It was a 6:30AM rise for departure day. Just before 7:30 we were at the Concierge Lounge for breakfast, and the view from the 9th floor was quite something.
We pulled out of the hotel parking lot at 8:40AM, after a nice chat with the front desk clerks, who were very genuine and friendly. (Again, quite different than one tends to find in South Florida.). The I-95 was its usual steady flow, but the driving was not stressful, and there was no congestion to speak of, except for a 10-minute slowdown just north of Orlando. We pulled into the Thrifty Rent-a-Car return at the airport at 11:20AM and were soon checked in and through airport security.
Unfortunately, due to another huge snowstorm in Central Canada yesterday, our inbound flight from Ottawa was late by two hours, resulting in our posted departure time being moved from the original 1:50PM to 3:37PM. We whiled away our time at the Plaza Premium Lounge and headed to the gate just before boarding. The flight pushed back at 3:43, but due to runway congestion, we were in a massive queue to take off and didn’t lift off until 4:38. That put us into Ottawa at 7:30PM - the same time as our flight to Halifax was to depart! To make matters worse, we waited for half an hour to be “marshalled in” to the assigned gate. In the hopes the flight to Halifax would be delayed, we literally ran through Customs, upstairs to security, and to the gate, getting there 8:20 and only to find the flight had indeed been delayed and hadn’t started to board because they were short a pilot.
Eventually a pilot showed up and boarding started 9:20. Once boarded, the pilot announced the brakes were frozen. That started a two-hour process to thaw them out. We finally pushed back at 11:45PM, headed to de-icing, and lifted off at midnight. We landed in Halifax 3AM local time.
What an ordeal
The 7AM sunrise from our room window. The exterior 5C temperature made for a steam-coated glass, hence the distorted sun.
I know I posted some tacky personal injury lawsuit highways billboard signs yesterday, but I just have to post two more to show how obsessed Americans are with accident lawsuits. It’s like a fender bender in the USA is viewed as having won the lottery, since it can lead a person to a six-figure lawsuit payout!
We have been surprised to see how many of the trees in Florida lose their leaves. There are lots of pines and lots of palms, neither of which go bare in winter, but there are a LOT of deciduous trees that are bare. However, February is like our May back home, and a lot of the trees are starting to bear new leaves for spring. Along the highways, you see lots of red, as leaves are bursting open.
This has to be a contender for the world’s largest gas station. It’s a Bur-Pee Gas station along the I-95 in Daytona Beach. The canopy shown above has 20 gas pumps, and there is a parallel canopy behind it with another 20 pumps, for a total of 40!
The I-4, which runs from Daytona Beach down to Orlando, is 12 lanes wide, with exit lanes comprising additional lanes. There are four lanes in each direction, plus two toll express lanes in each direction.
If you have a transponder (it’s all cashless), you can enter toll lanes at various points along I-4 to avoid the congestion of the non-toll lanes. You pay anywhere from 50c to $1.50 for specific distances.
While Jacksonville was not showing much ‘spring’ colour, Orlando was a different story! Pink, yellow and red were in abundance.
This is the departure screen for Orlando Airport just for today! Oh, and that doesn’t count all the flights that departed before 11:30AM, when this was taken. Can you imagine the Jet-A fuel required to fly all those flights? And that’s just one airport among the thousands world-wide. Poor ol’ Mother Earth!
Sea World has massive immersive screens at Orlando Airport that make you feel like you’re swimming with the fish.
I’ve been to 130+ countries, but I’ve never been to Disney World or EPCOT! (Pam has been there, however.) So this mural at the airport, showing EPCOT’s iconic Spaceship Earth, is about as close as I will likely ever get.
This Porter Embraer 195, just arrived from Ottawa, will take us back to Canada today. Porter’s operations are colocated with JetBlue at Terminal C in Orlando, with whom Porter codeshares. Notice the JetBue aircraft passing behind the Porter plane.
Piri-piri chicken and vegetables provided a healthy light dinner enroute to Ottawa.
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| This is a scene from our security camera. Overnight, there was snow that became soaked with rain and flash-froze before the person we hired to clear our driveway could get to it. The awful result is several inches of ice coasting our driveway and, given the ice storm on Friday past, our friends tell us there isn’t a bag of salt to be had in all of Halifax-Dartmouth. So, when we arrive home after midnight tonight, this will be our reality to deal with! Vacations are never without their risks and downsides. |
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