Leaving on a jet plane

2:30 a.m. came too quickly. Bright and early, 5:55 a.m., this morning I flew to Orlando to a doodle breeders convention. The sky was bright and blue and the sun was warm. The book I'm reading while doing the airport/airplane thing is "Cesar's Way" by Cesar Millan, star of National Geographic Channel's Dog Whisperer. It is great. You guys should all read it and watch his show.

We arrived in Orlando at 9:35 a.m. That meant I had all day to enjoy the sunshine. That airport is so big we had to take a tram over to the other side of the airport to get our luggage. (that is the royal we and our) O.k., so, I have my luggage and I go over to the car rental place. There all these counters for all these different car rental companies, and only one company has a line. It isn't just a couple of people, but a whole big long line of people waiting. I'm looking at my car rental reservation that I printed out yesterday. It says something like "bypass the lines, go directly to pick up your car...", so naturally I thought "well, I don't have to be like all those poor people, I get to skip the line". I dragged my luggage and walked way over to the garage to get my car. The chick there looked at my reservation and said I would have to go back over to the airport and wait in line. But...but...it says...she didn't care what it said. She said I have to go back, so back I went. It look forever, I was so glad I didn't have an appointment or any reason to be in a hurry. After I waited forever and signed the form I went back over to the parking garage. It was so weird, they said to just go pick out the car I wanted that was in the area I signed up for. They all had keys and I was just supposed to get in and drive away. They had tons of cars, but only two in the Premium section. There was just a little car that didn't look like anything special, and an SUV. Ooooo, that SUV had to be a mistake...I wonder if I would get caught if I took it....oooo but it was in the premium section. I looked around to see if anybody was watching...then I real quick-like put my bags in. This chick came over and looked disappointed to see that other car was the only one available in that section, she got in it and drove away. Well, that means this SUV is the only one in this section. Still I was just waiting for someone to come over and tell me I couldn't have that one. I got in, looked around figuring out how to operate everything then back it up and started driving off. This was too easy, what was to keep people from just diving away in them without signing up? Oh, I get it now, we had to stop and show our paperwork before getting out of the garage. Oh great, there is no getting away now, he is going to see I signed up for premium and not an SUV. But but this was the only vehicle in the Premium section. His computer must have been down or something. It was forever to get up there. The plane landed at 9:35 a.m. and it was 11:30 a.m. before I finally got out of there. He just looked at my paper work, did something in the computer (probably dialed the cops to report me for stealing an upgrade) and said o.k. I am free to go. I said "That's it?" oh gee, do you suppose I could have been more subtle? and he said "yes, that is all". off I drove. Oh, did I mention that I lost my glasses on the first flight? Yup, I have to take them off to read. I either put them in my shirt pocket or had them on top of my head when I was reading and waiting to board the first flight. I don't remember if I put them back on when I got up to board the plane. At any rate, they were no where to be found when the first flight landed. I really need them for distance vision. That means it is scary for me to drive without them. Well, actually, driving during the day in good weather is fine. So, anyway, off I drove. What an adventure to hop on a flight, grab a car, and drive to the resort. I drove right to it. It was about 1/2 drive and would have cost $78 each way for a cab or if the resort hired a car for me. No thanks, driving is fine and much cheaper. So I got to the resort and was really hoping to be able to check in early and take a nap before heading back to the airport this afternoon to pick up some other breeders. Just as I was afraid of, since I am not the one who made the reservations I couldn't check in. I had to wait. Shoot, I was so tired. I went out to the car and napped on and off for three hours until going back to pick up the others. I drove straight to the airport without any problems. It was early so I went to the food court and had some pizza and read more of Ceasr's book. It is a good book, you need to read it. Then I went down to the baggage claim area and found where they will be picking up their bags. Then I walked from that area to where I parked the SUV. I wanted to be able to impress them with how well I knew my way around the Orlando airport. Then I went back and alternated between reading the book and looking at the travelers and trying to guess which were the other breeders. I love doing that (trying to pick out people I know only from the computer and telephone). I thought I figured out who they were but just as I went closer to them some guy that was obviously part of their group joined them. I wasn't rooming with a man so I knew they weren't the ones. I kept seeing these two women, but I was looking for a group of three, and besides, one of them looked too fancy for a dog breeder. It turned out to be them. The other was over with a family delivering a puppy to them.

Yeah, it is time to go back to the resort now. Keep in mind that I have already driven straight there and back already. That is over an hour in that vehicle with no problems. Well, we make our way to the vehicle and all get in. Then one of them says something about feeling nervous when she drives people around because she feels like they are watching and judging her. Hmm, I hadn't thought of that. I don't feel nervous when I drive people. So what do I do right away? I turn on the windshield wipers instead of putting it in reverse. Then at one point on the way back I made a wrong turn. Oh well, at least we made it in one piece.

We got all checked in and each got our own key card. It is a cashless resort so we have to put everything on the card. It is a 2200 acre place, and very nice. Our room was great. It really was more like an apartment. It had three bedrooms and three bathrooms, living room, kitchen, balcony, and even had an oversized closet with a washer and dryer. I had a room, dressing area, and bathroom all to myself. It was wonderful.

We had dinner with a bunch of other breeders and it was really fun.