Day Two - Planes, trains and automobiles

Planes
As planes go, Virgin Airlines is pretty good at cattle class level. Had we paid an additional £234.00 per person we could have turned left at the door and spent the eight hours in a little more comfort, or for some ridiculous amount of money gone upstairs into Business Class and been asked to vacate the bar area as we travelled though turbulence. No, we decided to travel with the riff raff as usual.

The flight was uneventful although we were surrounded by two large family groups who obviously had never been long haul before and were used to getting in as many free beers as possible throughout the flight. Their kids were hyper and spent most of their time swapping seats. Fortunately our kids were well used to long flights and behaved impeccably.

Trains
A conversation overheard as waiting door the shuttle train to take us to the arrivals terminal at Orlando airport.
" so I said to the attendant, I know I'm not the slimmest prison but I certainly don't need two seats, and you know there was a huge, fat woman who they just let on. Oh my God it was so stressful for me." this was from a woman with the largest backside I have seen in a long, long time so I dread to think exactly how huge this other woman was!

Automobiles
The hire car is often the subject of great discussion. How big, what type etc etc. The first year we went alone without MIL/FIL we opted for a large family car and ended up with some massive cadillac thing with leather seats. No kidding if there had been a body in the boot/trunk it wouldn't have surprised me. Now we go for a people carrier affair with plenty of seats so that the boys can be split up if necessary.
First we have a competition to guess the colour, then it's who is having which seat etc. This year we were told we could have any of the cars in row B, the keys were on the dash. Forfeiting the colour competition we went for a forest green, because we'd never had one before.

Then comes the 'how to drive it' part. Americans must think that we instinctively know how to drive every car that was ever built as they never leave instruction booklets, you know door where the wipers and lights are, how to unlock all the doors, how to open the boot etc etc. So for the first five minutes it's all a bit hit and miss.

Then it's just like riding a bike. Once out on the open road all is fine, and we usually get to where we need to go with little incident - thanks to Mr Tom Tom! Driving in Florida is so easy. Just remember the basics and you'll be fine. Let the men do the driving and the women the navigating- doing it the other way doesn't work, trust me!



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