Christmas trip to Orlando

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and Happy New Year everyone!  I hope that this is the start of the best years of your life!

January 18^th marked the 1 year anniversary of our friend Conan’s passing.  We talk and laugh about him daily and miss him as much now as we did when he left us.

After the fun of Costa Rica with Kevin I headed home to Hopkins for 5 days to wash clothes and repack my suitcase for a slightly colder climate.  It was nice to get back to my normal routine of fishing and napping again because I’m not used to all the daily movement of traveling but I knew I only had a few days before my longer trip to Orlando and all the hub-bub there.  I was sure that I’d need a holiday from my holidays after I was finished.  Well I didn’t know how true that was to be.

 

I flew out of Belize City because I found a decent fare on Delta, unlike other trips.  The cost was not much more than if I’d traveled the chicken bus to Belize City (US$6) and the all night Mexican ADO bus to Cancun Airport (US$43).  So I saved myself about 14 hours of bus rides and an extra lost travel day on both sides of my trip.  My flights through Atlanta and on to Orlando uneventful. Clearing Immigration and Customs in Atlanta was equally uneventful.  I’d never done the Atlanta I/C so wasn’t sure how long it would take there.  I found it to be one of the easiest and quickest next to Orlando Airport.  I rented a car from Hertz and saw my name and car stall on the board at the Hertz counter.  I’d been assigned a Chevy Captiva which I thought was unusual because in previous Hertz #1 Club Gold you chose any car from the aisle with the car size you’d selected.  Plus I didn’t recognize the model so I looked it up on the web.  It turned out to be a full sized SUV and a pretty nice car.  I was afraid that the gas mileage would be low and I’d pay a fortune in fuel but that turned out not to be true.  Gas was around $3.25 a gallon when I 1^st got there and as time passed the prices rise.  By mid January the price had gone up to $3.49 then back down to $3.35.  I was guessing that the oil company executives had to pay off the expensive Christmas/Hanukkah gifts they’d given.  It was still cheaper than the $6 a gallon we pay in Belize though. 

I normally stay with my son Rich for my entire trip but on December 1^st he and a friend moved into a 2 bedroom apartment near downtown Orlando.  He loves the historic districts so he moved from historic Sanford to historic Orlando.  The new one was much roomier and nicer.  He still had the old place until December 31^st so I had an apartment to myself until then.  After that I moved in with my friend Elizabeth who lives alone in a 4 bedroom home not far from my kids. She is another old AT&T/Lucent/Avaya friend (well she’s not old just our friendship is…) for the remainder of my stay, which was to end on January 16^th when I was due to fly home. I’d stayed with her for 2 weeks when I was in Orlando in July and she’d told me that she would always have room for me on return trips.  So I took her up on her offer.  It turns out that it was going to be much longer than expected.  Hopefully the adage “Fish and guests have one thing in common.  After a while they both stink and you have to throw them out.” won’t come to fruition with Elizabeth… 

It was great as always to see my kids and Vinnie Orlando, and old time AT&T pal had arranged a small get-together of other AT&T friends too, and it was nice to see them.  Of course I had to meet up with Vicki and Dempsey at Vitorio’s for oysters as quickly as possible.  They are always on my “must eat” list and I had 7 dozen, with a promise of more on our next visit.  Christmas dinner at my cousin Ed and Deb’s is always so much fun (no REALLY!!!) and it’s always great to see their side of the family.  I got lots of surprise Christmas presents from them.  Mostly snacks but 2 new tee shirts (you can never have too many of those) and a gift card that I used to refill my gas tank at a slightly cheaper rate.  Of course I ate entirely too much there.  Deb is such a good cook and their daughter Kristina is too.  The kitchen island filled up with goodies several different times both before and after dinner.  I certainly lived up to my Fatboy moniker that day!   

As for my “must eat” list it’s comprised of all my favorite foods that I can’t get in Belize.  BBQ, Italian, pizza (as opposed to Italian food), Cajun, Tex-Mexican (it’s different than what I can get in Mexico and Central America), subs, and a few other things.  So, almost immediately, I started eating my way through the list with my kids.  

