FLYING HIGH

At 37,000 feet above the earth, even cities look like miniature objects. Some of the larger landmarks that we flew over on our way from Las Vegas to Florida, like the Grand Canyon, are distinguishable from that high up, but not much else. In my opinion, there's only a few good things about flying the so called friendly skies. The take offs and landings are pretty cool, and you get to where you're going a heck of a lot faster than if you were driving. Other than that, flying is way over rated.

In the last few years, Patty has flown all over the world, from China to Greece. Since we retired from our Harley-Davidson Dealership, I haven't flown hardly at all, and that's a good thing. The airport security thing is necessary, but in some ways, it seems like overkill. We didn't make it through the screening process, because my small travel toothpaste, and a small aftershave container wasn't inside a plastic zip lock baggie. We had to stand and watch a TSA dude go through our carry on bags, as all of the other folks who weren't singled out for "secondary inspection", passed by, looking at us like we were either stupid, or perhaps even something worse. When the small tube of toothpaste was securely inside the plastic baggie, and no threat to humans or property, we were allowed to proceed to our gate.

Both flights, Vegas to Tampa, and Tampa to Fort Lauderdale were sold out, and as the hours dragged by, my feet began to do the itchy, twitchy dance. How my wife, or anyone for that matter, can sit on an airplane for hours and hours is beyond me. When we touched down in Tampa, after 4 hours in the air, my restless body was real happy to get up and walk into the terminal. We had over an hour to get a bite to eat before getting back on a plane for the short hop to Fort Lauderdale.

When we got to the hotel, and stored the bags in the room, we met Mike and Amy who flew down from Augusta, GA, and Marc, Chandra, and Laila, who flew in from Tucson, AZ. It was nice to be with my two boys and their families, and after a visit, we retired back to our room.

This morning, the limo picks us up at 11am, for the ride to our ship at the pier in Miami, and we'll set sail around 4pm this afternoon. Hopefully, I'll be able to post from the ship, and keep everyone up to date.

Lake Ponchetrain in Louisiana, just north of New Orleans.