The Last Chapter

After finishing up the blog yesterday morning I got the rest of my stuff packed which as predicted, did not take long.  Gladys had a lot more to pack considering she is doing so with a trip to Holland and Montana back to back.  When it came time to leave I paused and took one more glance out over the water, appreciating the view that I had the chance to enjoy for the last week.  If I said it didn’t stir up some sort of emotion inside me, I’d be lying.

Dustin and Kat again were gracious, just like they have been during my entire visit, and agreed to drop us off at the airport.  I said my goodbyes to them and thanked them for everything.  I pulled Dustin in for an awkward hug which made me laugh afterwards.  Having Gladys along as a travel buddy made getting processed at the Roatan airport stupid easy since she has done it so often.  Gladys was also nice to sit next to in the plane.  We split her travel pillow and split her airpods to watch a free movie on the plane.

I knew Miami was going to be far more aggravating than Roatan but again Gladys is a pro in how everything goes there so it made it once again easier.  When we approached the immigration area where you check back into the country it was a pretty daunting site.  There was this tremendous snaking line of human beings that doubled back on itself at least a dozen times.  The line did keep moving but it’s pure length was amazing.  However, if I utilize some of G’s (what I call Gladys most of the time), positive thinking, 15 minutes after we entered the line it had backed up far worse and was spilling into the entrance.  So we were lucky we got there when we did, there is your positive spin.  The funny thing is the reason you stand in line was for a security guard to look at your passport, look at you and move on.  I think my interaction with the guy was less than 10 seconds.

So next up was grabbing our bags which we did NOT have to wait for thankfully.  By the time we exited the building it was somewhere around 90 minutes after we got off the plane.  The next mission was to find the truck.  Luckily I took a picture of the nearby sign when I parked so we knew where to go.  On the way there we saw signage that indicated you should use a pay station before exiting the garage.  Hmm weird but ok.  The way we took it, this was the main way to get out of there.

So I did a quick survey of the top floor where we were parked, no pay stations were there.  So we started driving downward, thinking perhaps they are only on lower floors for weather protection.  When I saw no indication of a pay station on the 5th or 4th floor I was confused.  Why was there a sign instructing to use a pay station if pay stations are not spread around everywhere??

So we continued downward, finally I saw a pay station sign on the 3rd floor.  I put on my 4 way flashers and jumped out.  I was behind a guy that was getting frustrated because the machine would not take his credit card.  Instead he had to feed it cash to cover the $60+ fee.  So once he cleared out I put my ticket in and saw the charge to park for a week, $136, sheesh.  I was really hoping the credit card failure was a fluke because I wasn’t sure if I had that amount of money in smaller bills.  So I start feeding in my cash, not counting it ahead of time, brilliant, I know.  So my wallet keeps getting thinner and thinner.  By the time I paid the bill I had $1 left, insane.  So at least we were finally good to go, I headed down to the exit and literally blurt out WTF??! What I see is 10 spots or more where you could pay with your credit card and 3 or 4 where you used your pay station ticket.  I guess I know for next time as I never parked at Miami International before.

The ride across Alligator Alley went well.  I got us out of Miami and to the rest station halfway across.  I let Gladys take over because she likes driving and because I was feeling really wiped out from whatever illness had overtaken me. I had the chills, a runny nose, and all of that fun stuff.  We got back to my house around nine where we shared a cauliflower crust pizza and watched the ending of the movie we started on the plane.  Gladys was really sweet to me, knowing I didn’t feel well. It was appreciated.

Elsa was of course very excited to see me and after a short while remembered who Gladys was, hanging by her side more than once. I slept pretty well although when I did wake up in the middle of the night it was with a t-shirt that was sweat drenched.  I woke up this morning not feeling significantly better or worse.  The guy arrived to do the final service on the new windows on time which was appreciated.  He was a friendly and funny guy named Pedro.  I thought this service would take less time so once he was done inside Gladys and I took off so she could get home to see her family.  When we pulled up to her driveway her niece and sister Margaret were already outside.  Because I am sick I steered clear of any close interactions with them which is a bummer as I would have liked to say hi to everyone.  Watching Gladys embrace her family was touching to bear witness to.  Gladys gave me a big hug, thanked me for everything, and I was off.

I had one pit stop to make, picking up another EUC, yes you read that right.  There is a backstory about it that I plan to talk about on a live stream tomorrow night. When I got home despite feeling pretty shitty I felt like I had to get out and mow the grass. The standing water was gone for now so I figured I needed to take advantage of the circumstance.  I expect my weekend to be pretty packed as you can imagine.  Yea it would be nice to be able to just rest but ever since I have become a lone wolf, there is no option B when it comes to getting stuff done.  What I am going to have to juggle after my upcoming hernia surgery is going to be a challenge, for sure.

So here I am on the other side of two big trips in a very short duration, something I have never done in my entire life.  The trip to Roatan exposed me to such a different way of living where you rarely look at a clock, eat when your hungry, enjoy other people and experiences without the shackles of a modern American life, at least my version of it.  My time there had some ups and downs but I learned from all of it.  Gladys and I will always be dear friends, even as our paths diverge.