I know. I know what some are thinking about the consequences I face when wandering untrodden paths. Everyone else turns right. Mike goes left. Sometimes it is by chance and sometimes by design.
When I get lost, it's so you don't have to.
In February, I store luggage in Miami, because...someday you may need to store luggage before a flight. Then, with time to kill, I hop onto Tri-rail, to a hotel I left a week ago because I already know how to get there by shuttle, Uber, Lyft and taxi. Checks watch...and I hop right back on the next Tri-Rail to MIA to wait for my flight.
It's why I ask about luggage storage when on an everglades tour in 2019. No I don't have luggage today, but I might next time and more importantly you may need some options next time you disembark your cruise and it's too early to check luggage in for your flight.
And... yesterday, after disembarking my cruise, it's why I wait an hour and half for a 3rd party shuttle and why I try to store my luggage in Ft. Lauderdale. I read the signs at the first closed luggage storage in Terminal 3, walk outside past Terminal 2 to the second closed storage office at Terminal 1 and on to the closed main storage on level 2 at the far end. Then I retrace my steps to see where there may be misunderstandings with signage. [Photo. Resting a bit yesterday at Terminal 1 before walking back to Terminal 3. ]
Waiting is not dead time. Every minutes counts ... for something. I talk with porters, with expediters, with security and TSA. I ask travelers of their experience and, hey, how's the food because they have ordered something different. One traveler recounts a story of travelling while working at the White House during the Johnson Administration, another tells me the best place for Key Lime pie in Key West--stories that might be missed had I not stopped to try the Key Lime pie in the Cuban restaurant across from the G gates.
An eight-plus minutes mid-day walk outside in South Florida rolling and carrying 70 pounds of luggage? Wow, the heat must be killer! Not really. It was hotter than I'm used to but the UV blocking synthetic tech material of my shirt is pretty awesome for cooling by washing the shirt out in the sink of ADA stall of the men's room. A wet shirt with cooling technical material helped make the walk a pleasant one. Do I recommend it? Nah. Just saying what I did and what I do does not always work
Can something go wrong? Absolutely. And it did. But that is exactly the point. Yes, I make a left turn and sometimes I get lost, but the journey is about how to find our way again and who we meet along the way.
