Day 22

Monday, Oct. 18

Our hotel in Orlando

Another day and the weather forecast is deteriorating for Florida.  When we got up, they were predicting severe storms moving in from the South, and also a cold front from the west that would mix with the hot high in Florida.  This would create storms with lots of rain.  It is a good day to be leaving to come home.

We went for breakfast, not the greatest we had on our trip, and asked if we could stay later than the checkout time.  They agreed, and we were able to check out at 1:00.  This was good because we were scheduled to fly out just after 6:00, and we couldn’t check our bags sooner than 4 hours before the flight.

Once we got organized, we took off and drove out to the airport – a short drive but a toll highway.  I wanted to find where we took the car back, and it was fairly easy, but it appeared to be a ways from our terminal.  We had to go find a gas station to fill the car, so we left.  There was a real “rip-off” joint just outside the airport limits, charging over $5 per gallon, so I refused to fill up there.  We headed back on the toll highway and drove around some more, and then filled up just across the road from the hotel at 3.45 per gallon.  We calculate that we paid about $25 - $30 in tolls this week.

Then it was time to head to the airport and return the car.  That is a pretty slick deal.  They had good directions, and we followed the signs to a line up where we were met by a lady with an electronic machine with which she could look us up and figure out the charges.

After unloading the bags, a “sky-cap” stopped by and loaded our bags onto his cart.  We told him which airline and he took us right there.  Then we had to wait a while until the crowd got smaller.  Checking in about 3 hours early means that there really isn’t any waiting in line.  I would recommend that this is the way to do it.

Orlando Airport from the air

Once we got rid or our bags, we were able to walk around a bit, and stopped to have lunch before going through security.  The security process was pretty easy, but I set off the alarm (Dawn had a pretty good laugh) – I had forgotten about my cell phone that was in my pocket.  Once through, we had to take a shuttle train to the terminal and then we waited.

We boarded on time – 6:00 and were taxiing out by 6:20.  The plane was full and hot, and we were in a hurry to get it over with.

All-in-all, it was a good flight, getting us into SeaTac at the right time (9:30pm PDT).  It was a bit of an adventure finding our route to the terminal for the flight to Bellingham, but we made it.  Now it is a wait until 10:40 to board, and then fly off at 11:05.  Stella is going to meet us at that airport and we should be at her place in Abbotsford by 1:30 (I hope).  We are still running on EDT so really it feels like 2:00 am right now.