Back to Florida

This was just a travel day. We had no hopes that it would be anything special, and it wasn't. We just hoped that there would be no surprises. No delays, no lost luggage, etc.

The taxi arrived on time and got us to the airport. Bella was flying from Terminal 2, and we were at Terminal 1. Each terminal has its own security lines, though, so unfortunately that meant the three of us couldn't hang out at the airport and have a coffee together. We said goodbye to Bella and the checked bag from Scarpamondo and headed to our terminal with the big black bag with no handles (they broke off on the flight over. Can't remember if I mentioned that in those early posts).

The security line was not nearly as long as we expected. And I remembered to pack my knife in a checked bag, so we didn't have to worry about that. The one thing that took a long time was the travel Berkey, our little water filter, which admittedly, looks a little like a pipe bomb on the X-ray machine. They checked it out, rescanned it three times, and finally had me completely disassemble the filter so they could swab it for explosives. That took a while. But otherwise, it went fast.

We got to our gate and then I got two coffees and a beetroot/ginger shot for Cristina. We ate our sandwiches from Lidl. They were great.

Our plane was about two hours delayed to board, and then we sat on the tarmac for another couple of hours. I watched an entire movie while we just sat on the tarmac. So that sucked, but at least we were on the plane. I think the issue was something to do with the baggage loader. Of course, the Canadian pilot was very "soory," and even included in his remarks, "it's times like this where I think it's good to remember the miracle that modern aviation is. 100 years ago, Dublin to Toronto took weeks, and today we can do it in around 7 hours." Well played, pilot. Well played.

During the flight, I watched Last Night in Soho, Licorice Pizza, and Belfast. We had bought a bag of chocolates to give the flight attendants, but there was never a great time. They were so busy it felt like it would have been an imposition. "I know your hands are full of trash, but here's a bag of candy for you. Take it!" And before you knew it, we were arriving in Toronto.

The Toronto airport experience was...annoying. Basically, when you're flying to the US, they have to pull your checked luggage and inspect it. But here's the kicker: they won't let you go to your gate until your luggage has been cleared. So they herded us into this big waiting room with a screen and we had to watch for our initials. Only when we saw our initials on the screen could we scan our passes and go through to the gates. Originally we had a six hour layover, which would have been plenty of time for a nice leisurely meal and a drink, and even a walkabout to get the blood pumping. But because our flight from Dublin left four hours late, we only had two hours in Toronto. And then an hour of that was in this holding cell, away from the restaurants. By the time we got out, we only had 20 minutes before our flight started boarding, so we had to settle for a quick and unsatisfying roast beef panini from a little snack stand near our gate. Which sounds better than it was. But...first world problems.

And then, of course, the flight was delayed 30 minutes. But at least we got going and were headed to Orlando. We sat in the very back row, which was only 2 seats wide. Cozy. Several flight attendants were hanging out near our seats when we boarded, so I gave them the bag of chocolates. We didn't get any special treatment from them during the flight, but I reminded myself that that's not why we do it.

I had a rental van reserved for 11 pm, even though we were scheduled to arrive at 11:30. We got in to Orlando closer to midnight. Bella was waiting near the baggage claim with the Scarpamondo bag. Excellent. We got our black bag and headed to the Avis counter.

I don't know exactly why the line was moving so slow, but I was about 6th in line, and it took about an hour and a half to get to the counter. Everyone in line was exhausted and cranky, and there was only one guy working the counter. Every transaction seemed to take 15-20 minutes. I couldn't comprehend why it would take that long to get a car. Surely the people had reservations. When I finally got to the counter, I checked the time on my phone. It took me three minutes to get the paperwork and be heading to the parking garage to get the car. Three minutes. I wonder what all the other people's situations had been.

The drive home was an effort. I was shaking my head repeatedly to clear my blurry eyes that were trying so hard to close. I stopped in Wildwood and got a sandwich and bag of chips at a gas station, not only because I was hungry, but because it kept me awake.

We finally got to our house around 4 am, which interestingly is around the same time we left home on June 16.

Our Ireland-Italy trip was complete.