Off we go!

We got up extra early for a 5:45 departure from DFW airport.

Dreaming at dawn somewhere over Louisiana

Window seat please!

Bolo

Waiting for Bolo

Our flight from Miami to TCB was delayed slightly due to mechanical problems, but they switched airplanes and had us in Abaco in time to catch the 4:30 BOLO while a few mild thunderstorms passed through the area.

2 Shorty's

After a quick trip to town to pick up groceries and beverages, we unpacked before heading back to
2 Shorty’s later that night for a dinner that included Cracked Conch and Lobster.

International Flight Check-In Available On AA.com

What a great email to start the day with!

Bank & Bread

Today’s activities included calling Sid’s to reserve a loaf of white bread and coconut bread for our arrival and a trip to the bank for a cashier’s check for the balance of the rent.

The cashier’s check is a new thing this year.  Something must have happened to cause them to enact this policy?

Long distance calling

Added the international plan to the cell phones today just in case we need to use them while we are on the island.  The cost is reasonable as long as you remember to cancel the added service after returning to the real world.  We didn’t add any international data service, as we should be able to access Wi-Fi at the house.

Being “plugged-in” while on vacation is a matter of debate for many people, but we do enjoy our technology and we will use it to monitor our emails for anything urgent and to access the local weather forecast along with any anything else we might like to look up during the trip.

Practice-run

Today we packed and weighed everything.  Then we re-packed and re-weighed several times to get all the gear, food and a little bit of clothing balanced into six suitcases without busting the 50 pound weight limit on any individual bag.  In all, it looks to be about 270 pounds of outbound stuff!

A majority of the gear filling out suitcases is scuba diving equipment that we will use while diving for four days with Brendal.  This will be Bridget’s third year as a certified diver, Austin’s fourth.  We’ll each carry our regulators in our carry-on luggage and check the rest of the luggage straight through from DFW to TCB.  

Re-confirm Everything

This week we sent and received emails to re-confirm our arrival time and dock with Maria from Island Property Management and our cart rentals with Marilyn at Seaside Carts.  Everything is set!

In all the years of traveling to GTC, I have never had a bad experience where they “forgot” or “lost” my reservation.  I can’t say the same for the times that I have reserved rental cars or hotel rooms in the States!

American Airlines – We’ll keep you guessing

Leave early and arrive on the island in time for lunch?   That’s like getting a BONUS day of vacation!

At the time that the flights were first booked on AA, we departed DFW at 5:45 AM and were scheduled to arrive TCB 11:45 AM the same morning.  That’s sure worth getting up early for!

Now that we are a few days from departure, I needed to re-check my travel schedule on-line to discover that AA has changed the schedule.  We still leave DFW on that same early flight, but the lay-over in Miami now allows ample time to eat breakfast, and lunch, prior to a scheduled 2:55 arrival in TCB.

Upon closer inspection, I also discovered that AA took the time to re-pick our seat assignments on the DFW-MIA & MIA-DFW flight segments.  So much for the luxury of the extra legroom of the exit row seats we were bumped out of.

If the flights are anything close to on time, still not a bad travel schedule.