Cocoa Beach 2023 - 1st in a series

We made it to Florida after all. After a winter of inclement weather, we left MSP just ahead of more snow on Thursday, March 16. Sonia drove us to the airport in a light rain and we left right on time. In recent years, we've often sprung for first or business class, and our flight was comfortable and enjoyable. We had a delicious grilled chicken salad for lunch, along with plenty of water and, for me, a glass of wine white with my lunch.

By the time we got to Orlando, we were tired but wired and ready to take on the car rental experience. I hadn't done my usual "serial rental reservations" to get the best price and just stayed with my original midsize SUV I got on my initial Expedia reservation. By chance, a few days before the trip I signed up for "Avis Preferred", so we went directly to the "Preferred" line in the parking garage. Great!

What was not so great was seeing a group all packed into OUR Traverse, ready to leave. They said they were on their third car already and weren't ready to give up THEIR Traverse, for which the alpha female in the group waved their receipt. Back to the desk for me. The rep gave me a new receipt, this time for a Jeep Compass.

Bob asked me why I hadn't asked for one of the Cadillacs in the stalls, as he struggled to use the manual seat controls of what he said was a cheap, poor excuse for a vehicle. With receipt in hand, he marched back to the desk and soon returned with a new receipt for -- get ready! -- a Cadillac XT4. Unfortunately, I hadn't understood when signing for the original vehicle that I was agreeing to leaving without a full tank of gas! I thought I was agreeing to return the vehicle full, as was the case as recently as a year ago, but no. About 3/4 of the way to Cocoa Beach, the "low fuel" light came on, but fortunately we made it to a gas station and were soon at our building.

Push button entry worked without a hitch and we were soon settled in our comfortable apartment. We made it to Publix in time to pick up a few groceries for the weekend. After a day or so, Bob liked the car a lot so that was a good thing.