PatrickDiCaprio.com

So a few hours after my last post, after watching the news of the hurricane in the bar while I was eating lunch, I ventured over to the terminal of the airline I was supposed to fly to Cuba on. They informed me that as of 6:00 PM, the base was shutting down and no planes would be allowed to land. The canceled flight was music to my ears, as I wasn’t really looking forward to flying to a place that was about to get hit by the outskirts of a hurricane.

Since there was no telling when the base might reopen, there was no point in hanging around. After waiting on hold for well over an hour with the travel company, I got fed up and went to the Delta counter to manually change my reservation. I luckily got the 2nd to last seat on the next direct flight back to Hartford the next morning. At this point I began calling for a hotel room. The 14th hotel I called finally had an available room. I took a cab over, found the one restaurant within walking and wandered the attached Outdoor World. If I was a redneck fisherman/hunter that is where I would spend my weekends hanging out. I got back to the hotel and passed out around 8 sleeping right through to 8 AM the next morning. I was up for almost 24 hours and totally spent at that point. After an uncomfortable flight home, I made in back safe and sound to Derby around 4 PM on Sunday.

Talk about a wasted weekend. I think I have learned my lesson about saying yes to field work.

So for those of you that didn’t know, work decided to send me to the Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay Cuba to install some equipment. Many of my friends and family have asked me to keep them updated on the trip so I figure this would be the easiest way. I’m not actually in Cuba yet, but I am stuck in the Fort Lauderdale Airport for another 5 hours, so I figured it would be a good time to start.

I left for the airport around 5 this morning, making good time and getting there right after 6. This was a good thing as it took me over an hour to get through security. I then realized the airport really is an odd place. If I went into detail about all the strange things I have seen so far today, I probably could fill most of my layover, but I do need to eat something I guess.

I sat down for a quick bite at McDonald’s (which was actually cheaper at the airport than at home, go figure). Sitting at the table across from me was a man who looked identical to Kevin Youkilis of the Boston Red Sox. If I didn’t know better I would have sworn it was him, but I highly doubt that he would be at an airport between yesterday’s double header and tonight’s game. The resemblance was amazing. He had a shaved head, the goatee fro and even similar sunglasses. To top it off, when he got up he put on a Sox hat.

When I got to the gate, the girl at the counter made an announcement that they were looking for people to fill the emergency isles. I thought this was odd as those are usually the first seats to go. What was even odder was that the girl at the counter laughed at my joke when I walked up and said “Yes, I’d like more leg room.”

The flight went well from there, although I couldn’t fall asleep like I wanted too. Hopefully I will do better on the next one. I did make a few realizations in my travels so far today:

1.) Wearing a shirt with a logo is a great way to strike up random conversation. I have a Red Sox shirt on and as a result I have had 3 pretty good baseball conversations as a result. It’s a great way to meet people and kill time while traveling.

2.) I have decide I want to be an airline pilot. Not to fly planes, but to automatically move to the front of the line everywhere I go. I mean it works in the airport, so if should work in amusement parks right?

That’s all for now, lunch is calling my name. More once I’m on the other side.