Some days on holidays are better than others but all the time we are away together are good. This day did not come anywhere near a definition of good.
Overnight Karen’s pain seemed to have got worse and it was an even grumpier person I woke up to at 6.45am. She decided that she could not make it out of the cabin to get to breakfast so after showering I went up on my own.
There was a steady bustle about the ship as everyone appeared to be on the move ready to disembark for the final time. I had my final eggs benedict and then went back to try and take Karen a plateful of food back with me. More challenging was also trying to carry 2 mugs of tea back at the same time.
Karen only ate half what I took back and was getting anxious about having to walk off the ship and what the other parts of today’s journey may entail.
I had arranged the last timeslot to get off the ship (purple 3) but we decided to try and move to the 2nd floor slowly before we were called to give Karen some time to do so.
The second floor was somewhat chaotic but we found some seats to wait. Just before we guessed we would be called I walked to join the long line and Karen joined when the queue got to where she was sitting. She was trying to use my walking pole but I don’t know if that was helping or hindering her. It was a decent stroll to the terminal building where all the bags were waiting to be collected. I quickly found ours and got myself in a muddle trying to work out how I was going to pull both sets along with Karen’s hand luggage whilst hobbling myself.
I declined the first offer from a porter thinking if I could find a trolley then I could manage. The only trolleys available all seemed to have a porter attached so I had no option to use one. He was not happy that I wanted to get to the rental shuttle point for some reason and kept trying to insist we should get a taxi. He raced ahead. I was torn between keeping him within eye contact or waiting for Karen. I figured she would never forgive me if we lost all the bags and that she would be able to spot me ahead of her.
I was right and wrong. In trying to keep me in sight, she wrenched her knee and made her pain situation worse. I ‘tipped’ the porter who still went off in a huff and then I realised he hadn’t left us in the right place for the shuttle so had to do short relay to move the bags to where we should have been.
Karen sat on an empty trolley whilst waiting for the rental shuttle which soon turned up.
The car rental pickup took less than 2 minutes and I wandered to find the Hyundai Tucson we had been allocated and brought it back to where Karen was waiting and loaded up the bags.
The drive to the motel took about 20 minutes and as we were over 4 hours earlier than check in time, they stored our bags for us whilst we drove to the nearby mall at the end of the road. There was an Einstein Bros Bagel coffee shop which I sat Karen outside and went to get her a coffee. Although apparently the coffee was fine it was not great inside and poorly run. What was annoying was when we discovered that 10 yards round the corner was a nice Starbucks inside the Target store.
I received a message saying our room was ready and so we went back and settled in. The motel was nicely situated with a lovely courtyard area in the sun. Karen thought though that the large studio room could have been cleaner. Karen was now in tears with the pain again and resorted to taking some the prescribed painkillers I am advised to carry with me but never take.
Rather than just sit in the room I got her into the car and drove to the beach. We found the place where had stayed before and it reminded us of how much we like Fort Lauderdale as a city. Away from the beach centre there was parking on the roadside just a few steps from the beach. I fed the parking meter and got Karen to sit on the edge of the dunes. Although still somewhat cloudy it was lovely sitting there.
Karen then started to fret about getting home both through the airport and onto the plane. I was still on the opinion that as it was 3 days away, we would cross that bridge once we got to it.
On the way back I was sent into the very close Publix and sent to buy milk, something for breakfast and snacks. I was assured whatever I came back with would be fine. It turned out about 2 hours later it wasn’t but I guessed that would be the case.
In our room I needed a rest myself. Karen couldn’t find any position sitting or standing that wasn’t causing her more distress. I was at a loss what to do. I made a cuppa for us hoping in a very British way that it would solve everything. It did but only briefly.
Karen soon abandoned any idea of going out for dinner and so after a discussion I was despatched to the nearby Bahama Breeze to get a takeaway. We both had the Jerk Chicken Pasta which good but was too large for both of us.
We sat and watched some Shark Tank but by not long after 9pm I was more than ready for bed and so left Karen watching and trying to take her mind off the obvious pain she was still in. I just hoped we would get a good night’s sleep.
