And That's the End of It. There's Nothing Else.

Monday, October 26th

Ah, departure day. That last day that isn't really a Last Day because the whole day is about leaving. Planes do certainly get us places faster than cars, but there's so much involved before and after that in the case of getting to New Orleans from Florida and back it may well amount to the same amount of time to just drive. Guess one must decide between the work and stress of getting to one's plane on time and finding transport to and from the airport and the work and stress of driving for hours straight through to your destination. We opted for the former, and while it means the first and final say of a trip are limited, my back and hands are grateful for only a limited amount of driving on my part. Anyway: Departure day! I was up at 9:10am to get our usual juices and coffees and muffins and yogurts, but after dropping them off I headed back down to get a few pictures of the breakfast area, particularly the Breakfast Taco station that we never did try but still thought was neat. We put on some more Scoobtober and ate and drank and did some final packing, though everything was basically packed up already so it was really just the two of us wandering around every once in a while going "Mhm" at the suitcases. 

Jess laid down for a little while longer, basically just to fill the time as we were in that weird limbo where we only had like a half-hour before we had to leave and leaving any earlier wouldn't make sense as we were headed to a bus stop. At 10:30am we've had enough of hanging about even though it's kind of early to be going and doing our final eating and drinking and tidying up so we're out the door by 10:40am. The walk to our bus stop is... super short, so we're 20 minutes early for the 202. Or are we? Google Maps wants us to go to a different stop a little ways up and doesn't even acknowledge that the stop we're waiting at exists, but I text the number on the sign and it says there's a 202 headed our way and headed to the airport so we decide Google Maps is, once again, being silly, and settle in to wait. There's no bench so we have to stand, but that' all right with us. It's a pretty boring 20 minutes until the end when two guys are having a LOUD argument and when one of them finally walked away the other guy kept shouting like he was still arguing with someone? Ah, classic city vibes: Crazy people yowling in the streets. Can't get more authentic than that! 

With that, the bus arrived and we climbed on. Pretty empty, but not for long as we discover the stop Google Maps wanted us to go to is a larger, more hospitable stop that a lot of people are waiting at and a lot of them have to stand or take their luggage all the way to the back because the bus is filling up be we were smart and didn't listen to Google so we got on early and got nice seats up front! The ride is easy, no issues, and in 30-ish minutes we're pulling up to the airport terminal! Everyone got off there, because of course that's where all of us were headed, and there's lots of people waiting to get on, folks in the same position we were 7 days ago, just arrived and headed into New Orleans. We take a minute right after exiting the bus to finish the Pink Redbull we got at the gas station in the Garden District that we never actually drank and then head inside. We'd been warned in advance by Breeze that the TSA was going to be busy but then it was, like, 15 minutes? Is that busy to some people? Or does Breeze just always send that warning in case people are thinking about just showing up like 30 minutes before their plane takes off? We finish the last of our Monster Juice drinks in the TSA line and are super efficient getting through the scanners and such because they don't require you to take large electronics out like MCO does so we just speed on through! 

We get EOG (Eyes On Gate) by 12:30pm, so a cool 2 hours before our plane is set to even start boarding, but we're glad we're there and ready to go so we set up in a little corner a few gates away from ours, which is busy with another flight, as we eat some of our snacks, including the last of the ALDI chocolates we dragged along from Florida, this time the chocolate pie-shaped truffles. The time passes pretty quickly as we eat and chat and read internet ha-ha's to one another, and soon enough we're wandering over to where our plane has begun it's pre-boarding. This time they called for Zone 1 BEFORE Zone 2, so it wasn't a mad dash of everyone trying to get on this time.  The overhead bin for our seats is full, somehow, so we put them in the bin next to it and the suitcases fit but only just because the woman sitting in the seat below it put her suitcase AND purse up there, which you're not supposed to do but whatever, enjoy your purse getting crushed by our suitcases, that's a problem for future you. 

Nice, easy flight except for a little turbulence while landing, but that's the Florida air for you. We got tea and coffee during the flight again and the coffee was much better this time than on the flight in! Or maybe my standards had been weakened by all the Free Hilton Coffee I'd had the entire trip. Who can say. We know our way around the MCO so it's no trouble when we're deboarding to know where we're going. We hit a Starbucks first, the same one we hit when we were flying out as we've landed in the same gate we took off from, and get a hot pumpkin spice latte to try it, as I've never had one, and off we go to Ground Transportation to pick up our WallyPark van. The card the guy gave us when we arrived, however, doesn't say where the vans pick up at each terminal, like they usually do, so Jess looks it up and it's 85-88 for Terminal B. I asked the folks standing in that area if anyone was there for WallyPark, to see if anyone already texted them for pickup, and the folks there say no so we try to look up the texting number only to discover they don't do that anymore, they just circulate. So ok, we just get settle and wait. About 20 minutes later a van comes! Ya! Except no, because it lets on the party of 4 who just arrived who RUSHED to the van on and then it's full and we all have to wait for another one. Ok, no big, whatever, we go back to waiting. Another 20 minutes pass and the van shows up and some party of 5 who also showed up after us but didn't get onto the last van RUSH to this van, except this time the driver has to load the luggage into the trunk, so he motions to come to the back and Jess and I, the only people paying attention, follow him and get our luggage loaded and get to get into the van first. The people behind us seemed kinda miffed about it, like we should have graciously motioned for them to go ahead of us since they were 'in line' for the door first but like, we were HERE first babes, we've been waiting longer, and also we all got onto this one anyway so chill. 

At last, we enter WallyPark and Jess and I get dropped off first at our beloved car, waiting in all her mangled glory for us! We hit the road and it's a usual, familiar drive all the way to Deland. We stop off at Minnesota first, because we wanna see the Halloween decorations now it's a little dark and since we don't usually have evenings off together to go and see. Jess, the navigator, naturally sends me down Michigan first because she got herself confused. Classic Jessica blunder, but I know where we are from there and we take a little looksie at all the fancy rich people houses with their decorations. Not as much this year, but still fun to look at. After that little excursion, it's an easy, casual drive back to our lovely little home! We're speed unpackers, so we're home at about 7:40pm and unpacked and settled in by 8:10pm. Jess made some skillet pasta while I worked on my first blog post, as I wanted to post them parallel to the prior week, and that was it. We were home, we were settled, and our trip was officially over, with the exception of all the laundry I had to do the next day because we wore a LOT of clothes in New Orleans. As usual, it was lovely to be on vacation, was fun to see everything and do some different things and live a different life for a little while, but there's nothing I love better than the feeling of being home. Home with new goodies and memories and stories to tell, but nevertheless home, where I belong. 

So, as my friend Louis de Pointe du Lac once said: That's the end of it. There's nothing else.