Dressing like Heidi to satisfy Delta Airlines !!

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The morning dawned Ok at the motel from hell....Motel 6.This place was the pits and had it not been for the voucher we had for a free nights stay we wouldnt have been with a thousand miles of the place.
The place was so spartan.Basically two beds a table and two chairs and that was it.Oh and the two piddly size cakes of soap!!
With no breakfast on offer at Motel 6 we showered and hit the road early to get some breakfast before returning the rental car to the airport and then boarding our flight to Fort Lauderdale.We hit I-40 and headed for the airport about 10 miles away.We ended up at the Waffle House and stood in a queue to wait for a table at this popular spot.Breakfast was good and we left satisfied and ready for the flight via Atlanta which would take up a good part of the day...and so it turned out.
The rental car return was a breeze and the van to the terminal picked us up straight away.
Here is where the easy start to the day came to an end.....................
It wasnt so much that we had difficulty getting the auto register machine to recognise who we were but more the surly Delta woman who took our suitcases to checkin after we managed to get our boarding passes out of the machine.
First one case was 8lb over and the other was 5lb.We guess the two bottles of wine we are carrying from Warrenton days for our cruise didnt help but then neither did the deadpan look out of the Delta woman.All she could say was "I dont make the rules"
I think she thought we werent married and travelling together at first because she didnt seem to appreciate we had travelled with Delta before into Raleigh and there was no problem when we are sure the cases were a bit over the allowance.
At first she suggested we transfer some stuff between cases as she "couldnt"agrregrate the weights.
She obviously wasnt going to move on the slightly overweight and after she said it would be another US$90 per case for the extra weight I decided it was time for my best impression of Heidi !!!!
For those readers who dont know...Heidi had to wear all her clothes up the mountain so she didnt have to carry them !!!
So it was off to the loo and luckily the handicap stall was free as it was the only one that would take my sitcase and me and allow me to change into more clothes to drop the weight in the suitcase.I was already in shorts and tee shirt so I chose my long Docker trousers and a long sleeve shirt to put on over my shorts and tee shirt and transferred my small amount of clothes for washing to my back pack..I came out looking like the Michelin man but felt I would have achieved a reduction in suitcase weight.
Gretchen had achieved a small reduction by putting on 2 more tee shirts making it 3 on her body !!
The first pass at the new weight still required more reduction so I took out the atlas we have been carrying for the past weeks on the road and stuffed that into the backpack too along with some brochures we had decided to keep on our travels.
Hey presto...we hit the right weight and the checkin was completed although not by Miss Surliness Delta but a more pleasant assistant(must give Delta some credit!!)
What was so bloody stupid about all this half hour of clothes dressing and moving of stuff was that Delta still carried the same weight for the two of us except now it was dispersed over our bodies,backpacks and suitcases !!!
The flight to Atlanta was uneventful and we had an hour or so layover in Atlanta before boarding for Ft Lauderdale.At the gate an announcement was made that the plane was overbooked and they were looking for people to step aside and take a later flight to Miami and get a credit for a later Delta flight.
If only they knew what we would have said had they tried to bump us.That didnt happen and it was another uneventful flight to Ft Lauderdale even though the captain warned of turbulence as we made the approachi nto Ft Lauderdale from the thunder clouds that were about.
Here the second trial for the day started.The Rodeway Inn and Suites were not listed on the free phone stand in the terminal even though our reservation stated free pickup and usually its just a phone call from a booth and a van is there to pick you up.
After the 3rd call a van turned up and we finally made it to the motel,which is actually not too bad,an hour and a half after arriving in the heat of Florida.
So a couple of beers,nachos and pulled pork later we are back in the unit getting the final preparations for the cuise tomorrow and hoping that the van to the ship will be easier than the trip from the airport.

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