Fall Fun - Part 9

October 4 (Tuesday)

We will be returning home today. The timing is good for us. Matthew is continuing to churn and inch closer look to Florida. Hurricane watches were issued for this area around noon today. I'm not sure how Marlene and her husband will make out as they are scheduled to be here until Friday and the storm is supposed to come in here Thursday into Friday. Hope it all works out for them!!

After getting up, we take on the chore of packing. Once we have everything packed up, we drag our two checked bags down to the Resort Airline checkin area. Our bag tags and boarding passes were already hanging on our door this morning.

We were slated to go to the Magic Kingdom this morning but the were some items I did not want to leave with bell services and didn't want to drag them through the security check either so decided not to go to the park and canceled the fastpasses we had booked. Instead, we will take the boat over to Disney Springs.

Since it is still before 10 and most things there don't open until 10, we hang out on our patio for a little bit, leaving our room right around 10. This time, we bring our carry on bags with us and leave them with bell services to be collected later in the day. The boat arrives within a few minutes and we are soon disembarking once again at Disney Springs. We're hungry so opt for an early lunch at Earl of Sandwich - the original for me and tuna melt for my spouse.

For the next couple of hours, we wander through the stores we had not explored yesterday. For a treat, we head over to Ghiradelli's where I have a hot fudge sundae while my spouse has a banana split. I can't finish all of mine but my spouse manages to eat all of his.

We take the boat back to Saratoga Spring to hang out until our Magical Express pickup. While waiting, a thunderstorm comes in and, boy, does it rain!! It is mostly over by time we move out front to ask for our stored bags. A bus arrives 10 minutes before our scheduled pickup time but announces it was the bus scheduled for 1/2 hour before our time. We are resigned to waiting for the next bus. While they are still loading folks, someone from bell services comes running up with a gentleman and his luggage and asks the bus driver if he has room for two more people from our scheduled time. The bus driver says he does. Wait a sec!! We just asked and were put off and he's going to take two other folks who just arrived?!! Still, I pleasantly ask if he has room for two additional people and he says to wait until he finishes loading the group he is supposed to take. He then becomes rather pleasant and loads our luggage and allows us on board before the other folks who arrived with the bell services gentleman.

Traffic is a bit heavy so I am glad we got out early (even though it is 10 minutes earlier than expected). Once at the airport, we head to the TSA precheck line which is a bit backed up. Still, lines at Orlando airport are much better than what we have, at times experienced in the past. I set the alarm off and they tell me it is my shoes (I had sandals on) so they made me remove those and put them though the scanner. I told my spouse to remind me to never wear those sandals to the airport in the future.

Neither one of us is hungry so we make our way to our gate. I'm wearing shorts and it's chilly at home so I head into the restroom and change into jeans. My spouse does likewise. They flash up that boarding is delayed so I decide to head to the restroom. Apparently, they started boarding as soon as I headed off to the rest room so I walk right on as soon as I return. We are in row 2. Towards the end of boarding, a gentleman enters the plane looks at our row and announces out loud "Row 2 A" and continues on. I thought he was just using it as a reference point. The flight attendant says there is plenty of room in the overhead so the man returns. He's holding an armful of jackets, sweatshirts, and sweaters and manages to spill them all over the aisle. He scoops them up. The flight attendant tells him no-one is sitting in row one and he could have it to himself. He appears happy with this until the attendant tells him he can't have anything in front of him in row 1. Although he doesn't have anything to put under the seat, he doesn't seem happy with this and decides he will sit in the row with us. The attendant asks if we want to switch to the front row which the man seems happy with and we decide to make that switch. Of course, my pocketbook needs to be stored above but that is fine. So, on both sides of this trip we have a full row to ourselves. After we are reseated, I hear the man behind us making arrangements to have someone come to the airport to retrieve his keys from his car saying he accidently locked them in the car. Towards the end of the flight, he pops up over our seatbacks with a grey sweatshirt saying he had found it under the seat and asking if it belongs to us. He even places it in the middle seat between us, which was open, and where I had placed my sweatshirt. We tell him again it is not our sweatshirt and he sits back down still in possession of the article of clothing which both of us believe he had with him when he entered the plane. A while later, he apparently speaks to the flight attendant about the sweatshirt and she asks if it belongs to us. We again state it is not ours and we hear the attendant tell the man to just leave it on the seat.

Our plane lands in Boston. We collect our luggage. My brother-in-law picks us up and drives us home. It's been a long day. We are in our own bed for the first time in two weeks. Aah!!!