Mark's suburban registered -20 degrees in the low areas as we headed for the Cedar Rapids airport. We had already received a snap chat from the rest of our family who were already boarded on a plane in Des Moines. We were all headed to Ocho Rios,Jamaica via Chicago, Miami, and Kingston to spend a week together as a family celebrating Jan and my upcoming anniversary.
On the way to the airport I received an automated call saying our flight had been cancelled. With the help of 3 cell phones and a tablet we rebooked our flight which now included a voucher for an overnight stay in Miami and a day late final destination.
We landed in Miami, found our luggage, and got in the assistance line to cash in on our motel voucher. After a long wait we were told there were no available rooms. After a dozen or more attempts to find a motel on our own we finally realized we were in for a long airport stay. We hurried to grab the last of the personal pan pizzas at the pizza counter for supper even though they were already closed.
Around midnight we found an empty hallway on an upper floor of the airport. A homeless lady was already sleeping on the other side of the room. We set our luggage around us, got our beach towels out, and played cards for a couple of hours. Around 2 am we stood on a suitcase and turned out 8 fluorescence bulbs. We couldn't do anything about the speaker system which blared every 15 minutes.
Shorty before 4 am Brian and I walked down to the main floor to find some coffee. Starbucks opened early for us. I found an abandoned desk chair to sit on and a caution pedestal for a coffee table.
The following afternoon we arrived in Montego Bay rather than Kingston. Gayle, who was the driver Pablo hired for us for the week, Pablo and Paula and their girls, our friends from Iowa who were born in Jamaica, and the rest of our family, who had arrived the day before, were at the airport to greet us.
Even though we were only a day behind (it seemed longer) it was a really good feeling to see and greet friends and family.
After a visit and swimming at a beach in Negril and supper at Ricks Bar where Mark jumped off a 35 foot cliff we headed to our guest house in Ocho Rio, a 3 hour trip.
Our home for the week was an eight bedroom, five bathroom house with 2 cooks, our own pool, and a tennis court. It also came with some livestock however that story will wait for our next visit.
Even though we work together back home it felt good to just relax and hang out together. And it wasn't long until Faith and Lili, our cooks, Gayle, our driver, and Paula and Pablo and girls were all one big happy family with the rest of us. Stay tuned for our adventures and the rest of the story.
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