Another
trip to Florida to watch Millie playing college golf.
UWF isn’t hosting their own tournament once again so we’ve elected to go
to one being held near St Augustine on the east coast of Florida. As usual we booked flights and car hire with
BA and the trip over was uneventful although neither of us found the PE seats
particularly comfortable but we’d rather save our £££ for business class on longer
routes.
Obviously
being near the front we were quickly off the plane and hoped to be well in
front of the no doubt very long queue at immigration. Except at Orlando Airport they have now
implemented a Bags First policy in Terminal
C and typically our cases took ages to come out (no doubt the priority tagging had the reverse effect) and so we found ourselves way back in the queue. Actually it moved fairly quickly and once we
got to the front we found the Immigration Officer to be absolutely charming in
marked contrast to previous visits and we were soon heading down to the hire car
desks. Here the queue was ridiculous,
there are about 15 different providers and there must have been 100 or so
people waiting. Avis had a special “Cars
Available Without Booking” sign up and consequently their queue was longer than
most. It was particularly frustrating as
we’d hoped to be on the road quickly and through the worst of the traffic
before it got dark Eventually it was our
turn and for once we were allocated exactly the car we’d ordered – a Toyota Corolla. It took a while to persuade the guy we didn’t
want his expensive toll pass add-on as we’d planned a route avoiding tolls but
eventually he gave up with a passing “hmmm you’ll never manage to avoid them”
comment and sent us off to the garage.
The
despatch desk and all the vehicles were in an underground car park a good 10
mins walk away and when we got there someone else was already sitting in our car (we’d
seen the guy leave the counter 2-3 people before us). So he and I walked back to the desk to
basically be told to sort it out between us as there was only one car. On the basis he was already in it I told him
to take it and I was then told to go head for Bay 16 and take that car (the
keys are just left in the footwell). Unfortunately
this one was massive but Hobson’s Choice and all that, except after 5 minutes
we still couldn’t work out how to open the boot to load our cases. Back to the desk I trudged and a helpful
young lady came back with me and showed us the release catch inside the car
(what earthly good is that if you’re weighed down with shopping etc). She went off and we then attempted to start
the car and whilst I fully admit I know very little about automatics, I did at
least remember to try putting my foot on the brake but still I couldn’t start it. Back to
the despatch desk and I was beginning to get a little frustrated now, the rude
man came back with me, and on failing to start it himself, declared that the
battery was flat and we’d have to take another car.
Back to the
desk with him and now I’m getting stroppy, the light is fading rapidly and we’re
facing the whole of the 1 ½ hour journey in the dark, so whilst I remained
perfectly polite I did let my dissatisfaction be known.
The third
car is larger than the one we’d ordered but considerably smaller than car no.2
and for that I’m grateful – we can open the boot and it starts. Hurrah – we’re off!
Fortunately
Ian had done his usual meticulous research regarding the route we needed to take
and we’d printed several maps off before we left England. Nevertheless it was one of the airports with
a ring road that we had to keep driving around and changing lanes until it was
our turn to leave. We were then out on
the freeway and heading north when we suddenly saw flashing signs about the
tolls and so convinced ourselves that despite our careful planning we had
inadvertently gone on a toll road – never mind it could have been worse.
As we were driving along and reliving the farce we encountered picking up the car, it dawned on us that the paperwork we had referred to car no.1 that someone else was driving therefore should he have an accident would we be held responsible. Also we had no paperwork for the car we were now driving so that would happen should we be stopped by the police or have an accident. All a bit worrying so I made a note to email Avis once we reached our destination.
We stopped
en route at a Walmart to stock up on provisions and then finally arrived at our
home for the next two days, the exotic sounding Tropical Marina & Resort on
Lake Berrisford around 2030. Bates Motel
initially sprang to mind as we drove into the complex (although actually I’ve
never seen Psycho); 3 rows of chalets around a central grassed area with a parking area for RVs. I’d already said we’d be late
arriving and so the door was unlocked for us and, thoughtfully, all the lights
were left on. We’d only booked a studio
so weren’t expecting a palace but it was rather strange; the walls were
unrendered breeze block, though painted, and the F&F and furnishings were consistent with
the 1950s vibe. However on first
impressions it did at least appear clean, which if pushed is my one and only
criteria. After unloading and having a
bite to eat (wine and crisps as we’d eaten fairly well all day courtesy of BA) we decided to
have an early night and so set about turning off the various lights which turned out to be something of a problem. We found most of the switches but there was a strip light over the cooking area and despite searching high and low we
just couldn’t find the switch so in the end I went and asked our nearest
neighbours who turned out to be a bunch of stereotypical small town America
guys on a fishing trip – there were about 8 of them and they all wore jeans, check
shirts and baseball hats; most also had droopy moustaches. One told me they’d had similar problems and
after 3 days were none the wiser and so he just shut his eyes tightly.
We only unpacked a few essentials but as I was going through my handbag I found another car key which I must have put in my bag when car no.2 failed to start and we were moving our luggage to car no.3. Now what do we do? If we confess to having it will we be charged for the rental period on the basis we have the key so they can't re-rent it when they get it going. Or should we just leave it somewhere and deny all knowledge of it? But this didn't seem quite right as modern keyfobs are expensive things. In the end we decided to hang on to it and discreetly drop it somewhere when we got back to Orlando Airport.