Day One - Traveling

Today is the first day of our Great Panama Canal Adventure. We rose early this morning, 5 am. No big deal to me. I get up that early everyday. We had a limo service pick us up and take us to the airport. This is probably one of the nicest air travel days we've had since pre 911. Ron being the wonderful planner that he is, allowed about 3 1/2 hours for us from the time we left home until the plane was scheduled to leave. The limo was about 1/2 hour late, but we were at the airport by 8 am. When we walked into the airport there was virtually no one there. We checked in with no problems. We were shocked and amazed when we got down to the security gate and there was no one in line! We arrived at the main concourse by 8:30 and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. Then we meandered down to our gate. The plane was full but we left on time. First, we flew to Charlotte. That is one of my favorite airports. Our plane landed and the next leg our journey departed form the same concourse. We had a 2 hour lay over so we were able to enjoy a leisurely lunch. Even the second plane took off on time! We had pleasant seat mates on both flights. The lady sitting with us on the way to Ft. Lauderdale is also going on the same cruise as us. We also discovered that there were a number of people sitting right around us that were all going on our criuse. A large group of people are from the Knoxville, Tennessee area.

We had dinner this evening with Ron's cousin, Eileen Smith, her husband, Ray, and her mother also Ron's aunt, Anna. We had a nice dinner together at Bimini Boathouse. We shared pictures and bragged about our grandchildren. Exhausted we head for bed looking forward to the true beginning of our great adventure.