Sunday, February 13th

I can’t recall for sure, but I think our flight was scheduled to leave at about 1:00pm. We left the orphanage about 8:00am for the 3 hour trip, and expected pretty smooth traveling for a Sunday morning. Reuben was driving. Not far into the trip, right after Hunter commented on how quick the trip was going, we ran into road construction and a detour. Fortunately we were only delayed a few minutes as we drove around a couple of blocks.

We got to the airport in plenty of time, and of course we were inundated with people trying to help. At this point in our trip, things were pretty simple. While we all had big bags, the bags were mostly empty, or had a second empty suitcase inside them. We were able to reduce the number of bags from 14 to 7, so in theory we each had one big bag, plus a carry on and a personal item. People were really pushy and really tried to take over for us, even though the process was pretty straight forward. You enter the airport based on which airline you are using. We did stop outside briefly while a couple of the guys bought souvenirs. When I turned around, Norm was gone. I was a bit panicked, but finally decided he was a big boy and could take care of himself. The rest of us made it inside after clearing a primary screening. As we waited in line, I saw Norm up ahead of us.

We got our boarding passes, went through the secondary screening, and stopped at the shops on first floor. Hunter bought a few things, and some of us bought some rum for medicinal purposes. Boy, do I get sick a lot.

Waited upstairs for an hour or so and boarded the plane. We were pretty sparse on the flight, and arrived in Miami without a glitch. The only problem at customs was the guy who wondered why I did not have any big bags to check. Norm and I were going to Orlando to meet our wives and stay for a few days. Since we were staying there, we only took one of the big suitcases with us and Norm had already carried it through. I simply told the guy that I travel light. He did look at me for quite a while, but let me through.

We parted company with the rest of the team and Norm and I went on to meet our wives, spending a few relaxing days in central Florida.