Day Seven - Tucson to Miami, Florida

After a great few days in the desert city of Tucson, Arizona it was time for us to pack up and continue our adventure towards the far East to a more moist climate. Given that we had book cheap internal US flights in advance, they tended to be early departures, with this flight departing at 0640h. The airline (Delta Airlines) recommends being at the airport 75 minutes prior to departure. So, we woke up at 0410h quickly got ready and headed to the airport to catch Flight 319 to Atlanta, Georgia followed shortly after on Flight 1951 to Miami, Florida (as opposed to Flo Rider, everyone's favourite Rapper).

My friend Don from Anchorage arranged for allocated seating for us all together and managed to arrange for seats in the emergency exit row with about 8' of legroom for the first leg... Thanks Mate! The second leg would have been just as good, except the nice Delta Flight Steward scrambled up our seating arrangement as we passed through the final check-in at the Aero bridge. Oh, well, beggars can't be choosers.

The stop at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta was very brief at only 20 or so minutes. It has been the world's busiest airport (per passenger traffic and take-offs and landings) since 2005. Both legs were flown on a Boeing 757-200 and apart for some occasional bumpiness, were pretty uneventful. Here's some pictures from the flights.

Our ride between Tucson and Atlanta

Our ride between Atlanta and Miami

Traffic jam at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport

This is where all of the broken baggage carts go to die

Approaching Miami International Airport over the Everglades

On arrival at Miami International Airport, we had to walk a great distance to catch a Monorail to the Rental Car Park. On the way there we saw a nice surprise for an aircraft spotter:

Boeing's B747-LCF Dreamlifter, used to carry parts for the Boeing 787 Program

At Hertz, we seemed to have quite a bit of trouble getting our Hire Car squared away, but we finally prevailed, and this is our current ride:

The next issue was navigation. due to the large number of roadworks occurring just outside Miami Airport, the left turn(s) that the GPS beckons you to take, no longer exist. In the end, I think we travelled 20 miles to get to our Hotel, the Hampton Inn, Miami Dadeland, 7 miles from the Airport. To make matters worse, that 20 mile trip included two tolls roads that we didn't need to be on.

Nonetheless, we are finally settled here a catching some well-earned rest, which includes lazing by the pool.