That came to a screeching halt on January 7^th.  As soon as I got off the plane in Orlando my sinuses filled and the coughing started.  Thank you long metal tube and sick fellow travelers thought I. I’d also developed a raging case of acid reflux right after the New Year because I was eating later than I normally do at home.  Home I eat around 4pm, before I go fishing, so that I don’t have a lot of food in my stomach when I go to bed.  Because of Rich and Matt’s working hours, and other reasons, I was eating later so I was suffering.  Antacids and acid reducers generally resolve the issue but for some reason it didn’t this time.  I attributed it to the extra stress that I was feeling this trip too.  So anyway, as I started to feel worse I took my blood pressure at my friend’s house with her monitor.  I do have high BP and take daily meds for it but even with my daily dose taken my BP was at an all time high for me.  So I said I’d like to visit the nearby firehouse for a check there.  It turned out that the house was empty so she suggested the grocery store.  When we got there the ambulance and fire truck were in the parking lot so I figured they were either eating or shopping or both.  Turns out they were shopping and I asked one of the EMTs to do me the favor.  We walked out to the truck and he set me up.  It was now 20 points higher than at home.  Maybe from the stress of seeing the higher reading on the home unit?  Not sure.  But the EMT said I might want to visit a local hospital.  That turned into an unexpected 3 day stay. Oh oh I don’t have medical insurance because none of what I was entitled to in my retirement was good outside the country.  I wasn’t going to worry about that though until the time came.  The ER nurses put me on the beeping machines and an IV as well as doing cuff tests and my BP was all over the chart. At one point in the ER it was 375/255 and I think they were waiting for me to stroke. One of the nurses wrote in my chart that I had chest pains too because I told him I felt a slight tightness so that added cardiac testing to everything else they did over the course of my stay.  Based on initial blood tests I was told I had the flu that was going around.  I wasn’t feeling the really adverse affects that had the hospitals over-flowing though.  So they started pumping me with antibiotics as well as potassium as that count was low too and a bunch of other stuff.  They dosed me with a BP med to see if they could get a handle on that but it didn’t work so on went the nitro patch, followed by 5 or 6 more over the next 2 days.  That finally started my BP headed down but gave me blinding headaches the rest of my stay. So, more drugs for that.  Anyway by ER hour number 4 I was told I’d be there over night. It was after 6 when they finally moved me to a room on the cardiac floor.  Because of the flu epidemic the hospital was already at 109% capacity and people were getting treated on gurneys in the hallways. The local news talked of hospitals erecting tents in the parking lot for the masses.  Thankfully Orlando never got that far and I counted myself lucky to have a room at the Inn.  On the 2^nd day I had a nuclear stress test that turned out to be relatively normal.  Because of my coughing and panting fits I was suffering they didn’t make me do the treadmill.  Instead they used drugs.  Well when I was finished, or rather they were finished with me, I wished I’d done the walk.  Whatever they gave me made me feel like I was having heart attack because the drugs put a strain on the heart so they could measure it.  At least I could go back home knowing my heart is ok.  The final outcome, the thought was, the combination flu and acid reflux put a strain on me and raised my BP.  Late day 3 I was released back into the wild with a bag full of meds to take over the next 7 days and I was a good boy and took them all to completion.  I want to thank my friends Joe and Alice for their visit to my room. I really enjoyed seeing them. Others called with plans to visit but I got kicked out before that could happen.  On release I was told that the 2 doctor’s offices would call to schedule follow up visits a month out but I never heard from either of them.  I figured if there was something to worry about they would have called so I never called them either.  I did call Delta and cancelled my return trip and the nice lady in Tampa said she was waiving the $150 change fee without my even asking.  So that was a relief as my travel budget was dwindling.  I was already almost 2/3rds through my budget when the hospital stay occurred and now I was looking at a month more with the bulk of my cash in the bank in Belize and no easy way to get to it. 

