Evidently my flight had arrived from Jamaica before heading on to Dallas. They wanted everyone from Jamaica off the place to go through customs in Orlando before getting back on to continue their flight to Dallas. Not surprisingly this took a while and caused the second delay. A third even stranger delay occurred after we were already on the plane. Two gay guys and a woman with kids were fighting over a group of seats toward the back of the plane that they both claimed were theirs. Neither party wanted to give an inch. The plane was completely full, so there weren't a lot of seating options available. The rest of the passengers kept wondering why the airline didn't just kick these unruly people off the plane so we could be on our way. Nope. They brought in some kind of negotiator to reason with them instead. This took a while too. We were on the ground for an additional 45 minutes. I imagine that they promised the squabbling passangers free vouchers if they would just shut up and sit down.
I wanted to return to Dallas earlier, but when the USSF-67 Mission was delayed for a day and I had to reschedule my reservation, tonight's Monday evening flight was the best I could do. My Airbnb host was extremely nice and let me check-out at 3 PM instead of their normal 11 AM departure. This was great and meant that I didn't need to spend all day sitting at the airport. You might have thought that I would have wanted to go to a museum or do something fun with my extra time. Unfortunately my rental car was an SUV with no trunk and I didn't want to leave my cameras and luggage in plain sight while I was doing something else. Staying at the Airbnb a little longer turned out to be a good idea. I had time to finish my article for SpaceFlight Magazine and get some additional exercise walking around the neighborhood.
I had the time, so I decided to explore the nature trail I discovered yesterday. I didn't encounter an alligator, but I'm pretty sure that a few saw me. The trail wandered through a heavily forested area with swampy lagoons, lots of native palm trees, and some huge cypress trees with lots of Spanish Moss hanging from the limbs. I heard lots of strange bird sounds I'd never encountered before, but saw very few birds. They were well hidden in the tall trees. I'm sure there were snakes, but luckily I didn't see any.
I tried my best to sleep in late today, but I woke up early like I always do when I'm traveling. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, but once you are awake you might as well get up. I think one reason I don't sleep well is soft beds. Hotels almost always have soft beds and apparently so do Airbnb rentals. Some people find a soft bed comfortable, but I like an extremely firm mattress. Sometime I feel like sleeping on the floor, but lord knows what lurks on strange floors. I'll get a lot more sleep now that I'm home. We'll still have to get up early to take Dawn on her sunrise walk though.
I'll probably spend most of the day tomorrow unpacking, doing laundry, and sorting through all the pictures I took. There are some interesting launches this year, but I don't know when I'll be down at Kennedy Space Center again. These trips are getting more expensive and I'm definitely not becoming wealthy. My left hand starts to go numb on long drives too. Maybe I grip the steering wheel too hard. Who knows? This isn't much of an issue when driving between Orlando and Titusville, but I seriously wonder if I could make the drive out to McDonald Observatory anymore.
As soon as I post this I"m headed straight for bed. It's been a very long day and I'm tired.
Shelby is today's Dalmatian of the Day |
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