Today is a travel day back home. I slept in a little bit and had my final bowl of Generic Coco Krispies while sitting on the balcony. It was then time to pack up. Thankfully there was a scale at this AirBnB and I discovered my check bag might be a couple of pounds over, so I took some stuff out and moved it to my backpack. For inquiring minds, no it wasn’t my beach treasures weighing me down. They were already in my backpack. At the airport, my bagged weighed in at 49.5 pounds, just squeaking under the 50 pound limit.
We left for the airport at about 11:50 and got back to where it all began with no issues. I turned in Carlita (the name I gave our rental car) and had no issues or any surprise charges. Getting checked in and going through security was a breeze. We now had about 3 hours to kill before boarding our flight. Pete and Laurie had left a little ahead of us because they wanted to grab something to eat before getting to the airport. Linda and I had decided we weren’t hungry when they left so we didn’t join them. However once we got to our terminal The Olive Garden looked super appetizing. I said soup, salad, and breadsticks sounded awfully good. We took one loop through the terminal to see if there was anything else, but The Olive Garden was the best place. Once I looked at the menu, my original plan of just soup, salad, and breadsticks went out the window and I decided to get the chicken parmigiana which came with salad and breadsticks. It was super good, but I should have stuck with my original plan. I was uncomfortably full when we walked away, but I knew at least I wouldn’t have to find any food in Miami. I did lots of pacing to try to walk off some of lunch.
The flight from Panama City to Miami was uneventful and I watched “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”. I had read the book a couple of years back, and as in most cases the book was better than the movie, but I thought the movie was still good. In Miami we made our way through the long line for passport control and found the little area where we had to go to do our Global Entry interview. Pete, Laurie, and I had all applied online and were conditionally approved, but we just need to complete the in-person interview. There looked to be about 9 people waiting when we got there, but they had 3 employees working the queue (well at least 2 of them were conducting interviews, I’m not sure what the 3rd person was doing). It seemed to be moving along and after waiting 30 minutes our names were called. I wasn’t asked any questions, just finger-printed and had my picture taken before I was approved. I’m so happy to have a Known Traveler ID again and TSA Pre-Check.
The security line after Customs was super long and I think it took longer to get through that, than the Global Entry interview process. We had plenty of time though and made it to our gate with time to spare. Our flight was delayed 25 minutes before we boarded, and then once on the plane was delayed three more times before we finally took off at 11:05EST. I got home just before 2:00a.m.
Stats of the Day
Steps: 7,392
Temperature Difference From Take Off to Landing: 49 degrees
Cost of Olive Garden Meal for 2 in the Airport (w/tip): $68.98 – totally worth it
Stats of the Trip
Total Kilometers Driven: 2,794 (which is 1,736 miles for Americans)
Total Spent on Gas: $177.68
Total Steps: 347,564
Weight Gain/Loss: .8lb gain. I blame Olive Garden
Total Geocaches Found: 11
Pounds of Sea Glass Brought Home: 3.084lbs
