2004 Year in Review

Travel is an Adventure

Last winter we took our first couple’s vacation away from the kids. It was planned to be a long weekend away, basically two days of vacation and two days of travel.

Since it was going to be such a short time, we decided on the Florida Keys because we knew it would be warm there. After many interesting travel experience, we have found traveling an adventure and this trip was no different.

Thursday night we had reservations out of the Quad Cities Airport to St. Louis and by later that night we were supposed to be sleeping in a hotel outside Miami airport. Weather was perfect at both ends, but what we didn’t know was St. Louis was in the middle of a snowstorm. The scheduled time for our plane came and went, and the board still said “On Time”. Finally the scheduled flight disappeared off the screen. With a little checking we found the plane was still on the way but there was very little chance we would make our connection. Sure enough when we arrived in St. Louis the doors were closing on our trip to paradise and we found our way to a local hotel in the snow and cold.

Friday morning to make the first flight out, it meant waking around 3:00 am to make the 4:00 am shuttle to the airport. After checking in, we found the security doesn’t even open until 5:00 am.

We finally boarded our early morning flight to Miami and headed south into some of the worst turbulence I’ve ever flown through. The packed airplane was completely silent.

By late morning we arrived in warm and sunny Miami and rented our car to drive to Key West. It took us five hours to make the three-hour trip because it was now Friday afternoon and traffic was heavy. We were also exhausted from the early morning.

Key West is famous for their sunsets and our first evening we witnessed one of the prettiest sunsets I’ve ever seen. It’s not just sunset in Key West, it’s a celebration every night. There are entertainers and booths that give it a carnival atmosphere. Tight ropewalkers, jugglers, and magicians entertain the crowds as the sun drops over the Gulf. Sailboats of paying customers dot the horizon.

After the circus, we found a little restaurant that served steak, shrimp, and for desert, key lime pie. It had been a really long day, so we headed back to the hotel early. Around 2-3 am my husband woke with a terrible pain in his abdomen. He didn’t know if it was a kidney stone or something worse but he was in pain.

Saturday he wanted to walk so we spent the day walking down Duval Street to the Southern Most Point in the U.S. In the evening we went back to the carnival and sunset before a romantic seafood dinner along the docks in an open-air restaurant. Part of the charm of Key West is the docks and beautiful sailboat excursions out of the docks. Except for my husband not feeling well, the vacation was finally taking a better turn.

But the best is yet to come. Again about 3:00 am we are awakened, this time by the fire alarm. We’re thinking it’s some late night spring breakers coming in drunk and they pulled the alarm. When we heard glass breaking, we finally dressed and went out on the balcony. The other patrons below informed us there was a fire in the floor above in the housekeeping room.

The fire trucks came and because the building is cement block the fire was confined to one room. By 4:00 am we are back in bed ready to finish our nights sleep but the fire alarm goes off again at 5:00. We again wake and dress to find out they are just resetting the alarm.

Our last day in Key West was spent reading around the pool and checking out a local beach on the Atlantic side. And of course we return to the circus and supper along the dock. This time there are hoards of cruise ship riders getting ready to board after their day spent in Key West. Our last evening is spent going to bed early so we can wake up before dawn, as we have every morning, to head back to Miami airport in the dark. The trip only takes three hours but of course we scheduled it for more. And we watch the sun rise instead of set.

We arrived early in St. Louis and this time from experience we jumped the first available flight to Moline, which of course is running late, because the Quad Cities is in the middle of a snowstorm.

For once something works out right for us and we are early for our ride home and have time for a bowl of Whitey’s Ice Cream to end our adventure.

This is where my husband gets a real vacation when he finds out he had a gall bladder attack from the steak, lobster, and key lime pie. The doctor removed it and he was home for a two-week recovery. By the weekend he has an infection, and on Monday he passes a kidney stone.

You would think after a vacation like that we would give up on travel. But as I started this column, I referred to vacations as adventures. If you don’t do that, the little things about travel can really get to you. In the face of changing travel plans, if you think of it as an adventure, you don’t get upset about the little things. I will continue my adventures in travel as long as I am physically able and look forward to the next adventure.

by Barb Benson, theCity1.com
February 3, 2004