Tampa Bound

And We're Off! Up at 6:38am making coffee and exercising. Ready to begin my day. updated sevral blog days although in a somewhat hurried & abreviated format Ran at 7:55am and took the senic Trabue Rd to Hague Ave then south to Wester Run route Back home at 8:25am. Mindy had already started breakfast and was on the deck reading Ate breakfast on the deck began fina lpacking and preparartions the nshowered Readied to deliver travel itinerary to Mindy's mom & to drop off Kaileigh's B-Day gift Placed sprinkler out front to water grass and flowers while out Gloria wasn't hoem so we left the itinerary with a note Kaileigh was home and was happy to see us. Lindsey showed up with Lil' Rocky shortly after we arrived. Visited with Shelly, Joey, & Kaileigh for about 1/2 an hour then headed back to my house. Returned. Mindy left for her home. I will pick her up at 1pm I watered all back and front flowers by hand for extra soaking. Loaded car with my packings Updated this blog and here I am! Talk to you from Tampa! Here we are at CMH internationanl Airport. After parking in the Blue lot 5 rows into the extended parking area, we loaded our 6 checked bags and 5 carry-ons into the parking shuttle. Quite a fiasco to say the least! We tipped the fine gentleman $5 for helping us with our bags. We rented a cart for $3 to aid in getting our load to the ticket counter. Thankfully, there was no line at the Delta counter. Problem!!! Despite repeated confirmation that Delta would be selling be a golf club box for my clubs, the fine folks at the ticket counter told me "sorry bout your luck". We don't have boxes. I asked what shall I do and the shrugged their shoulders and reminded me it was my problem. Frustrated I asked for clarification since i called not once but twice to confirm how to go about checking the clubs. They said, "sorry, should've called this counter" - which you can't! There solutio nwas to take my clubs back to my car. You've got to be kidding me! I asked ot speak with a manager. Enter Joe Farmer, Delta Custoemr Service mgr. Now Joe was a old guy that looked like he'd been around the block a few times, and we later learned with this very issue. He was a good listener and sought to find a solution, something the original rep, Becky was not willing to do. First, Joe tried selling me a travel case for the clubs at Delta's cost. I didn't bite. After all, If I were gonna buy one I would've wanted a selection. Instead, he offered to seek out a make shift golf club box and even asked competing airlines for boxes. We ended up making a real nice box out of two boxes, some garment bags, and tape. Problem averted. In the end we were assisted nicely but only after makingg a bit of a stink. Joe and Stephanie Ogden were very helpful. Becky was not. We'll focus on the positive and forget the bad! More later.... Tampa flight continued… Our flight was delayed by about 20 minutes due to our plane not arriving from Orlando until our scheduled departure time. We left somewhere just after 4pm instead of the planned 3:45pm. We took off to the west into a milky yet clear and steamy Columbus afternoon sky. Our plane was a rather small one – a CRJ40. It holds about half the seats as a 727 yet its top speed is just a fast. This was the only flight Bella remembers in her short life, although not her first. After all, how do you think that she got to Columbus from Guatemala? Both she and Jacob seemed to enjoy the view and the take-off. Service was surprisingly good given all the recent cut backs we hear of in the airline industry. It’s just a 2 hour flight so all I needed was something to drink. I opted for diet Coke. Lucky for me, I sat with Jacob. He wasn’t nearly s needy as was Bella. She asked for snacks, toys, and other diversions almost non-stop. Poor Mindy. The flight was moving swiftly through the southern states. When I pulled my laptop from its bag to draft this entry it was already 5:20pm. I had already snuck in a short nap too. Often when I make this flight, I can pretty much identify my whereabouts from landmarks which I’ve become very familiar, like the Ohio River and Cincinnati’s Paul Brown Stadium, Lake Cumberland, KY. Smokey Mountains, I-75, Atlanta, Tallahassee, Fla., and the Gulf of Mexico. Today, however, I had trouble pinpointing our 20. At 5:45pm we began a descent. Jacob was beginning to bore quickly. And as he grew more and more bored, his behavior began to falter. At one point when he asked me how much longer (probably about he twenty fifth time :) and didn’t care for the 30 minute answer, he flung his tray table into the upright locking position thrusting his drink onto the floor. Not good! Tampa flight continued… Our flight was delayed by about 20 minutes due to our plane not arriving from Orlando until our scheduled departure time. We left somewhere just after 4pm instead of the planned 3:45pm. We took off to the west into a milky yet clear and steamy Columbus afternoon sky. Our plane was a rather small one – a CRJ40. It holds about half the seats as a 727 yet its top speed is just a fast. This was the only flight Bella remembers in her short life, although not her first. After all, how do you think that she got to Columbus from Guatemala? Both she and Jacob seemed to enjoy the view and the take-off. Service was surprisingly good given all the recent cut backs we hear of in the airline industry. It’s just a 2 hour flight so all I needed was something to drink. I opted for diet Coke. Lucky for me, I sat with Jacob. He wasn’t nearly s needy as was Bella. She asked for snacks, toys, and other diversions almost non-stop. Poor Mindy. The flight was moving swiftly through the southern states. When I pulled my laptop from its bag to draft this entry it was already 5:20pm. I had already snuck in a short nap too. Often when I make this flight, I can pretty much identify my whereabouts from landmarks which I’ve become very familiar, like the Ohio River and Cincinnati’s Paul Brown Stadium, Lake Cumberland, KY. Smokey Mountains, I-75, Atlanta, Tallahassee, Fla., and the Gulf of Mexico. Today, however, I had trouble pinpointing our 20. At 5:45pm we began a descent. Jacob was beginning to bore quickly. And as he grew more and more bored, his behavior began to falter. At one point when he asked me how much longer (probably about he twenty fifth time J) and didn’t care for the 30 minute answer, he flung his tray table into the upright locking position thrusting his drink onto the floor. Not good! Tampa – at last We landed at Tampa International airport just after 6pm EDT and quickly made our way to baggage claim and the car rental facility. We were renting with Enterprise, and of course they had the longest line. I’d have it no other way. We had a shit load of luggage. 6 checked pieces and about five carry-ons. Of the six checked, one was my golf clubs, and another my guitar, and another a care seat for Bella.. The mid-size car we rented was going to be difficult if not impossible to accommodate all of our bags. Chris, the outstanding attendant from Enterprise assisted us with our bags to the Nissan Sentra and quickly surmised that we would not get all of our luggage on board. As an act of outstanding customer service, Chris upgraded us to a brand-new SUV at no additional charge! Thanks Chris - You rock! That made a potentially disastrous experience into a very positive one. Onto New Port Richey! After $2 worth of tolls we found our way to Craig’s place in New Port Richey - 6044 Fall River Dr. We were very happy with the house. It’s in a beautiful neighborhood and finely furnished with 3 bedrooms, two baths, family room, living room, dining room, bar, fully screened in-ground pool, and a lanai. Very comfy! As soon as we got our gear in the house I set out for some fast food at Wendy’s and a few items to tie us over through morning like coffee & fixins’, donuts, chocolate milk, wine, Sam Adams, and apple juice. Back at the house we ate, drank, and then collapsed from a long day of preparation and travel.