Our big bags were taken to the terminal by the crew, so we had only our small bags (backpacks, laptop, handbag) to pack in the morning. We had breakfast in the buffet (and said goodbye to a few more friends), then vacated the room and disembarked. The disembarkation took a while – nearly an hour – but we finally got out of the terminal. Then I had to walk 15 minutes to the Budget office to rent a car.
I was worried about being able to rent a car as I had no driver’s license on me (it was still somewhere in Paris). But with my international driving permit, my passport and a PDF of my license status from the DMV they let me have a vehicle – a Mazda SUV.
The plan was to drive straight to Coral Springs to retrieve Becky, but the shortest route there ran through Lehigh Acres, so we stopped at Marlene’s house to unload (with a shopping stop at Goodwill along the way) and to have some dinner (ramen noodles – our favorite). We were VERY pleased to find the house in excellent shape. The air conditioning, which had been misbehaving before we left, was performing flawlessly. The freezers were very cold (and obviously had not gone through a major defrosting as our pennies on the ice were still on the top of the ice). Even the clock on the stove was operating, meaning that there had been no power outage. And the toilets were not dry, thanks to the oil that we had put in each. Perfect.
We drove to Coral Springs and Becky was overjoyed to see us. We stopped at the Immokolee casino on the way home. I slept while Marlene played. She broke even. Then back home, arriving around 2:30am.
In the morning we returned the car to Budget at the Ft Myers airport.
Thus ends the ATW-3. And the epic ATW trip.
Wrapup next.