17 January Back to Miami and flying home
Sunrise in Miami
Today could be hectic if you so chose. Many scurry to be the first in line and fuss and fume in long lines. We usually waited and did well.
Pictures waiting to get off the
ship
The Miami Airport
Wake up was way too early. It was the first night I didn’t sleep well. We got through breakfast fine and had been given the color green for departure from the ship. They phased the people leaving so the baggage carousels, customs lines, and general confusion was easier. Green was the 3rd group and our line and wait for baggage really weren’t bad at all. Customs was much easier than checking in the bags with the airline. American is the only airline that can take your bags at the port. They opened every bag and swabbed for drugs/explosives in every one. It took a long time. Sandy knew we had a bus transfer as a part of our package – so once the bags were packed, we had an easy bus ride to the airport at 9:30. Going into the departures area I set the alarm off twice, so got sent to the code “W” bench (for all those confused, ask an older person about “Alice’s Restaurant about the reference). A really big guy came up and told me to face the wall and said “If the wand beeps twice, put your hands on the back of your head!” Needless to say, he had my attention. The wand did beep twice, but on my watch. He checked all over it and then just said “I don’t know, man.” And walked away. The 3 hours in the terminal went slowly and the Miami terminal is not as nice as most we’ve flown from/through. We boarded at 12:45 and had an uneventful flight, except that I had asked Sandy to wake me if I snored and she woke me often.
Chicago Airport
Chicago had heavy fog and the flight before and after ours had been cancelled, so our flight was overbooked. Our flight had been delayed. There was an earlier flight that had been delayed that we were able to get on as standby, but our bags wouldn’t be there until later. We got back to Cedar Rapids and Anne and Lyle picked us up. We went to eat and then returned for our luggage. It seemed the “legs” had somehow been broken off our bags, but everything else went very well..
Home
The next morning was 7 degrees. Welcome back to reality.