Key Largo, et al

[The Queen]

My reprieve from business travel is ending next week. I have three in-person conferences coming up in July and August. The first one is at the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo. There is a private airport at the Ocean Reef Club: apparently the usual tier of guests have private planes. I am not so fortunate. I will be getting up at 2 a.m. on 7/13 to leave the house by 2:30 a.m., to get to the Fresno Airport in time for my 5:15 a.m. flight to Denver. From Denver, after a lengthy layover, I catch a flight to Ft. Lauderdale. In Ft. Lauderdale, I pick up a rental car and drive an hour and a half to Key Largo. Hope I get a nice rental car; I’d hate to be embarrassed when I arrive at the club. On second thought, perhaps I should get something rainbow-colored just to fuck with Floridian sensibilities.

I teach all day 7/14, then on 7/15, I’ll leave Key Largo and head north (5 hours) to my mom’s plce in Lakeland. I’ll stay with her until early morning on the 19th, drive 4 hours south to Delray Beach where my Uncle Warren lives, and have brunch with him and my Aunt, then another hour back to Ft. Lauderdale to drop off the rental car and catch the first of two flights home. Six days later, I’ll be off to the next destination. 

I gotta find a new multi-book series I can download to keep me entertained.

[The Queen]

Did all of the above. Items of note:

Walking from the air-conditioned plane into the jetway in Ft. Lauderdale was like walking into a wall of hot jello. It only got worse as I headed further south to Key Largo.

I had to provide I.D. to get into the Ocean Reef Club. There were dozens of buildings, several of which were related to the “hotel” part and the conference. After a few misses, I finally found registration and valet parking. At registration, I was given a map to my room which was “only a two-minute walk” and a four-page brochure with the club’s rules and dress code. It took about ten minutes wandering around in the heat for me to find my room. I probably should have paid someone to escort me. I was shown where my class was taking place the next day and it was another 10-minute walk or a five-minute golf cart ride. Fortunately, just as I was leaving (shlepping all my equipment) I ran into one of my students who had rented a golf cart for her stay and she offered me a ride, which I gratefully accepted.

I spent much of my off-work time hawking “The Black Scorpions.” My students and colleagues were very impressed with the hardcover I showed off at every opportunity.

The trip up to my mom’s was long, and except for having to pull over and take a short break twice to prevent falling asleep at the wheel, was blessedly uneventful and enabled me to catch up on most of my favorite podcasts. Mom (spoiler alert for those reading the Ireland thread) is doing very well. It was fun to see my crazy uncle for a couple of hours. The journey home took about an hour longer, with a two-hour layover in Chicago and then a surprising amount of midnight construction going on CA-41 as I drove home from Fresno-Yosemite Airport.