Wednesday 4 April 2012

Miss Adventure

Or so some refer to me, a little play on misadventure, I have the odd one. I had one on Saturday, not as bad as Renee's travel story but not so flash either. Tied to Renee's story as well. I was supposed to leave on the same flight as Renee. Lucky for me I had changed mine to an earlier one. Her flight hit a fierce thunderstorm and a tornado warning, severe turbulence and a landing at an air force base outside of Miami. Hours of waiting ensued, the plans to shop became a sigh.

They were told things by their captain. Things like; immigration will come here and process you illegal aliens; we will fly to Miami when it's clear; and the best of all, we have issues with our brakes so can't fly. Many missed their connections, including friends heading to the UK. It was a little fraught for all. I'm not sure I would have coped, the change in flights was a good choice for me.

Jo and I, blond Jo my boss, not sailing Jo, picked up our rental and drove to Naples. That's about two hours west of Miami. We had some fun with the officials on our way through, my resolve to make everyone smile this early morning worked well. The check in man laughed at my under weight bag when I made comment and said, with a big smile, that he should charge me for the under weight part. I suspect he remembered my small tanti last trip.

The security man asked me to remove my sweater, what's that? I'm a New Zealander, we call them cardis. I must have looked puzzled, he got that grumpy, you are defying the rules look I know so well and I clicked what he wanted. I commented that he just wanted to see my muscly arms, he grinned that grin that holds back laughter while Jo fell about laughing next to me. Opps, that quick quip can get me into trouble. There was more to come, even the Miami queue was amusing as we made two stern immigration officers laugh at the boss minion relationship comedy act.

The day in Naples was lovely. We checked out the sights and fixed up Jo's car so it was drivable. As she drove me out of town, well led me really, we stopped to check out some steam from under the bonnet of her car. Off we went again, Jo stopped again and came running towards my car, leaving hers idling. I looked over and it was moving, yep, still in drive. An elderly man came into the car park and was speechless with laughter as he watched Jo tottering off in her heels trying to catch the runaway car. I was kind of horrified, through fits of laughter. Mmmm I did promise her not to tell that story. All's well that ends well and she did manage to recapture her drivers seat.

We had Jo's satnav to get to Naples, I had no such thing on the return journey. I had checked out Google maps directions, sweet. First mistake, my head overruled my common sense and I left the freeway too early. Miles too early as it turned out. By the way, at this time, and it was well after dark and her expected arrival time of 3pm, Renee was still grounded at the air base. Still an illegal alien. But wait there's more, part two of this story tomorrow, watch this space. I need to sleep now, we have a presentation to do tomorrow.


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