Key West: I shoulda known...

Friday the 13th was probably NOT the best day to start a vacation.  At least not in this case.

Rae (the wife) and I headed to the Twin Cities Int'l Airport (MSP airport code), found a parking spot, and then found our friends Gwen and Tom after getting through security at around 11am.  Although we had to walk longer than anticipated (at least on my end), all was good.  And we were excited to get to Key West, where we'd hook up with our other friends Deb and Terre, who headed from Minneapolis to Miami the day before, so that they could take a leisurely drive down along the bridges through all the keys.

From Minneapolis, we headed on Delta to Atlanta (ATL airport code).  Now of course Rae and I were used to Northwest, but traveling on Delta was a new experience for both of us.  On this Delta flight, all the seats were that dusty navy leather.  Leather isn't really preferred for us hot bodies, as after about an hour we feel our skin heat up (if not earlier).  I don't know about you, but when I have a long day of traveling ahead of me, I like not to start off so.... moist.  Not that I was sweating, but damn man... the possibilities were there.

Also, Rae noticed that the seats were actually smaller than on all/most of the Northwest flights we'd been on.  The only real redeeming thing about this flight was that the airplane had the tv screens throughout (watch your head!) so you could watch old reruns of one good show (Futurama) and a couple of OK ones.  Rae and I opted for watching Baby Mama on the good ol' iPod Touch... which is really great to have on a trip.

We arrived in Atlanta, and after a two hour layover we boarded the 70 passenger plane that was to take us to Key West.  Key West (EYW airport code), has a really short runway, so they tend to keep the passenger load down to around 50 for these flights.  Ours was 55.

Once seated, they began calling names out, almost stalling for time.  They asked these people to recheck at the gate -- and all but one were disappeared from the flight, never to be seen again.  The one guy that came back was fighting them, as he had been booted from 2 other flights to the Keys that day, and had been at the Atlanta airport since 8am.  We left the gate sometime after 7:30pm.

The flight took off and we flew across Georgia, over Tampa, St. Petersburg, Key Largo, and I could see lone U.S. 1 that lead on into the night.  And I watched the clouds and fog build, not really thinking of anything.

Then I felt my arms and legs first turn weightless and then to lead as the plane dropped and banked hard to the left, leaving U.S. 1 behind us.  Two minutes later the captain came on the speaker and told us we were going to Miami.  As his voice crackled into the cabin, he told us three other planes attempted to land, but couldn't see the runway due to heavy fog.  The visibility was 10 feet!  the Key West airport had actually closed early.

Of course there was uncertainty.  I turned to Rae and said, "If they offer us hotel, I'm renting a car."  She agreed.  Our priority was getting to our destination.

And of course the Miami airport (MIA airport code) wasn't ready for our reroute.  The gate they sent us to was in a wing that had been virtually shut down, and the airline hadn't yet told us their plans.  Of course, I don't think they knew yet.

We waited in the plane at the gate waiting for a gate attendant to usher us out.  My guess was that once we left the plane we would be gone for good, though others said we might take off again in a half hour or so.

We waited more, the passengers all talking amongst themselves, checking their mobile phones for updates from the outside world.  I was texting Deb and Terre to give them updates, as they had offered to pick us up at the airport when we got in.  After 45 minutes on the tarmac, we were released from the plane into the terminal.  Other than the 24 hour news stand and the weary passengers from our flight, the place was a morgue.

We were relegated to wait even longer while they figured it all out.  The hotels in Miami were all booked, they said.  So were the ones in Ft. Lauderdale.  I didn't even know that was an option.

Again, I was of the mind to just rent a car and get down there.  Why deliberate and fuck around taking about what we should do?  Let's just DO IT.  I had energy, and knew I could make the 2-3 hour drive myself.  But we needed our bags before anything could happen.  

Delta did right by their passengers.  They chartered a bus to take us down.  So we finally were released to baggage claim to wait for instructions.  I texted Deb and Terre again with an update at about 11pm.  Another 30 minutes and we were in the bus.  For whatever reason, the four of us were back by the bathroom.  I remember that in grade school the back of the bus was the sought after position.  However, the yellow buses we rode didn't contain any black water.

Thankfully, there weren't too many people using the facilities... so we didn't catch a ton of whiffs of the sweetly sickening scent from the other side of the door.

We drove through the night.  The orange light from the sulphur streetlights swinging by the windows did battle with the deep green cabin lights, camouflaging our tired bodies with pallid painted streaks.

We stopped occasionally once in the keys, letting off passengers alone in the darkness, sending them off into the deep, heavy air.  We continued on... to Marathon, Big Pine Key, and finally swung right into the Key West airport.  We drove around the parking lot and looped all the way around (I'm guessing the driver missed his stopping point the first time around).

The lot was empty other than the cars huddled together in the cozy parking lot, so I texted Terre to pick us up.  He texted right back, saying he was 10 minutes away.

Of course, by the time we swung back around the lot, the drop-off area was swarming with taxi cabs.  We were hounded by a dozen drivers looking for fares.  I figured Terre was already on the road, so why call him now.

So, all the other passengers got in their cabs and left, leaving the four of us chatting with the Sheriff as he waited to make sure everyone left safely.  As we talked about the unusual weather, Terre pulled up quickly next to the Sheriff's truck at around 2:30am.  We piled in to his rental, our excitement of arrival tamped down with the weight of exhaustion.

TO BE CONTINUED....