Birthday 2013 - Travel Days

After months of waiting and counting down, it was finally time for my birthday cruise trip. 
We had packed up everything the night before, including putting the two main bags in the car. So when I got off work (early) we just got in the car and left. We had decided beforehand to start off the vacation with a trip to Popeye’s. Both my mom and I love their spicy chicken. So even though it was in the exact wrong direction (only by 15 minutes or so), we started out with getting our chicken, dirty rice, and biscuits. We ended up with enough to have it for both lunch and dinner.

The drive to Atlanta was very pretty with most of the trees just blooming in the late spring. We were happily ensconced in the hotel by 6 pm. I had been a little nervous about the hotel, Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham. We had gotten a groupon deal for it, and after the fact, I realized the TripAdvisor reviews for it were about 50/50. But it was a done deal, so I just crossed my fingers that the good reviews were right, and the bad reviews were trolls or just overly expectant people. I was happy to find it a very pleasant room with no complaints at all. We did have to get the room changed as the first one was up three flights of stairs, and my mom can’t do more than a few stairs. Driving around the hotel it almost looks more like an apartment complex than a hotel. The room had a microwave and a small fridge. We had a view of the tennis court out the window.

The only downside to the hotel was that there was no wifi in the room. It wasn’t long of being in the room, and I started feeling the cruise critic withdrawls. I could get to it on my phone, but we haven’t a limited amount of data for each month, and I didn’t want to go over.

I had my leftover chicken and dirty rice for an early dinner, but then got to thinking about dessert. On my last business trip to Atlanta, I went to Cheesecake factory. I have never liked cheesecake before, but on the menu they had a Red Velvet Cheesecake. Since it was the company dime and I love Red Velvet Cake, I figured I give it a try. I LOVED it. So I searched Google maps and Cheesecake Factory was only 10 minutes from the hotel. So I happily planned for my first birthday celebration dessert, and hoped they had free wifi so I could do a little cruise critic checking.

The breakfast at the hotel was pretty good. There were eggs, biscuits, sausage, gravy, some cereals, some various breads, regular milk, chocolate milk, and yogurt. My mom said the coffee was good, a rare summary for her. She likes her coffee strong.

So after breakfast, I repacked our carryon bags better. The initial packing of them was done rather haphazardly and had left one of the bags too full. I’ll have to re-do this packing again the next morning, since it still wasn’t the way we’d want it for getting on the boat. The plan for getting on the boat is to turn in one of the carryons, and just keep the one with our random liquids and various sundries that can be put on the back of mom’s wheelchair.

After this I laid down and thought about taking a nap. This would be fine because we thought our bus didn’t leave until two pm. But I thought I should check our bus departure time, just to make sure. It turns out it was 12:15 pm, and not 2 pm. So we quickly rushed out the door. I dropped mom at the Megabus departure point, and went to take the car to pre-arranged parking for the week at the Crowne Plaza Airport. I then took their shuttle to the airport, and got a round trip MARTA ticket to get to the Peachtree station and back. The wind was VERY cold that day, so I just tried to picture the sunny locations we were going to. The train finally arrived and I got on and was finally out of the nasty wind.

But here’s where the plan went off track. What are the chances of the MARTA not being able to run? Honestly, I never considered it a possible problem. So the train started moving around 11:05, went to and by one station, and then stopped at this tunnel. The driver came on, and said we had to wait while the southbound train went by on the one working track right now. Apparently the other track was having some type of repairs. Okay, small delay, that’s okay, still plenty of time. Then the driver comes on again, and says the other train has broken down on the one part of the track, so we are going to have to return to the previous station. Now I’m getting worried about the time. We get back to the previous station, we sit there a little longer, and the driver says we’re going back to the airport station.

At this point, I know the MARTA is not going to get me to the Peachtree station where I’ve left my mom and have to catch the bus. It is almost 11:30. Since the train didn’t actually take me anywhere, I go back to the desk where I got the ticket and ask for my 3 dollars since the train didn’t take me anywhere. She says because I swiped it, there’s nothing she can do. I plan to file complaints when we get back, but for now I just had to get back downtown to the Peachtree station. My only option at this point to get there in time for the bus is a taxi. Now this was not in the budget, but there wasn’t a choice at this point. So into a taxi I climbed.

I got to my mom in time. The Megabus arrived a little late, so we got to stand in the biting wind a little longer. But eventually we got on the bus, and all was good. I enjoyed the trees as we rode down. Florida trees are different than trees in my part of the country. I particularly like my first sightings of palm trees. It’s one of the first natural signs of the vacation for me. We got to Orlando right on time. I had gotten a good priceline express deal on the Sheraton downtown.


Photo was taken the next morning.



And the bonus was that it was only about 2 blocks from the bus station where Megabus dropped us off. So were just able to walk there. And then had the challenge of trying to sleep with the anticipation of our boarding of the Freedom the next day.

For the record, the Orlando main downtown bus station is quite beautiful at night.  These three pics are at the bus station as the lighting on the palm trees keeps changing colors.