I’m headed to Florida to visit dear old dad

Published by admin on Sat, 11/23/2019 - 11:37pm
By: 
Steve Lyon
I’m flying to Florida this week to
visit my dad after too many years of
putting off the trip.
Life has sort of gotten in the way. He
doesn’t travel anymore, so it’s up to me
to get down there. I could
have made more of an effort,
for sure. But the family dynamics
with a stepmom and
her family are a little more
complicated.
Finding a flight to Florida
is an interesting proposition.
Of course, you can’t fly directly
to the East Coast from
Idaho. You have to mix and
match flights.
It became a veritable online
research project that
required mid-level navigation
skills to find a flight to
Orlando that didn’t get there at midnight.
There was something to be said about
calling a travel agent back in the day,
giving them the travel details, and letting
them do the legwork. Another business
rendered virtually obsolete by tech.
Now we have to be our own travel
agency, checking sites like Expedia and
Google Flights. It’s kind of like becoming
your own investment adviser when
an employer gives you 15 mutual fund
options for your 401K. That’s another
column for another day.
Searching for the cheapest
flights from Boise to Orlando
comes up with some crazy
route combinations.
You could make three
stops in three different cities
and spend 36 hours in airports
trying to get to Florida.
On one flight itinerary, I’d fly
west to Seattle and then east,
adding more miles in the air.
That seems kind of counterintuitive
to me. I want to go
the other direction.
One super inexpensive
flight left Boise at 10 p.m.
and got into Denver at midnight. From
there you could fly to Orlando on the redeye
and get there at 6 a.m.
I don’t think so. I don’t want to get off
the plane looking and feeling bedraggled,
disheveled and sleep-deprived. No
amount of airport Starbucks coffee is going
to get my energy up.
I ended up with a 6:30 a.m. flight out
of Boise to Oakland, Calif., and then a
straight shot across the country to Orlando
with a 6 p.m. arrival time.
I was able to get an economy roundtrip
ticket for not much more than $300 on
no-frills Southwest Airlines. They are not
making much profit on me.
My dad lives in Deltona, a part of the
central Florida sprawl. It’s halfway between
Orlando and Daytona Beach.
The topography of Florida is flat.
There are no landmarks like mountains
for visual reference, and it’s green with
vegetation. There are something like 20
golf courses within a 30-mile drive from
my dad’s house. The funny thing is, he
doesn’t golf.
I must admit to feeling some irrational
trepidation in the trip. My dad has
gotten old. I can hear it in his voice on
the phone. That’s not suppose to happen
to your parents.
It’s all the more reason to go now.
When I can see him again is unknown
and there are no guarantees in life.
Steve Lyon is the editor of the Weiser
Signal American. Contact him at

Category:

Signal American

18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
PH: (208) 549-1717
FAX: (208) 549-1718
 

Connect with Us