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In and out of Florida
Author: TriSec    Date: 05/19/2012 12:40:25

Morning out there! Looking like a terrific weekend; I've got a soccer game today, then some on-water stuff tomorrow for Mr. Bean. It's all good.

Hopefully, I can work on keeping the minimal color I got in my 48 hours in Florida last week. I promised that I'd post my impressions of our security theater, and since no matter where we may go, I always tend to keep a travelogue, so today's blog is already written!


My aunt is a snowbird, and goes back and forth to West Palm Beach about twice a year. Last fall, she had put her car on an auto-carrier service and flew down, for just a few hundred dollars. Around Christmas, she tried to arrange for a northbound trip and discovered that the broker she used in the fall had collapsed. She could find transport, but for about twice what she paid to ship the car south. So, she asked me to fly down in the spring and help her drive back. Leaping at the chance for even a few days in Palm Beach, we set everything up.

It's been nine years since I've been on an airplane; after 9/11, the aviation industry became dead to me, and then with the economic collapse and difficulty over the last 3 years or so, travel by air was also a fiscal impossibility. Nevertheless, Jetblue had awesome fares, and with much trepidation over facing the TSA, I booked the trip.


Tuesday, May 9

I had decided weeks ago to get myself to the airport and then drive back to Waltham, since we would be driving past home on Route 128. I was hoping for a clear day, but it was not to be. So I donned a fleece layer and my raincoat and walked to Waltham center in the pouring rain. The express bus was right on time, and we sailed down the Pike to South Station with no traffic. I had a little trouble with my fare card, much to the chagrin of the gentleman behind me who was intent on fare-jumping. With card straightened out, I went downstairs just in time to see the doors slam on the SL-1 bus to the airport.

The next one was along in a few minutes, and my first ride on the silver line was rather painless; right to the airport without any trouble. But for a new tunnel, the ride was awfully slow and bumpy. And it seemed to me that the MBTA is more interested in technological toys than efficiency; the bus was full of electronics, and signs, and announcements, and a fancy dual-power system. (electric in the tunnel, diesel on the surface.) It might have been easier with a straight diesel or CNG bus, as the tunnel at Harvard is remarkably similar and both kinds of bus use it, but I digress.

TSA insisted that I arrive 2 hours prior to an am departure, but the airport was deserted. With time to spare, I visited our local donut emporium and wandered down to my gate. Due to the design of Terminal C, we had our own small security area covering only four gates. There was no wait at the moment, so I chatted with the TSA gentleman. I had a cup of coffee in hand, bought at the airport terminal, but naturally since it's a liquid, I couldn't carry it through. Wandering the terminal, I found a neat display put up by Massport featuring movie posters from all the films shot in the Boston area, with a wee bit of historical narrative.

Finishing my coffee, it was finally time to pass through. I presented my boarding pass and ID, which met with approval, then it was on to the poorly-designed disrobing area. With noplace to sit, several elderly travelers were struggling to remove shoes and belts and jackets. I slipped out of everything, and stood in line to go through the machines. I was expecting the full-blown body scanner, and had steeled myself for the experience, but we just did an old-school x-ray walkthrough. They did have a big-box scanner at the gate, but it was not even turned on this morning.

Curiously, after I passed through, the agent on the other side asked me what I had in my pockets. It was just my wallet and a pack of gum, but much to my surprise, she made me go back through and drop the pack of gum onto the X-ray belt. Really? I can't carry that through? But it was done, and at the other poorly-designed area, the same elderly patrons were struggling to redress. I moved on to the gate, and in an old habit, picked up a print copy of the Boston Globe (but skipped the Herald this time). I always brought those south for Grandpa whenever I came down.

I then wandered aimlessly around our terminal area for the next 45 minutes. Fortunately,. departures were happening on the runway right in front of our window, so I had something to watch. I did have my first confirmed sighting of a Boeing 777, in BA livery, no doubt heading for Heathrow. I also saw a trike, a Fed-Ex MD-11...an aircraft type that is becoming increasingly rare as twins are being maximized for capacity and fuel efficiency.

We were finally called for boarding, and since I prefer the rear of the aircraft (the mountains are up front), I was one of the first to go aboard. I only had a backpack, so I quickly stuffed it in the overhead and claimed my seat. I was surprised by how wide they were, and also the seat pitch, and with nothing under the seat in front of me, I had plenty of room to stretch out. We finally completed boarding, and much to my surprise, the center seat remained unclaimed, so my aisle passenger companion and I had extraordinary luxury on a domestic coach flight.

Since we completed boarding early, they shut the door about ten minutes early and pushed back. I saw one of the flags at terminal B, where one of the ill-fated American flights departed so long ago now. I heard and felt the engines start up, but I was convinced that we were doing a single-engine taxi as they were that quiet. Along the way, I spied a DHL DC-8 across the field, then we were in line to depart.

