Day 6: Monday, May 30, 2005

This wasn't really a fun day. We awoke at 5:00 a.m., had breakfast and caught the 6:30 a.m. shuttle bus to the airport, which took a good two hours. Oh, by the way, the bus blew a tire in the town of Trelawny, and we had to wait for it to be changed.

We checked into the airport and PTL, they didn't give us a hard time about MFP's name on the ticket. Waiting for the plane, I literally fell asleep standing up in a crowd waiting to board our plane, which took off a half hour late. We FINALLY got on the plane, and I fell asleep. The plane went first to Kingston, then to Fort Lauderdale, our layover point. MFP and I were so tired we barely talked.

We had lunch on the plane and landed in the afternoon in Fort Lauderdale. Thanks to AirTran and Air Jamaica not having an agreement with each other, we had to pick up our bags in Fort Lauderdale, go to the ticket counter AGAIN and go through security AGAIN. We did so, and when we got to the ticket counter we already knew that we were going to miss our connecting flight because the time had been changed to an earlier one due to an "executive decision" by AirTran. (How this can be legal is beyond me.) The woman behind the ticket counter initally told us that we could not get a flight to Baltimore until tomorrow, but then realized that AirTran had already put us on a flight that evening. PTL!

We went through Florida security, where we were randomly selected for additional screening, and so were wanded and my purse was searched. I was so happy when it was over. After several hours of hanging around our gate, we had dinner at a pizza place in the terminal and then boarded the plane.

The flight to Baltimore was uneventful, but I wished I hadn't finished my book in Jamaica. When we got to BWI, it was dark, and we headed for the light rail, which was how MFP had gotten to the airport. But we found it to be closed, since it closes at 8:00 on holidays and it was, of course, Memorial Day.

Please see Kate Krupnik's post regarding the MTA.

Now, wouldn't you think that on a holiday, a day when tons of people fly, that the light rail to and from the airport would at least be running? But noooooooo. MFP and I were literally stranded. I got the idea of calling "Nancy," who lives in Catonsville not far from the airport. I did (from a pay phone, my cell had run completely out of juice, I wasn't able to plug it into a Jamaican outlet since they are different), and I BEGGED her to come and pick us up. She did, bless her heart. We were so humiliated that we were very quiet. And we were in bad moods. Nancy later said she thought our silence was odd. She dropped us off at the Patapsco light rail stop, where MFP's car was.

When he tried to carry me over the threshold, he dropped me. Hence I am now a member of the Catonsville Y.

And so, dear readers, ends this blog. I will not be writing it anymore, but I will leave it up for the pleasure of whomever surfs and lands here. All in all, quite an adventure, and one which I absolutely do not regret.