Back to the Tropics, Day IX

  (contd.)

Day IX

There and Back Again

 

One, last sunrise over the pool (and lake. . . but who honestly gives a shit about the lake at this point in time.)

We started organizing our luggage the night before - doing multiple loads of laundry, wrapping the more fragile souvenirs (like Abby's manta statue from Discovery Cove, my Vader bust, etc.) in laundry and packing them in my carry-on, crap like that - and spent most of the morning doing walk-throughs of the condo, making sure we weren't leaving anything behind (mission accomplished there.)

We were lucky enough to have an afternoon flight back to Detroit, so we were able to sleep in a bit this morning.  We Houghs are a lazy lot, and we were 100% cool with the way this worked out.

By about 10am we were out of the condo for the last time and ready to get the hell out of dodge. . .

After going through the whole drop-off procedures for the Turo car - which took us a little more time than we thought it would (Kris had somewhat of a learning curve with the whole process, we'll just leave it at that) - we took a roundabout way to the Delta terminal to check in for our flight (we had to drop off the car in Terminal A, but our flight was departing from the usual Terminal B - total pain in the ass.)

Patiently waiting for her mom to check her flight information.

Arriving in Terminal B, an hour behind schedule. . .

Kris checks in our three suitcases - no issues whatsoever with this part.

Here's where things get f***y.  We arrived in front of the TSA Security Check Point with an hour and a half to spare before our flight departed - more than enough time one would think to get to our departure gate, right?  Well, we had breezed through the Detroit Metro Airport TSA in less than 10 minutes, surely the Orlando airport would be just as efficient, right?  Well, we felt like we had plenty of time to check out the last-minute Disney, Universal, and Sea World gift shops before going through the TSA line.  So much so, in fact, that we spent about 30 minutes perusing the stores before finally getting in line.

This was, hands-down, the single dumbest thing we did all vacation.  We failed to factor in the fact that, unlike the Detroit airport, Orlando's airport has a much higher volume of international travelers (due to Orlando's huge tourism industry) and, as such, the security lines would move much, MUCH slower.  We were stuck behind a group of about a dozen (what I can only assume were) Mongols, and no one knew what the hell they were doing or going.  The TSA team was horribly under-staffed, and they only had one detector operating.  As such, as we slowly - ever-so-slowly - progressing through the line, watching the time fly by.  Pretty soon we realized - to our horror - that we only had twenty minutes to get to our flight before departure.

We finally cleared security with a mere ten minutes to spare.  We had to run to the tram station, but were lucky enough to run straight on to a tram (no waiting involved, thank God.)

Severe panic was setting in by this point - we only had a handful of minutes to spring from the tram to our departure gate, as our flight was wrapping up boarding by this point in time and preparing to take off.  If you've ever seen the Home Alone movies - where an entire family takes off at a dead sprint through the airport, screaming at each other the whole way towards their gate, that was the Houghs this afternoon.  Definitely not our finest moment as a family, but not our worst either.

We were the LAST people onto the plane, and we got there just as they were announcing our name throughout the Delta gates.  The attendants were shaking their head as we hastily handed over our boarding passes and took off down the ramp towards the plane.  The looks we got from the passengers (especially in First Class) already seated in the plane said it all:  this family is a hot f***ing mess.  But we made it, and we managed to fly all the way back to Michigan without incident.  Kris' Uncle Wayne picked us up in Kris' van, and we made eventually drove it all the way back home to Midland without any other hiccups.  Kind of a stressful, panicky ending to an otherwise perfect trip, but I suppose you can't have a true adventure without some sort of inconvenience rightly considered.  All things told, this was one hell of a vacation, and we're definitely looking forward to the next one.  And there WILL be a next one - after all, we're part-Floridians, and the theme parks of Central Florida feel just as 'home' as Central Michigan.  Until next time, America.

- FIN - 

- Brian