Last Blog until March 5

We took our time packing and getting out of Solivita. It quickly became apparent yesterday that we weren't going to make it to the movie. No loss. It got terrible reviews.

We finally pulled out of our neighborhood around 11:30, heading south on the Florida Turnpike. I had just activated a SunPass to pay the tolls, so it was fun to go through the express lane and see the toll get paid automatically, just like the NE EZPass. I love that. Now I have both on the car, so I'm good from Maine to Florida! LOL

Around 1 p.m we stopped at one of the turnpike rest areas for lunch. I had planned to do a Subway lunch to keep my calories low, but there wasn't one. Instead we ate at Earl of Sandwich. We love their tuna melt and tomato soup, having had it a few times at the one at Disney's Marketplace. After that delicious lunch, we took off again, but about an hour later down the road, just south of Port St. Lucie, I got a flat tire. It was weird! I never lost control of the car, but I heard a noise and soon realized I had a flat. When I pulled over, it seemed like the tire had just disintegrated. There were piles of black ash in heaps around the car.

We emptied the trunk and got out all the necessities, but Mark could not budge the lug nuts at all. While he was on the phone calling AAA, a tow truck pulled up. The driver said he would change the tire for $25, so we said GREAT! We were heading back down the highway in just a few minutes, going 50 in a 70 zone with my flashers on. We had to go south 16 miles to get to the exit off the turnpike at Jupiter, FL. Then we turned right around and went 12 miles north on I-95 to the nearest tire store that was open on Sunday. We arrived at 4 and they closed at 5. By 5 we were heading out the door with four brand new tires. I made sure he looked at all four tires because they were all the same age. Starting a three week vacation by dropping $464 for tires before you even get on the ship isn't my idea of a good time, but now I have four great tires, and I had no other options. This kind of emergency is exactly why Mark wanted to drive to Miami a day early so there would be no surprises.

Back down I-95 we went, but we hit a bit of a back up from around the Ft. Lauderdale airport into the Miami area. We lost about a half hour of time, but still we really had no deadlines. We got to our hotel and the Denny's next to it at 7:30. First stop was Denny's for dinner, where I ate my usual tilapia dinner. They now serve sauteed spinach as a side, so I had string beans and spinach as my two sides. It was delicious, but the spinach was swimming in oil so I didn't save any calories there by trying to be healthy. Anyway we made it into the hotel, all checked in and unpacked, in time to watch Desperate Housewives at 9 p.m. Nice.

This is a Comfort Inn and Suites, AAA recommended. Usually we like them, but this one is FILLED to the brim, including every room on our floor except ours, with teenagers on some kind of trip. They were LOUD, but giggly, and obviously having fun. I guessed they were some kind of school group, maybe a band or chorus or something. Our room had one of those adjoining doors, so we heard everything from the room next door. No sound-proofing here! They were all speaking Spanish, so I had no idea what they were saying, but there was a lot of laughing and giggling. We turned our TV up pretty loud, so it wasn't really bothering us too much until after we turned the news off around 11:20. Then I started to wonder how late into the night it was going to go. Not late. Around 11:45 it suddenly stopped COLD, all up and down the hall as well as in the room next door. Ha Ha!! I suspect some chaperone came around and told them all to go to bed immediately. It could NOT have been a coincidence.

This morning is Valentine's Day! Happy Valentine's Day to everybody. I gave Mark some sugar free chocolates in a Mickey bag before we left the house yesterday, just in case he didn't want to take them on the cruise. He didn't, but he brought the card to open this morning. He surprised me with a beautiful sterling silver Mickey head in a heart necklace. I put it right on so I can wear it all day! Thanks, Mark. Love you lots!!

So off to breakfast at the hotel now. Then we will go hunting for a post office. We planned to mail a package on Friday, but I expected our local post office to keep the same hours as our Maryland one. Oops, never assume anything. We got there at 4, thinking it would be open until 5, but NO...it closes every day at 3:30. HUH? Isn't this a federal agency? Shouldn't it stay open a little longer? Hm...things are different in Florida. So...we still have the package in the car and are going to go find a Miami post office this morning. We also need to fill the tank with gas, so it's ready to head home on March 5 without hunting for gas on a Saturday. At 1 p.m. we have to be in the parking lot about a mile from the dock in order to catch the free shuttle to the ship. We'll get processed and boarded by around 2 p.m., I expect. It sets sail at 5 p.m.

We do plan to buy some internet time, but not nearly as much as we did last spring going to Hawaii and the Panama Canal. I'll take lots of pictures, of course, but I'm not going to upload and send them out until after we get home. That's what cost so much money in internet time. We will check our email quickly maybe every other day, so feel free to send an email if you like. I am not going to blog because that will just take up too much time. I'm not going to lurk on FB either. We will be home on March 5 in the late afternoon, so the next FB post and blog entry will be that evening. See you then!

Meanwhile, here is our itinerary if you'd like to know where we are each day.
Feb. 14 Sail away from Miami
Feb. 15 At sea
Feb. 16 At sea
Feb. 17 St. Bart's
Feb. 18 Guadeloupe
Feb. 19 Martinique
Feb. 20 St. Martin
Feb. 21 At sea
Feb. 22 At sea
Feb. 23 Coco Coco Cay, Bahamas
Feb. 24 Miami, end one cruise, start the second
Feb. 25 Key West, FL
Feb. 26 Cozumel, Mexico
Feb. 27 At sea
Feb. 28 Miami, end this cruise, start the third, our friends Rudy and Georganne are joining us!
Mar. 1 At sea
Mar. 2 Roatan, Honduras
Mar. 3 Cozumel again
Mar. 4 At sea
Mar. 5 Miami, disembark and head home

Bye Bye for now.