5/19 - The long travel day

4:30 comes really early - ugh. But that's the way it is - so we are up, showered, packed and ready to go when the cab arrives. It is really quick to the airport - because we're in Terminal 4 - so we're there in no time, and walking up to the United check in kiosks. We're directed to the security check, which mercifully is simple -they run my passport and give me a sticker. Phew. Then we head back to the kiosk - where the very helpful guy wants to know if we had green cards, and that was why the security check. Um, no, but who knows!

We get our boarding passes (thank Mr. United telephone center guy who gave us Economy Plus seats after I called to ask about the security thing), dump our bags and go in search of somewhere to sit for oh - 2 hours - until our flight. We can waste two hours just as easily as anyone can - and before we know it we're on board. There is no one in Economy Plus - so once the doors close - we jump over to the 3 seats in the middle and have tons of room for our flight back West.

Fortunately uneventful - just long - we end up watching Monuments Men (pretty good) and reading and blogging across the Atlantic. Food isn't bad - alcohol isn't free (thanks US airlines) - but soon enough we're on the ground in Newark no worse for wear.

Now we have about 3 hours of layover - and of course we zip right through immigration, the bags are right there and we're back through security in a flash. Geez - when we need to waste time where are the long lines?

After a particularly expensive (and bad - lousy wine and the wrong beer for Ed) drink, we go back to the boarding area to wait for our flight figuring we've spent enough money and we've got a long drive ahead of us when we land in Ft. Lauderdale.

The flight is 1/2 hour late taking off, but they somehow make up all of that and we land on time. Bags are fast, taxi to the hotel fast - we're on the road at a little past 6. We need to make it to Daytona tonight - where we've booked a room - so we're pretty happy everything went so smoothly on this last leg.

The drive is long - and with the construction in the dark, pretty intense, but we make it to the hotel a little before 10. Not too bad. The Ale House next door is open, so we grab snacks there - $5 apps - that works! Then we head back to the hotel and collapse in the bed. No setting the alarm in the morning - when we get up - we get up - then we'll hit the road for our now short drive home.