What a night I had last night!! At one point I thought to myself, "I can't believe you screwed this up so bad Kip" and the rest of the time I was saying, "You'll get there eventually, hope they wait for me"!
I was to pick up Barb and John at the airport around 7pm last night. My plan, which I told Barb but she forgot, was to go to the cell phone lot there, wait til she called me to tell me they had picked up their luggage, and then whip up to pick them up. Dina and Josh had their own car to get home.
So I got to the cell phone lot at 6:20..plenty of time...went to the bathroom twice- no toliet paper I might add- and read my color nook which I had brought with me. It finally was around 7:12 and I was thinking that they should have been in so I called Barb on her cell phone. She answered and told me yes, they were in but they actually flew in on Jet blue, not American like she told me, so Josh was down there schlepping their luggage to American for them. I told her I was in the cell phone lot (you are?), yes, I am, and I will be there in just a minute. I head out of the lot which I've been in dozens of times, and head around to the airport. There are a gazillion cars all of a sudden coming out of the lot and they seemed to be stopped in the right lane (for good reason I found out..), so I whip around to the left lane. Guess what? It's the EXIT for the airport lane and no one will let me back in the right lane. So I exit..now keep in mind, my eyes aren't good for signs anymore at night and it's pitch black out tonight. I have two ways to go- one is back to St Pete, over the Howard Franklin bridge, which I don't want to do, or exit into downtown Tampa where I figured I could turn around and come back. Well...it ended on a road, way out in nowhere and I didn't have a clue where I was. I'm turning right and left, zig zagging here and there, trying to read signs with my reading glasses on (!) and going no where. Meanwhile, my cell phone flies to the floorboard, along with my purse and Nook, when I took one of my crazy turns. The phone is ringing like crazy and I know it's barb wondering where the hell I am!
Finally, at a light in no where, I take off my seat belt to get the damn phone and call and I get Josh..I tell him I'll be a few minutes late as I got in the wrong lane and to hold on. I hang up and still have no idea where I am cuz I can't read the damn signs!
Suddenly, I'm next to the International Mall which is near the airport. For some ungodly reason, I turn into the mall. Why? I don't have a clue..maybe so I can ask someone how to get to the airport?? Of course there are 1000 cars there and 5000 people walking around and horns honking and the usual Christmas mall mess. I finally find this nice gentleman and ask him how to get back to the airport. He says to me, go on out of here and do you know where One Buc Place used to be? Ahhh, no, I don't. Well go out and take a right and there SHOULD be signs leading you to the airport.....it takes me forever to get out of the parking lot mess, I take a right and go for it...nothing looks familiar still...I decide to go straight and lo and behold I see a "Welcome to the Airport Sign"!!! I was never so happy. I finally pulled up to where Barb and John were and got them and their luggage and we rode back to St Pete with me telling them my saga and laughing by then. Ridiculous...I will say if it had been light, I could have figured it out quicky but being that it was pitch black, I was lost...I REALLY need to get some new glasses.....
