This is a great entry to start with because it can serve as a reminder to all of us to check and double check those "to do" list well ahead of your departure day.
Enjoy!
Today was a total adventure- well actually the day started last Saturday afternoon- I digress but it is a necessary part of the story. I pulled out our passports for our trip......... after all this procedure was on my excel spreadsheet entitled- "Checklist for Departure to Florida". Gord's passport expired Nov 2014! WTF? Ok rally- here is the plan- we download a copy of the application- fill it in and make plans to depart the County at 6:00 AM for a trip to the Scarborough Passport office to complete an emergency passport renewal on Monday. Normally we would be heading to the Ivey Lea (sp?) bridge to the US. BUT we had to reroute.
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| That would be Gord waving at the end of a very long line-up. |
8:00 AM arrive at the passport office to a line up that no one has ever witnessed in the somewhat unicultural environment of Prince Edward County. Pics are attached of Gord waving and being excited about being the 60th person in line. They march us single file to the second floor for processing.
All good except they want more than two people to reference the fact that Gord is a decent fellow and needs a passport - right now! Today! Our car is loaded and we are off to FLA. We scramble- pull out a couple more names of folks who can say they think he is an ok guy. BTW they asked these referees a lot of personal questions about Gord- geesh.
We are told he will not receive his new passport until 4:00 PM! Ok when the chips are down, go to the Mall, shop at Lululemons (pic to follow), get manicures and access email at the very fancy Scotiabank lounge with red Lucite lamps, white leather furniture, free bottles of water and Kernels popcorn (pic to follow). Ok a delay of this kind can be tolerated.
Just following the manicures, we receive calls from friends Bob and Ben who tell us the Passport office has called. So we take a leap of faith and arrive at the Passport office early asking about the status. Voila! Passport in hand at 11:53 AM. We dart off for Buffalo to enter the US.
Well, again, no one who has ever crossed at Gananoque could possibly imagine the one hour line up at customs. (pic to follow). Geesh we are already behind the 8 ball- one hour? We have to drive 1,400 miles to Florida. REALLY?
We departed PEC at 6:00 AM and arrived at our hotel (Best Western- "no tell motel") at 8:00 PM in Morgantown, West Virginia. 850 clicks from home and totally exhausted. Snack pack in the car fed us all day and we are turning in shortly. Well after a bottle of Keint-He wine. Weather was favourable for driving with only a few flurries en route. Clearly we needed something favourable- didn't we?
No Krispy Creams, no Dunkins during the day, but we are moving forward to sun and sand. Thank Gord- I mean "God".
Just so you know, Gord and Laurie arrived safely and are now enjoying all that Florida has to offer this time of year. Here's hoping they share more of their adventures in Paradise soon! Laurie was good enough to provide us with our first Florida sunset pic as well.
Well today it is rather cool in Fla sadly BUT sunny so will look for a protected spot poolside to read. This year we are staying right next to the Sea Bird Sanctuary. Nice condo if you like birds and don't mind daily deposits on your car. NOT. Aside from the healing birds at the sanctuary, there are hundreds of freeloaders perched on surrounding roof tops. Yikes wouldn't want to spend over a million dollars on a waterfront home next to a bird sanctuary. Imagine the smell mid July! I do have a picture of the dastardly Pelicans on the surrounding roof tops but I will be darned if I can upload into this post. Drat!
ReplyDeleteAre Gord and Laurie staying in a different condo this year?
ReplyDeleteYes. They are not longer in the same building that we were in. The are a little further south along the beach toward John's Pass.
ReplyDelete