Well, there was something quite different in store for me for this week....To start off with, Kenny and I got this flight completely free. It was a promotional deal that we got when we signed up for our cell phone plan. What a cool idea right!? Two free round trip airfares to one of twelve exciting locations! WOW!..... Didn't your Mom ever tell you "Nothing is ever free"? Well, the airfare WAS free, but to get to Miami we had to fly from OKC to MINNESOTA and down to Miami!! Wow, not quite a direct flight huh? But that's okay, we're troopers.
So we actually arrived in Miami at about 12:30 in the morning, got our luggage and had our rental car booked for about 1:00 am. We planned to pick up the car, go and have breakfast at an IHOP and drive on towards the everglades (which are open 24 hrs) and forgo spending extra money on a hotel room that we would only need for a few hours that night. The shuttle from the airport to the car rental place was actually faster than expected and we got to Thrifty right at 1:15 am. How exciting, I had our reservation and confirmation number right in hand and we were ready to go!Not quite, we walked in to find a line of about thirteen slightly agitated looking people, three frantic and annoyed employees and one, pulling his hair out in clumps, manager. Kenny and I stood patiently in line beaming at each other, so very proud of our sweet eight and a half by eleven piece of paper which so plainly in black and white says that our car is waiting right outside for us. Which IS of course what a reservation is right?
Well, by the time we crept closer and closer to the front of the line I started questioning the people around us...."did you make a reservation online?" to which they of course replied "yes"..... oh dear, this was not looking good. But that's okay, we're troopers.
About forty five minutes later when our turn finally arrived the gentleman who helped us (actually the nicer of the three employees) told us that they had no more cars (WHAT!?!? we have a R.E.S.E.R.V.A.T.I.O.N.!!!!) how does that even happen?....but, they are going to help us out and give us a glorious super extendo CARGO VAN! Whoa momma!
I suppose when you're starving and sleep deprived at 2:30 in the morning anything to get you OUT of thrifty car rental sounds like a plan. So we accept the whale of a van and get going. They did say we could bring it back after 5:30 in the morning and trade it in for a smaller car. Whew! I don't think Kenny was looking forward to navigating the southern keys in that beast *grins*We found a Dennys not too far from Thrifty and ordered a nice warming breakfast. Our waitress was the sweetest angel from heaven. I will never forget her smile, like a beam of light in a room full of fog. I hope I make peoples days brighter like that. It was just so refreshing after what we'd just been through.
We were trying to s-t-r-e-t-c-h out our breakfast as long as we could so that the time would go by and we could go back and exchange our car. I went to the restroom to was my hands and splash some water on my face and when I sat back down at our booth I remember distinctly telling Kenny while squeezing my hands in and out of fists, "It feels like I have arthritis, my hands hurt so much, all my skin and my bones hurt".....OH NO, sounds like someone is getting sick. I just kept trying to think positive, to not let my brain believe that I could be sick. I'll psych myself out of this!Eventually we had to leave Dennys, so we rested in the car for as long as we could and finally drove back to Thrifty at about 4:00am. When we pulled the van in a man snatched our paperwork, beeped a scanner and started typing in a bunch on his keyboard. Wait...wait, I said drowsily, we want to EXCHANGE this van for a smaller car, we've only had it for a few hours, we were told to come back this morning to trade it out. "WHAT!?!" he said shockily, "I've already closed out your contract, oh man, why didn't you tell me that!?" he said rudely, as if I should have known the whole Thrifty check in and check out process. Needless to say we had to go back and wait for another forty minutes while the Thrifty people decided what they could possibly do with us. We eventually got the smaller car we had on reserve all along and were on our merry way. Next time I don't think we'll be so "thrifty".
We drove South along Highway 1 for about an hour and a half, all the way to the Everglades. We arrived just as the sun was peeking over the horizon. Let me just tell you, THIS was THE HIGHLIGHT of the trip. It was just like Jurassic Park. There was a wispy fog just blowing off the water, birds were waking up and chirping their good mornings, you could smell the fresh leaves and there were so many Alligators all over the place. It was so amazing! There was a wooden walkway that winded around and over the water and you could get some close amazing pictures. We really had a great time. I was feeling weaker and more and more tired, but trying to convince myself that all was well.
By about 7:30 in the morning I was ready to head back to the car and I just fell asleep in the passenger seat while Kenny continued to drive around the everglades park. We couldn't check into our hotel until 2:00, so Kenny just tried to keep me comfortable. I kept telling myself, just rest now and you'll be perky and back to normal in the morning. I was especially anxious to feel better because we had a catamaran trip to the Dry Tortuga's booked for the next morning!
We drove on down along the Keys on the overseas highway, enjoying the view, NOT enjoying the sickness coming on more and more....all the way down to Islamorada to our hotel. We got checked in and I weakly crawled into bed. This is turning into an EXTRA long post, and I don't want to fuss about me forever, but the entire rest of the week consisted of....
Kenny tending to my every need while I lay in bed moaning and crying! I was SO SO SO sick! I must have caught some kind of stomach virus while we were on the plane or something. It was AWFUL! We didn't get to do ANYTHING! I have NEVER been MORE thankful for my sweet precious husband. He took such amazing care of me and never once complained that he was missing out on all the fun stuff. I can't believe we were in paradise and all we saw was the inside of a hotel room.
Kenny not only took amazing care of me, but he also said, "I got to spend time with you, and that is all I ever wanted to do on my vacation anyway". I love him more than words can say!
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment