Travel Diary

FRIDAY

Getting to Fort Myers was tougher than ever this trip. I was supposed to leave on a Friday, but my flight was delayed a few hours, then delayed four more times and finally cancelled. Once that happened, I scrambled to find another flight, which I did on American Airlines. I would be taking a 9pm flight to Philly and then another one to Fort Myers. It was a mess. That flight was also delayed until midnight. Yeah, lots of obstacles.

Rather than wait at the airport for six hours, I took the train back to Seattle, but could not even get home as some stations were closed. So I took Uber home the rest of the way. I had about two hours to rest and then took the train back out again—well, after taking Uber to get to the train station.

SATURDAY

For the flight, I was economy as I had lost my upgrade on Alaska due to the cancelled flight. I slept very little and we landed in Philly at around 9am. Then it was a two-hour wait there and I then caught another flight to Fort Myers. Again, no upgrade and I slept little. But I did have the full row to myself so that was a great treat.

In Fort Myers, I was hoping to have a nap, but there wasn’t time. I had a beer at the airport while I waited for my ride. Then it was off to the Cape Cabaret. We arrived early so I tried to relax in the green room a bit.

But before long, we were all getting ready for our first show, “Murder Among the Stars.” I’d done the show back in April so it hadn’t been too long since the last one; however, it was also a different role then.

SUNDAY

We visited some of Serena’s friends in the afternoon and watched some football there.

TUESDAY

To return to nature, we took a drive over to Ponce de Leon park, which allowed for some great paths to explore and included a bird sanctuary complete with eagles and pelicans and owls and ospreys. We then returned to Blackbeard’s for some beers. With happy hour going on, they were quite cheap.

WEDNESDAY

In the evening, we headed to the 3 Fishermen and I sent the drone up for some sunset photos. Seemed to work rather well.

THURSDAY

For Thursday, we went over to the Six Mile Preserve, which had boardwalk paths into the mangroves. It even included a live alligator to photograph. I had the drone take a few flights, mainly so I could get closer to the alligator with no risk to my health.

Then we took Uber over to Cook Winery. We had been doing Uber for the day so Serena could enjoy wine tasting to the extent that we were, and it was quite an extent. They did eight pours and even one after that. Yeah, you get your money’s worth there.

FRIDAY

Our evening show was “Murder by Merlot.” This was at a new place called the Standard. Luckily, I had done the show in 2023 so it wasn’t hard to learn it again. Things went well.

SATURDAY

The final show was “Murder by Bingo.” This was at a nice trailer park for the residents there. It was packed with maybe 200 people there. The audience seemed to have enjoyed it so I think they will be inviting us back in the future.

TUESDAY

Since my flight was cancelled and rebooked, I again lost my upgrade. My seat wasn’t terribly good as I wasn’t even in premium class. I did at least get the free snack, but it wasn’t terribly good. Ah, well. I just killed time until we reached Seattle. Hopefully, there would not be such travel issues in the future.