Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale

My alarm was set for 4.30am but I woke at 4.15am so I got up and had a shower and a cup of tea. I left at 5.00am and drove the 2 miles or so to return my car.

I had checked in and passed through security by 5.45am ready for my 7.20am flight. Thankfully Atlanta Airport had a few places open to eat even at that time in the morning so I had a bagel and cream cheese and read until we were called for our Delta flight. I'd booked another window seat and read some more on the flight as there were no movies. It was a really clear day so the view (especially over Florida) was beautiful!

We landed on time at about 9.00am and, sod's law being as it is(!), because I had lots of time, my suitcase was one of the first off the plane! I'd had the choice of either having a hire car for two days cost or staying at the airport for an extra 90 minutes and only paying for one day so I'd opted for the latter, my reasoning being that I was only going to my room to work so I must as well do that at the airport and save $50. Much to my delight Fort Lauderdale Airport has free wireless Internet so I could get online too.

At about 10.45am I caught a bus to the car hire centre which is a massive building. Unfortunately the queue for Alamo was really long and the automatic machines wouldn't recognise my paper driving licence so it took half an hour to queue to get a car! As I was hungry by then, I typed Ruby Tuesday into my SatNav and had a gorgeous lunch there.

The weather was really sunny and was about 78 degrees which was just wonderful as I'm used to the UK winter, although we have had one of the mildest that I can remember!

I then checked into my hotel. As I was only staying one night I'd opted for a cheapo Motel 8 - the most surprising thing about the room was that the shower was actually in the bedroom! I suppose if I was having a bath it would have been nice to have laid in it and watched TV.