Friday March 28: Where Is It We're Going??

Funny about where the Bahamas are actually located. I always thought of them as being somewhere south of the US but not too far south.

Turns out they are really east of southern Florida! Who knew?

So to travel to the Northern Bahamas (Abaco Island and Cays), we wanted to leave Marathon to be in a better position to cross to the west end of Grand Bahama Island.

To actually go there, we leave from Port Everglades and head northeast. 65 nautical miles. 75 statute miles. About 11 hours of travel based on an average speed of 7 mph.

And we'll hopefully get a push from the gulfstream as we go. The gulfstream can be up to 25 miles wide and traveling north at speeds up to 3 knots. Now THAT is what I would call a nice push!

So perhaps our 11 hours won't really be that long :-)

Time to shop for supplies!!

Steve was like a kid in a candy store at Sam's Club! And I was on sensory overload just walking around the place. Probably the largest store we've been in for a while for sure.

It actually wasn't as successful as we'd hoped but still we were able to get some things. Peter and Cheryl scored on a few items as well. Next stop? Walmart of course.

Everyone did much better here. Sam's has large quantities and a not very good selection of low-fat or low-sodium option. Walmart is better. Publix is the best.

By the time we were done the car was loaded.

And I mean inside and out!

It was all Cheryl and I could do to see each other in the back seat and it really made being a back seat driver hard for me :-)

Now. Picture the stuff and the 4 of us in the Chevy Mazda2 pictured left.

You see the issue, of course. Trying to explain that to the rental guy was a test of patience. First he "couldn't find" our reservation but he did have cars he could rent us "for a bit more". Did I have the confirmation number? Of course not.

Quick - call our computer resource called Wendy, have her log into my email and get the number. Success! Oh, now he can find the reservation - right there it is. Amazing ......  So there is your car - as he points to the tiny red Chevy Mazda. No, no, no ... no. That just won't do. That is not the size we rented. But that's all he had - except for the 5 small suv's sitting there. Of course they would be an extra $20. So you want us to pay $60 to rent a car for 1 day that we will drive probably 30 miles? No, no, no ...no.

Steve and I were sounding like a broken record. In the end we finally made off with a mid-size that would hold the four of us and our expected purchases. And the guy tried to get an extra $10 for that on as it was an upgrade from what we reserved!

Ok. Print up the paperwork. The rental guy: total comes to $54. No, no, no .....no. Us: the cost is around $42. Finally got that changed and we were on our way.

Worst car rental experience we've ever had. Oh well, it's still a beautiful day .....