As sad as it might be to lose a family member, the silver lining on that cloud is always the impromptu family reunion that results. In a rather amazing feat of coordination, Candy and I, together with both of my sisters and one brother in law managed to book the same flight and hotel for the weekend trip to Orlando. Even better, the flight didn't leave until after sunrise, which almost never seems to be the case for me. It would be my first flight since the November before COVID, so we equipped ourselves with the recommended K95 face masks and hoped for the best. First, though, was another trip across the lake to drop the new dog off to be neutered and so finish up with his shots and to be boarded until we could pick him up on Monday.
I was a little disappointed not to be able to go to the race in Gainesville, but glad that Julia, Christopher, Dustin, Lisa, and Brett were all able to make the trip. It looked like a great early-season race. We have another race in Mississippi this coming weekend that I am hoping to attend even though it will no doubt be colder than I like, which, to be clear, means under 75°. Maybe the four days I just had off the bike will turn out to have been a good thing. That's what I'm telling myself anyway.
We arrived in Orlando in the early evening and rushed over to the hotel, checked in, and rushed to a family dinner without even taking the luggage out of the rental car trunk. We were still about half an hour late, and Danielle, who was flying in from Olympia, was still at the airport when we arrived, but eventually the entire table for 20 or so was full. I'm still afraid to look at what our share of that dinner bill was, but whatever, it was well worth it.
The next morning Candy announced that she couldn't find her driver's license, the only ID she had. We searched and searched, but not luck. More about that later.
Saturday morning we headed to the chapel, following the Google Maps instructions, and twenty minutes later arrived at a place with no chapel. Turns out there was a "north" and "south" to that address, and we were of course at the wrong one. So the memorial service at the Baptist chapel was nice even though we got there a couple of minutes late, and, thankfully, was fairly brief. One never knows with these things! Laura and Jay were regulars there and so had a lot of friends who attended.
We spent the rest of the day at the house catching up with everyone, including a couple of people from way back in my swimming days, and eating various things I almost never eat. At least five people approached me with, "You must be Jay's brother," a greeting to which I've been accustomed childhood. It was late evening by the time we finally said goodbye to everyone. A little while later we headed to dinner somewhere around downtown Orlando. The wait for our table was going to be about an hour, so we went next door to an oyster bar for drinks and a few oysters, followed by a nice dinner (some sort of clam pasta for me) with the sisters, daughter, etc. I don't know which of the unusual culinary items was to blame, but that night my gut was quite unhappy with me, a problem that lingered into the morning.
Sunday morning we were dreading the ordeal we were expecting to have with TSA to get Candy onto an airplane without valid ID. I was in the shower when she stuck her head in the door to say she had found the long-lost driver's license ... in her shoe ... the one she'd been wearing all of the prior day. It must have gotten in there during the TSA inspection when we were leaving New Orleans when they had to re-run here bag and took her ID during the process. In the rush - TSA screening always seems like a rush - it somehow landed in her shoe, which she then put on thinking there was just a little wrinkle in her sock. Anyway, that was a big relief. Danielle took an Uber to the airport at 4 am for her long flight back to Washington. We had planned to be at the airport three hours early because of the ID situation, so although that was no longer necessary we were all up anyway so we were there fairly early. Fortunately my gut had calmed down a bit by the time our 10:30 am flight departed, although of course I hadn't had anything to eat or drink unless you count a couple of chewable Pepto tablets. The flight back was uneventful and we were back at home by about noon where the sky was clear and the air was fairly cold. I thought about riding but ultimately decided that under the circumstances to skip a couple more days to be on the safe side.
Back to the bike tomorrow!
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