After the ridiculous stress of the previous days, was I really surprised that we didn't get much sleep on Saturday night? No. Was I sad about it? Heck, yeah. I just kept telling myself that no matter what the morning and flight brings, we'll be in Orlando before lunch. It helped... some.
Oddly enough, with all the flights I have taken out of and to DFW, I've never had to park long term. At George Bush Intercontinental Airport, we have a great place down off of Greens Road that we love. The people are fantastic, the service is awesome (gotta love it when they pick you up at your car and they load the luggage) and it is cheap, cheap, cheap. Like $4.50 a day cheap. So, I was traumatized when I realized that the remote parking is $7 a day at DFW, and you have to schlep to the bus station, and you have to haul all your luggage. However, you know me, will schlep for money. Besides, almost all the private off lot places were $9 a day and higher. The plan was to park in the South remote lot and ride the bus to our terminal. However, in the big computer shut down, I did not print the airport map. In fact, I never made it back to look at the airport map.
I spotted The Parking Spot on our way to the hotel Saturday night. I tucked it away in the back of my mind in case I got confused on Sunday morning. A distant voice in the back of my head said that it was perhaps one of the cheaper private lots.
After much snapping and snarling at each other, DH & I were loading Hoot into the car and on our way to the airport semi on schedule Sunday morning. As we were leaving the Super 8 parking lot, I made the snap decision to use the Parking Spot lot so that we would have some help with the luggage. We headed off in the right direction and passed the Parking Spot right up. I got off on the next exit and we whipped it around for another try. I never saw the sign to enter the lot, and the next thing we know, we've passed the darn place again. Really? This was supposed to be taking the easy way out here! DH kept swearing he saw the entrance to the Parking Spot, but I was just swearing. I pulled into the next pay lot and took the first available spot. Hmm, it was a covered lot. Holey moley, what was this going to cost me? Only after our driver deposited us at the terminal and brought out the luggage did I have the guts to ask how much it was per day. $9.50! (Insert more swearing.) But, what is done is done, and I resumed my mantra!
After checking our bags and going through security (really, I thought they would've at least asked about the PlayDoy) we sought out some breakfast. I had a $10 Burger King card from MyPoints and we spotted a Burger King. Alas, they took no gift cards, so it was out of pocket for breakfast. Hoot, of course, ate nothing. He sucked down the elusive chocolate milk (we don't ever let him have this at home) and would be enticed by nothing else. Already a grumpy monkey, but what did we expect since we were so snappy ourselves.
On the plane at last, I settled us in and got a spill proof sippy cup with some juice in it for take off to help with Hoot's ears. (Yes, a sippy cup. I know he hasn't used one for ages, but I didn't really want to wear the juice.) Just as we were about to start taxiing, Hoot pipes up with "I gotta go pee-pee!" chants. (I had no idea just how much foreshadowing this chant would mean.) We explained that he wouldn't be able to go until the Captain had turned off the seat belt sign, but he wasn't buying it. I spent the next twenty minutes telling Hoot about all the flights he had taken before and that this was his eleventh time in the air. We counted to eleven a couple of times so that he could realize just how many times that was, and it seemed to do the trick. So, of course he shifted his worries onto something else: Tee. Where was she? Wasn't she flying with us? I thought we'd see Tee today! As you can tell, it was a restful flight.
In Orlando, we checked on the status of Tee's flight. There was a slight delay, so rather than wait for her at the gate, we decided to head off for our luggage. Hoot loved the ride on the faux monorail! We collected our Mickey head splattered luggage (we stamp a different color Mickey head all over the bags for each trip we have taken) and waited for Tee to arrive.
Up next: Tee Time!
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