Stappcation Spring Break 2023
Friday March 10, 2023
To kick-off Stappcation Spring Break 2023, I took half a day of vacation today. We wanted to get to the new terminal at KCI early, having no idea what to expect as everything down to parking had changed. Amy reserved a spot at a newer parking facility over our usual economy parking. She made the reservation because it had covered parking for $5.99 a day and it had come highly recommended.
Flying to Fort Lauderdale
Not gonna do that again. We got to the booth to check into the facility and the lady was very … very short with us (strike one) and directed us away from the covered parking. We told her we had a reservation and she replied that a reservation does not guarantee covered parking. On the tram to take us to the airport terminal, we met a family who also had some comments to share about the lady checking us in. In fact, he had told her to “Be nice.”
This started a conversation among all of us on the bus. This world is rough enough and it doesn’t take much to just treat people nicely, so why not? If we could all just treat each other the way we want to be treated, the world would be a much nicer place. In fact, this is what we were taught at one time. The Golden Rule was the way we lived and how we acted. Can we get back to that and get away from this “I’m entitled to everything now” mentality that we are in?
Ok, now that that rant is over, I’ll move on. I won’t even name the lot we parked at after complaining about it. I’m not so upset about having to park in an uncovered space. My car has 160,000 miles on it… no big deal… but, Be Nice!
New KCI Terminal
When the driver dropped us off, we entered the terminal on the lower floor and followed the path upstairs to TSA. The TSA check was quick. It’s always been quick at KCI, but before everything was so spread out that there had to be a checkpoint for every ten or so gates and it was very inefficient. TSA has been condensed to one checkpoint for the entire terminal with two lines. Even though the line is longer, there are more machines and a quicker pace to the line.
The Beaze!
Amy made a new friend while waiting in the TSA line. She always finds another kid to play with when we’re in a line or waiting on something. This time it was a little girl who was dancing in the line. She had a sister that played as well and a brother that was off trying to escape his parents. The mom realized how much fun her daughter was having with Amy, and they started talking a little bit.
Meanwhile, I just sat there trying to figure out where I had seen dad before. At first, I thought he was just another dude and didn’t pay much attention. When I saw his shirt, I became interested. I don’t even remember what the shirt said. It was something about soccer, but it wasn’t something you see every day.
I quickly realized that it was Matt Besler, retired Sporting KC star. Amy was too busy playing with the kids to even notice. It was hard for me not to tell Cooper who he was, but I didn’t want to be That Guy that ruined his trip.
Food and Flight
If there is a New Car smell for an airport, is it Barbeque? Probably only at KCI. Many of the new food spots were KC specific spots – Meat Mitch’s, Parisi Coffee, Bo Ling’s and the Brooksider to name a few. There was a sports bar near our gate called The Leagues that looked like a good spot to waste time in, but since we were all together, I was going to hang out with the girls. Amy and the girls had Auntie Em’s pretzels while I grabbed a Cuban sandwich from Salumeria Cervasi Deli. It wasn’t bad but I’d expect a bit more than just a sloppy, thin sandwich for $15.
We boarded our flight to Baltimore on new boarding ramps with WINDOWS! Thinking back on this, I don’t know anyplace else where I have boarded a plane on a ramp that I could look outside from.
Baltimore Washington International
Our first flight arrived in Baltimore. Our next flight had been delayed when we landed. It was originally supposed to take off at around 10:30 EST but something had gone wrong. There was no flight crew for our plane. After an hour a flight crew was found, but it was coming in from another location. When they arrived, they weren’t very approachable but as we got on board, they warmed up a little bit.
Unfortunately, the damage was done, and we were delayed 2 hours putting us in at 3 AM. Again, I’m looking at the bright side here and thanking Southwest Airlines for working so hard to find a crew that would make this flight. I’m sure they had better things to do, but I’m so glad they chose to take us to Miami. Thank you!
FINALLY Fort Lauderdale!
We landed and gathered our belongings. I alerted our driver in the Uber app. In a few short minutes, our Uber pulled in and picked us up. The driver took us in to our Home 2 Suites hotel and we zipped right on up to our room and would do our best to sleep in.