Launching from 22R, I had a terrific view over the inner harbor and downtown, and we turned out to sea for noise abatement over South Boston. Climbing out over South Bay, I saw the Kennedy Library, Southeast Expressway, and saw the USS Salem at Fore River. We crossed the coast, and I just picked out Minot's Ledge light when we hit the cloud deck. We stayed in this for the next 45 minutes as we made our cruising altitude of 37,0000 feet. I missed New York, but we finally broke into the clear off the Jersey shore alongside Atlantic City.

We flew along the shore for a ways, and passed almost directly over Newport News. I recognized a few of the roads from our disastrous journey northbound in 2007, and even saw an aircraft carrier tied up at the docks at Hampton Roads. We were too far inland for me to have a chance to see the Bay Bridge, though. Turning slightly south, we crossed back over the coast and went out to sea for the next hour. We rejoined the coast at Cape Canaveral, and I remained glued to the window for the rest of the flight.

Beginning our descent to Palm Beach, I searched for a recognizeable landmark and was finally rewarded by the condos at Singer Island and Riviera beach. Not my first choice for a sighting, but I've not seen them in 9 years and it was very welcome indeed. We finally made the turn for our final approach, and as we flew over Palm Beach, I saw our old haunts at the Breaker's and the Biltmore, and recognized Everglades Island. Then it was over the shore, over I-95, and down on runway 28R. It felt to me that our pilot missed the threshold by a long margin, and he had to slam the brakes on in order to make the turn to the taxiway. Nevertheless....we were here!

Much to my surprise, within minutes of landing they had wheeled up an airstair and allowed the rear passengers to deplane across the tarmac. We used to do this routinely at PBI in the old days, but since the new terminal was built in the 80s, I thought that was done forever. Naturally I trooped down the stairs and walked across the field to the terminal building, snapping pictures all the way.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/148706_10151064717929505_621604504_11875759_1234106510_n.jpg


My aunt was there to pick me up in minutes, and it was off into the wilds of Palm Beach County and Greenacre city!

I spent the afternoon settling in, and got an hour or so at the pool before the thunderstorms came. There were tornado warnings north and south of Lake Worth, but nothing came through our area. We picked up one of my aunt's friends and were off for dinner at a Greek place near the complex. Not bad for a travel day.



Wednesday, May 10.

We started early this morning; my aunt is an early riser and is not used to company in her place, so she was up and about at 5am like always. So much for my plans to stay up late and sleep late for a couple of days. But it allowed us to do a couple of things around the condo before heading out for breakfast. There's an astonishing Jewish deli around the corner that carries all the traditional foods, and they have a restaraunt attached. It's very late in the season, and most of the regulars have already gone home, so we literally had the place to ourselves. After an enormous repast, we headed south for the flea market. I found a few fun things for the folks at home, and even picked up two primo cigars for a pittance. The tax structure on tobacco sure is different south of the Mason-Dixon line.

Returning to the condo, it was again back to the pool for about 2 hours of sun treatment before the clouds built up and we went back indoors. A couple of more bits of work to do, and we headed out to the New York Style restaraunt for a fine Italian meal. Back at the condo, I sparked up one of the cigars and sat out on the porch drinking my aunt's whisky and watching the sunset.


Thursday, May 11.

Today is our primary work day...a lot of the cleaning we can't do too early in the closing process or we'd have to do it again. All the floors were steamed, the windows done, and I even cleaned and oiled the tracks to the sliding glass doors out front. My aunt's porch needed re-arranging, so I schlepped furniture around for an hour before I was finally satisfied with the way it looked, and there seemed to be more room out there, too.

Today we hit the pool at the peak hours of the day, and it certainly showed. I only sat out for about an hour, and spent more time in the pool today swimming. We finally had to face the inevitable and went back to finish up. Laundry was done, awnings closed, and all the little things we had been putting off now had to be finished. I packed everything up to grab & go in the morning...then we finally headed out to a fine rib joint with all the southern trimmings. I may be a New Englander, but I enjoyed my collard greens with hot vinegar dressing immensely!

Friday, May 12.

On the road today. We had about a half-hour of work left to do, and we were up and moving at 4 am to do it. We gave the floors a final once over, did the toilet and the ant traps, shut off and unplugged all the electric things, and finally sprayed the entire apartment. My aunt pulled the circuit breakers and I loaded up the car with all the last-minute items. We left just before 5am and had to sit at Dunkin Donuts for five minutes waiting for them to open. We hit the Florida Turnpike at 5:07 headed north.

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/181850_10151073037734505_621604504_11898690_1777829989_n.jpg


There's not much to see on the Turnpike, and we had smooth sailing all the way up to the crossover at Fort Pierce. Now on the Superslab, we ate up the miles at an incredible rate. Seemed like no time at all we were passing Orlando, KSC, and then Daytona. We made it to St. Augustine in four hours flat, then stopped for breakfast and shopping. Back on the road, we pressed on to Jacksonville, into Georgia, and along to South Carolina. There was a brief backup somewhere along the way where an unfortunate had been rear-ended and all their belongings were all over the roadway.

We crossed into North Carolina and made it up to our goal of Smithfield, where we decamped for the night. We briefly shopped at JR Outlets, and I was again astonished at the tobacco prices, but this is the lifeblood of the region, so the tax structure is highly favourable. We also saw the cheapest gas of the trip in this stretch, a mere $3.33 at a few of the truck stops off the road.

