A Million Little Pieces Of My Mind

Today's post-reunion mission was simple: I had to drive back across the state to catch tomorrow's flight from Tampa. But I didn't want to go back the same way I'd come (I-4, mostly). First of all, I never like to go back the same way I came, anywhere. Secondly, I didn't want to repeat the plus-two-hours-standstill on the highway if I could help it. So I decided to cross over to Palatka, and through Central Florida to I-75, then to my reserved motel in Tampa.—As long as the non-highway roads were passable. After all, there've been two hurricanes here in the past month.

And, in fact, this is pretty much what I thought it would look like:

It didn't help that it was raining again as I left. In the 3.5 hours the drive took me, I had exactly 10 minutes of sunshine through the clouds.

Although the roads were fine, I did spot some flooded fields and low-lying pools that, in Arizona, we would call "tanks". There were also a few piles of gathered debris. But, overall, I was glad to have gone this way.

Sometimes the rain got a bit heavy.

I got to Tampa around 4 PM and drove straight to the car rental place.

Although they have a shuttle to and from the airport, they did not have one going to any hotels. So I had to take a Lyft, which luckily wasn't expensive because the EconoLodge @RJ Stadium was just a couple of miles away.

I had gotten the reservation via CheapOAir. And it was cheap, to be sure. But it was also clean, and my only complaint regarding the room was the electric outlet by the sink had been destroyed.

My other complaint was that the CheapOAir description of the hotel said they had an airport shuttle; but the guy at the desk said that was no longer true. So tomorrow I'll be taking another Lyft—at 5 freaking AM—to the airport for my flight home.