Thursday 5th

The journey to Florida this year was filled with delays of some type or another.

First, we left a hour before we would normally as the Google Maps suggested travel times of between 1 and 2 hours. Quite a gap there.

As it turned out, it was quite accurate - an accident at the Dartford Bridge (not as bad as the 3 hour wait we had coming back from Rome this year) then another one at the M23 meant we turned up on time, having eaten into all our hour's contingency time.

Check-in hadn't been fully completed this year, Linda had been picked for "enhanced check-in" which meant she couldn't check in online and had to present herself at the desk instead.

For once neither of our bags were picked for deeper searching in security, I still had a lot of cables and stuff in my rucksack, but it went through alright.

This was our first visit to Gatwick North terminal, we've only ever flown from the South terminal. It did mean that we could use a lounge which wasn't the No.1 lounge that seemed to be the only one in the South Terminal.

Aspire was fine but we did find ourselves sitting there for a long time. There was no gate announcement for a long time. In the end, it was only about 30 minutes before the flight was supposed to leave that the gate number appeared. Turned out that the inbound flight had been almost a hour late in arriving which meant after cleaning and loading, the flight out was late.

We waited around at the gate until it was announced we could go through. I went through OK, but once again, Linda was asked to wait behind for an enhanced search, this included a ham-fisted guard attempting to pull the case off of her Kindle the wrong way. Linda was not a happy bunny!

VS27 was supposed to leave at 11:35am it finally took off at 12:30pm. We were flying on Hot Lips with 440 people on board (almost full).

The flight was almost straight over the Atlantic, instead of the usual trip over Iceland, shaving maybe 20 minutes off the trip.

Meal was supposed to be beef - but again (third time running) they'd run out of the one meal we wanted. So we had to make to with the other stuff they brought up later in the flight.

Films watched: Baby Driver - 8/10. Lego Batman - 7/10. Baywatch - 7/10. Mindhorn 6/10.

Arrived at Orlando airport in the middle of a wind and rain shower. I was watching the wings as we made our approach, the pilot was certainly earning his keep that day as we were being buffeted by cross winds and he was making a number of adjustments as we were touching down. Was glad to hear the thump as we hit the ground.

Through security OK. No automatic terminals in action oddly this time. I picked up the rental car whilst we waited for the cases to be delivered from the 'courtesy delivery' scheme. By the time I'd got the paperwork, still no cases. Time dragged on and I decided to go hunting for them. I found them next to carousel 28, when they were supposed to be on 28B (which is on another floor!) Ours weren't the only ones there either.

Picked up a nice car as rental - another Nissan Murano which actually has working bluetooth and a rear camera, much better than the basic model we got last time.

As we left Orlando airport we saw a lot of police on motorbikes about, but thought it might just be a clamp down on something. Anyway, we pulled off the 417 to pay a toll then we got stopped on the re-entry slip. I was about 6 cars from the front and I could see a police biker there, so I thought it was someone getting a ticket and the policeman being a bit of a twit and not letting others pass whilst he did so.

We sat there for a few minutes before I noticed that the main 417 road was completely empty. A minute or two later, two motorcycle cops drove past, heading to I4, lights flashing.

30 seconds later 12 cops on bikes went through as I group. Finally a whole cavalcade of vehicles drove past at high speed including two state cars at the front, flags flying, then a multitude of Escalade type SUVs (all black), then a whole line of vehicles including mini coaches, vans, an ambulance and a flippin' fire truck(!) all went speeding through. Lastly, some more bike police before we were then allowed on our way.

I knew the lead car wasn't this 'beast' I'd seen in London when Obama came over a few years back, so I assumed it wasn't President Trump. In fact it was Vice-President Mike Pence, heading to something to do with Puerto Rico relief effort. I'm assuming he made it on time!

The rest of the trip down to Anna Maria was uneventful although we did see a nice sunset from a distance as we drove along the I4

Once on the Island, we stopped off at the rental office, they had maybe 20 envelopes in their box which we think is because they might not be opening this weekend. Still, at least ours was there.

By the time we got to the apartment, it was gone 9pm US time, which was after 2am in the morning UK time. Considering we'd been up since 4:30 that morning, we were both exhausted. So it was a quick unpack of the essentials then straight to bed!

PHOTO ALBUM : https://photos.app.goo.gl/2rm0zTQ7eahp8vPU2

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