I still wasn’t up to snuff when I left the hospital but it was time to get back to visiting and eating.  My daughter Carrie had signed me up for several restaurant birthday clubs and I received quite a few buy one/get one meals that helped my budget and I found that I could change the expiration dates in the emails on several of them and use them again and again.  Illegal you say?  Well 3 of the restaurants I had coupons for I was a VERY good customer of when I lived in the states so I didn’t feel bad about it.  IHOP go the most of my coupon reuse for breakfast and lunch.  I still had maybe ½ my “must eat” list left.  Cajun with Elizabeth.  She’d never had Cajun before so it was nice to introduce her to it.  BBQ at 4 Rivers with a different kid, or multiple kids so I had that 4 times.  Pizza twice, Sushi once, subs a number of times (always from Publix grocery store because I think they have the best.  Even better than the sub shops). German with Elizabeth because she lived in Germany for several years as a kid. I was crossing things off my eat list.  But as my money dwindled and with the possibility of an increase in flight costs I had to slow down.  Another reason for reusing coupons.  I had $950 Belize dollars ($425 US dollars) in hand and I tried changing them into US dollars at several banks but they wanted outrageous exchange fees so I kept the BZ dollars.  I sure was hoping I could tap that though and not have to worry so much about my dwindling funds… 

After my rental car expired, and I couldn’t afford to renew it, Elizabeth lent me her car whenever I needed it.  I spent 4 days in St. Pete visiting my sister Diana and her family, which left Elizabeth to bike to where ever she needed to go during that period.  Trips out with my kids and another planned trip to Vitorio’s for more oysters and more friends before I leave.  I am SO grateful for her putting up with me and lending me her car.  I invited her to either come back with me to Belize for a couple weeks or travel down whenever her schedule permits so I can try to repay her.  She admits that she REALLY needs the break so we’ll see.  We joke (maybe it’s not a joke though) of her never coming back once she experiences Hopkins and my easygoing lifestyle.  Hey look what happened with Conan a couple of years ago.  He came for a month long holiday and never left.  It happens more often than you think.  I am about to schedule my return flight for Tuesday February 5^th.  I’ve been gone far too long and am having fishing withdrawals and I’m freezing up here.  My New Years resolution this year is to catch more and bigger fish so I better get to it!

I did get 2 bits of great news today. The 1^st is that I called Delta to reschedule my return flight to Belize for Wednesday 2/6.  I talked to a Service Agent in Minnesota 1^st and she had problems determining the price of my ticket because the price kept coming up blank. I jokingly said that it must be free.  So she transferred me to an international service agent who had the same problem.  She got help and was told that there would be no increase in the return airfare.  When I spoke with an agent in Tampa a few days ago she told me that it would cost an additional $230 for my return but did verify that they were waiving the $150 international change fee.  I assume that once you cancel the return portion they book you at a one way fare when you reschedule.  These 2 ladies book my return as the 2^nd half of my trip, thus the same return fare that I paid when I bought the round trip ticket.  So that saved me $380!  I’m more comfortable with my bank statement now as I have that much more money until I leave.

The other good news was that I was contacted by Beatrice Mark who offered me a volunteer position as a U.S. Embassy Associate Warden for the Stann Creek District where I live. She emailed me on Saturday 1/26 and asked if I would be interested and I jumped at the opportunity. Her contact today was to officially offer me the position. The Wardens (American Traveler Advocates actually) assist American travelers who are having problems such as being robbed, lost their passport, gotten ill, etc and I help to resolving their issue(s).  We are their go-between to the Belize officials and the U.S. Embassy in Belmopan (the capital of Belize).  I have a luncheon to attend on Friday February 8^th at the Embassy where we will be sworn in and get initial training on our functions.  We will also have our picture taken with Ambassador Thummalapally as well.  I think that there is a follow up training at a later date too.  It’s not supposed to be too time consuming and I will be backing up Beatrice who is the primary Warden for Stann Creek.  Since my trailer has been robbed, I’ve been held in jail overnite until the Treasury Office at the border opened the next day (I never ended up paying the fine), had my car stolen, and handled the death of an American citizen (Conan) I think I have a leg up on helping others.  I’m really looking forward to it!  Funny though I don’t think I’ll be able to dress as I did when I visited the Embassy 3 times over the last 3 years.  Each time I wore a tank top, bathing suit, and was barefoot. I guess I’ll have to buy clothes and shoes before I leave Orlando…

Well, enough for now!  As always practice peace.  Fatboy In Belize out!