When we first got into bed, and were just getting ready to fall asleep, our neighbor turned a stereo (or boom box) on full volume - hard rock music. Hubby had to get out of bed and go upstairs to ask him to turn it down.
I had a really hard time sleeping, mostly because I was worried about what we would be contending with on our trip home. I kept thinking about our flight being cancelled and being stranded at the FLL airport. What would we do? Would we have to sleep on the floor? I also wasn't sleeping well because I knew we had to get up at 5:45 a.m. and was worried what would happen if our alarm didn't go off.
The bed felt extra uncomfortable to me too on this night. I tossed and turned and woke up (what seemed like) every 20 minutes. At one point, we heard knocking sounds upstairs, like the guy above us was knocking on his own door (was he locked out?) This made it even harder for me to sleep.
Finally, out of exasperation at around 2:30 a.m., I relocated myself to the hammock on the patio, hoping it would be comfortable enough to lull me to sleep. As I was lying there trying to fall asleep, I suddenly heard the sound of water pouring into the garden. I opened my eyes and saw a thin, concentrated arc of water spraying down into our garden from above. It was our wacko neighbor URINATING IN OUR GARDEN! It took me a couple of seconds to comprehend this fact and then I immediately yelled up to him, "YO! (the Philly in me coming out) - GO PISS IN YOUR OWN DAMNED GARDEN!!!!!" Immediately, the sound stopped and he slinked away without saying anything. Mr. Sass sprung out of bed and asked me what was going on and I told him. Obviously, this got him all worked up and he was ready to go upstairs and have a confrontation with the wacko (he was mighty pissed). I talked him out of it (barely) and told him the last thing we need right before we are travelling home is a fight, injuries, a hospital visit, etc. The idiot is not worth making our life on Wednesday more of a hassle than it's already going to be. Mr. Sass was fuming.
He reluctantly agreed with me that it wasn't worth it to get into a confrontation and we both settled into bed (I wasn't feeling comfortable about sleeping on the hammock anymore and was extra creeped out by that weirdo). We were pretty worked up, but within an hour or so we both fell asleep and got a couple hours sleep in before we had to get up to start our travel day. (By the way, I emailed Memo, the owner of the hotel, the next day and let him know to keep an eye on the weirdo and he told me he had a word with him, so hopefully he didn't bother any other guests after we left).
We got up at 5:45, got dressed and packed our few remaining things. We were out the door by 6:20 and made our way to the ferry dock. We walked to the waterfront and along that sidewalk which was very smooth and easy for dragging our carry on bags. Once at the ferry dock, we waited about 15 minutes and then the ferry boarded.The ride over to Playa del Carmen on the ferry was TORTURE. The water was very choppy and the boat was really rocking BADLY. This was the first time in my life I got serious motion sickness. I came THIS.CLOSE to throwing up. In fact, I had a bag handy and felt that funny feeling that always happens right before I toss my cookies. Somehow though, the feeling subsided and I never did throw up but man, did I come close. I wasn't the only one. A little boy sitting in the row next to us had a trashcan under him and was getting sick into it. It was really a horrible, horrible boat ride...the worst I have ever experienced and the ride felt like it was taking forever. Mr. Sassy told me afterwards that he was feeling pretty sick too but he didn't say anything because he didn't want to make me feel worse. He was doing his best not to get sick too.
Once in Playa, we quickly walked to the bus station which took less than 5 minutes (we were booking) and were on the bus in no time flat. The ride to the Cancun airport was uneventful, as was our flight from Cancun to Fort Lauderdale.
Once at FLL, we checked the flight board and it said the flight to Atlantic City was still scheduled. Other passengers told us that a couple previous flights to AC had been cancelled and they had been moved to our flight (which departed at 9:20 p.m. - we had a LONG layover). It didn't look promising for our flight.
We spent the next few hours sitting, reading, talking on our cell phones with family and friends, and watching the flight board. The flight continued to be posted as "on time" so we tried to stay hopeful. The flight staff at the counter told us that the reports were that they were feverishly plowing the runways at AC and they hoped to have it done in time for the evening flights, so we sat with our fingers crossed.
Sure enough, our flight departed at 9:20 (AMEN!!!!) and we did not have to sleep at the airport! THANK heavens. That was the LAST thing we needed.
The flight back was pretty smooth until we started to descend into Atlantic City. Because of high winds (in the 30s), the plane was moving all over the place, almost as though it was being blown around like a toy plane. We landed safely and I was surprised at how smoothly the landing was, considering the runways were just plowed. (I had imagined the plane sliding down the runway like a big sled). All was right in the world.
But we still had 3 more hurdles to overcome - digging our car out (our car was parked in the economy parking lot, which is a non-covered lot), starting the car (praying it would start after sitting in freezing temperatures undriven for 10 days), and then driving home, IF it was safe enough to drive home. If not, we would have to find a hotel close by.
I stayed in the airport with our bags while Mr. Sassy dug our car out. Stupid us didn't consider that we might be coming home to snow, so neither of us wore a winter coat OR gloves. We tried to keep our attire light since we didn't want to lug all that extra attire with us. Boy were we sorry. I gave Mr. Sassy my light jacket, which he wore on top of his heavy sweater (that's all he wore on the way down), and with no gloves, I found him a pair of socks to put over his hands while digging out the car.
In about 20 minutes, he had the car all dug out and we were ready to go. The roads (especially the Atlantic City Expressway) were actually not that bad, considering and we felt it was safe enough to drive on. They had already been plowed and we came across lots of salt trucks and plows on the road working hard to keep them in good shape. We took it slowly and made it home safely by around 2:30 a.m. on Thursday. Talk about a LONNNNNNNNG day.
When we pulled up in front of our house, we could not believe the height of the snow. We got out of the car and just stood there for a moment wondering how we were going to get from the car to the front door. The snow was hip high. We looked at each other, busted out laughing at the absurdity of it and stepped into the 30 inches of snow and trudged our way to the front door, pushing our way through the snow.
While we were sad that our trip was over, we were happy as hell to be home, and especially happy to see our 2 little love bugs (Sasquatch and Cheeto) who were beyond thrilled to see us. I don't think we've ever seen them so excited in our lives.
And THIS is what we saw the next morning in the light of day....a far cry from Cozumel. Talk about a shock to the system!
But who wants to look at that? As a farewell until next time, and a grand finale, I thought I would leave you with a few miscellaneous photos from our trip. Until next time, happy travels!
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