Day1

Basically, it was like any other fly day. I'd stayed up late the night before to print my boarding pass, only to discover that I didn't need to do that - Southwest has apparently changed the policy to 24 hours in advance of the flight, instead of 12:01 am on the date of the flight. As a result, I got a "B" boarding pass, and not enough sleep. So, when my brother came upstairs to make sure I was awake, I was a hurtin' puppy - for no reason! grrrrrr!

SIL and Nieceling drove me to the airport, and there was nothing out of the ordinary with the flight. It wasn't quite full, so there was a seat between me and the teenager sleeping in the aisle seat, with her pillow and jammies. Wish I'd had that idea! Upon deplaning, I stopped for my traditional mocha frappacino at Starbuck's, collected the luggage, and headed across the street to the rental car desk. I do like this aspect of the new Fort Myers terminal - no more waiting in the broiling sun for a shuttle to the rent-a-cars.

The car rental agent was fresh out of compacts, and offered to upgrade me to a Mustang convertible at no extra charge.... and then she checked the computer and my Mustang had just been rented to someone else. So she tried to SELL me an upgrade to an SUV, which was all she seemed to have available, but I wasn't buying. I ended up getting the SUV for the price of the compact. Anything else would have just not been right. It's a Chevy HHR. Metallic gray, not on my color chart, but much more convenient to load and unload the cargo area than a compact would have been.

From there, I proceeded to the insurance agency. I'd made contact with them the previous week, so I stopped by to put down my deposit and get the proof of hazard insurance needed for the closing.

By now, I was tired and cranky. I needed to eat, but I was also anxious to get to the island. So I drove to the island and went to pick up groceries at Jerry's, eating one of the bananas I'd purchased while driving down Donax to the Holiday Inn.

My room was not ready, but at least I got a shady place to park, so my groceries would not spoil. I headed down to the tiki bar and got a sandwich and a drink called Gilligan's Island - coconut rum, blue Curacao, and pineapple juice. I chatted with the bartender for a while, and returned some phone calls while I waited. Finally, I ambled back to the front desk, where I received my room keys.

I was happy to just chill in the room for a while, before heading out to the lighthouse beach. A better description of today's events is actually in tomorrow's report. I leave you now with photos of the resort.