly and we pulled away from the gate right on time at 6 am. We were number 1 in the queue for take-off and we were off by about 6:10. It was a very smooth flight and the seatbelt sign stayed off once we reached 10,000 feet until we started our descent.

I really like flying JetBlue because they have lots of leg room (even the very tall guy sitting next to me was not bumping his knees on the seat in front of him), free wi-fi in flight (although I did not use it this time), and, best of all, non-stop flights between RIC and FLL.

I nodded off after my orange juice and pretzel breakfast for a few minutes and suddenly we were getting ready to land. The flight was close to 20 minutes early landing. My suitcase was one of the first ones on the carousel, there was no line for a taxi and I was at the hotel just before 9 am ($16 for taxi). I was very pleased that my room was ready (I had checked in on-line Tuesday night) and I was upstairs by 9:02. I totally destroyed the room with unpacking various items in hopes that things will be better distributed on the way to the ship on Friday.

I was yawning so much I decided that a nap was in order. I slept for about three hours. It was then time for a swim. The hotel has a very nice pool. I read for awhile and then did some laps. There were a few kids playing in the pool but they stayed near the edge so I could swim with no problems. I only did about 2/3 of my normal laps before getting out and reading some more. Although the high was in the low 80s, there was a nice breeze and it never felt warm.

One of the reasons I chose the Renaissance Cruise Port Hotel was because it is on SE 17^th Street which I knew had a number of stores and restaurants nearby. About 3:15 I started off for the shopping area where the Panera is located (same Panera where I spent some quality internet time on my 2014 WV) which is about a 7-minute walk (remember, I walk slowly).

I first went to the Ross store where I found a new bathing suit. I swim at the YMCA about four days a week and the pool does a number on my bathing suits. The Y pool is where my old bathing suits go to die so I am always on the lookout for inexpensive suits (the one I found was only $19.99 so no big deal when it dies).

Next stop was the $ store. One of the things I had to leave behind was hairspray so I stocked up for the cruise plus I found a few other items. They did not have a few things I needed so I will walk across the street to Walgreens tomorrow (another plus for the location).

By then I was very hungry since the juice and pretzels were hours before so Panera was my next stop. I had a dollar off a pasta dish and a free bagel on their loyalty program so I had my favorite, tortellini alfredo, and brought the bagel home for breakfast tomorrow.

As it was getting on towards sunset, I walked back to the hotel. I tried to organize some of the stuff I had pulled out of the suitcase while I watched the evening news. As I finish this up it is not even 9 pm but I feel myself fading so I don’t think it will be a late night. Of course, every time I say that I have a hard time getting to sleep!