Saturday, May 13

Another early start, but it was wasted. Dunkin Donuts wasn't even open, so we stopped by the icky Waffle House for coffee. It was weak and overpriced, but fortunately someone coming out spied a flattening driver's side front tire. My aunt pulled into a nearby parking lot and called AAA, but they couldn't promise us a response in less than two hours. I had no desire to wait around for them, so I threw everything out of the trunk and changed the tire myself in under a half hour.

We were now an hour late getting on the road, so we tried to make up some time along the way. There was no traffic through Richmond, and we made it up to the Mixmaster by 11:30 at the foot of the beltway. Again, there was little traffic, and we sailed around the city in about a half-hour. We got all the way up past Baltimore before stopping for gas and a driver swap. We probably should have gone up a little further before doing so, but nevertheless it was my task to get us through New York City.

We had hoped for a light day and a straight shot over the GW bridge, but we heard a traffic report of well over a half-hour wait to get across. Fortunately, we were below the exit for the Garden State Parkway, so we were able to get off and bypass the city entirely. Unfortunately, this skewed our mileage and timing results, as my aunt is pondering taking the Auto Train south next season and wanted to get an idea of the drive time.

Getting around the city and over the Tappan Zee bridge was uneventful, and I wheeled us off the highway and onto one of my favourite roads, the Merritt Turnpike through Connecticut. Usually this is quiet and trouble free, as it is far off track, but not today. We weren't on it for even 15 minutes when we came to a complete standstill. We crawled along for almost a half hour before passing a charred vehicle beside the road. But fortunately, the road opened up after that and we had clear sailing all the way to the end, up I-91, and onto I-84 back to the Mass Pike.

Crossing into Massachusetts and joining the pike just beyond Worcester, this became a drive home for me. But in Framingham, yet another delay struck as traffic came to another standstill. WBZ informed us that there was a multi-car accident near the rest stop, but as we neared the site, the traffic miraculously opened up and we saw no sign of any trouble.

We finally made it back to Waltham at about 7:30....about 90 minutes later than I was hoping, but all things considered, not that bad a run.
 

5 comments (Latest Comment: 05/20/2012 01:25:59 by TriSec)
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Comment by TriSec on 05/19/2012 12:49:51
A couple of other random observations not elsewhere classified...

The TV mosheen was a little weird in Palm Beach County. Local channels were hard to come by; the national networks, of course headlined by Fox, were at the top of the dial. We also lost cable a couple of times in 2 days due to "weather". Of course, Fox came right back, but we lost MSNBC for a day.

It was interesting being in a state "in play", as there were political ads all over the place. I recall a couple of official ads from the Obama campaign, but all the Romney stuff seemed to be PACs, I don't think I saw an official ad from the campaign at all.

Driving around, I was struck by the number of police cars that were out and about on the streets. But curiously, none of them were "local". I didn't see a single car marked "Lake Worth Police Department". Instead, it was all the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department. Not knowing how the locals might be organized, I wonder if any of our southern bloggers can shed some light on this?

And lastly....you might have missed it when I was live-blogging, but I find the exit signs in the south to be very curious. Nothing like "Rest Stop 5 miles" as we see in the north. Nay, everything said "Gas and Food - EXIT NOW!", with the sign just a few hundred yards from the exit ramp. And they call Northerners rude.

Comment by livingonli on 05/19/2012 16:33:25
In our DC meet-up in '08, the EXIT NOW jokes were abound. At least the one good thing on Jet Blue when I flew (I haven't flown since '08) was the DirecTV service on the plain even though it was a selection of cherry-picked channels they pull the networks from the distant network package since those are the only ones on the Conus beams on the DirecTV satellite which means you can fly across the country watching CBS, NBC, and Fox from New York or the CW from Washington, DC. On my home DirecTV unit, because the New York channels are part of the distant network I get the big 4 from New York both are on their regular channel numbers (2, 4, 5, 7) and then again in the 390's. Availability of distant networks is aimed at people who live in remote areas where DirecTV does not offer local channel service and consists of ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox from New York and Los Angeles, the CW from Washington, DC and San Diego although DC was replaced with Baltimore for two weeks during the DirecTV-Tribune dispute and then the national feed of PBS. The CW feeds are also available in areas to subscribers in markets with no local CW affiliate in their package so they get DC of San Diego in lieu of that channel.

Comment by BobR on 05/19/2012 22:23:47
besides the EXIT NOW! billboards, I crack up over the mix of strip joint and Jesus billboards.

Comment by livingonli on 05/19/2012 23:21:53
Quote by BobR:
besides the EXIT NOW! billboards, I crack up over the mix of strip joint and Jesus billboards.

Maybe Jesus likes the birthday suits.

Comment by TriSec on 05/20/2012 01:25:59
I couldn't get over the famed "Cafe Risque" somewhere in North Carolina, I think. Dozens of elaborate billboards like South of the Border, then it's a shack with a dirt parking lot.

Keep it Klassy, folks!