It's the Worst Parking Spot... of the Year!

Well, it's 10:00 am, and I'm stressed the hell out already.

I usually use a packing list and even with that, packing takes hours. The Quad Queen excelled in this regard. She'd put everything together in about an hour and be lounging while I fussed and fretted.

Partly it's because I'm bringing coffee makers and all kinds of electronic gear, chromebooks, sometimes photos, connectors, on and on and on.

I did a good job this time, keeping at it last night until I was as close to ready to go as possible.

I have to admit, I had kind of a rough evening, getting ready for the trip without the Quad Queen. It was hard to feel any kind of excitement and I just missed her so much.

Tampa airport features an outdoor lounge. So civilized!

This morning, I woke at a sprightly 4:44 am. Fortunately, I got back to sleep and the alarm went off at 6:00 am.

"It's go time! Vegas, baby, Vegas!"

My flight out of Tampa is at 11:25 so my plan was to leave the Greacey Palms at 8:00 am and be at the airport with plenty of time.

It was pretty much perfect, I got the Little Giant cleaned up and packed, and the charger and 18 cables, etc. etc. etc. and left the house at 8:03 am.

Other than nearly getting rear-ended twice, it was an easy trip.

Coming up to a light, the traffic was stopping quite abruptly, and I could see a huge van way down the road in the rear-view - and he wasn't slowing down, in spite of me repeatedly tapping the brakes. It's a thing I do in these situations. I also leave a bit of extra room in front.

Mr. Fuck You White Killer Van nosedives to the pavement and I can see he's not gonna make it so I pull to the right and fortunately, there's a striped warning area to the left. He dives in there and comes to a screeching halt, asshole driver about even with me. Christ it was close.

And pretty much the exact same thing happened on the exit to 275. I even had my flashers on this time. You've got to keep your head on a swivel in this town, I tells ya.

Anyway I made it to TPA and pulled into the Economy parking.

Level 1 FULL
Level 2 FULL
Level 3 FULL
Level 4 CLOSED
Level 5 FULL
Level 6 FULL

Uh oh. And then it says to use 'Surface Parking'. I followed the signs bypassing the ramps and drove straight through the parking structure.

There's a beat up vagrant parking lot back there and I got a spot in the very last row.

I swear to Jimmy Poon's Knob that my car is parked closer to the runway than it is to the parking structure.

The back of the parking structure.

Shlepping time. Allllll the way through the parking lot and alllllll the way into the structure. It wasn't that bad - Flushiepants keeps himself in tip-top travel shape.

And then it was the usual. The train to the terminal, the elevator to the gate level, and then breezing through security with Pre-Check.

Yup, there's water out there. So Florida-like!

I've got a comfy spot at a desk where I can practically concentrate on dumping this post out. People, earbuds are now $0.07 cents a pair. Get some and use them instead of broadcasting your Tik Tok audio to everyone.

Christmas has creeped into my trip a little bit - Divana sent a gift, so I opened it with eyes closed and confirmed it was a garment. I managed to get it turned inside out and washed without seeing the design on the front.

What will it be?! Maybe a likedness of Divana.

Next stop Dallas! And then on to Vegas!