We gathered in the airport and checked our gear, tickets and said our goodbyes to families at the gate.  Our flight from Oklahoma City to Houston was uneventful.  The aircraft change in Houston didn’t leave any time for snacks since we had to change from an island terminal to the main terminal.  Our reservations clearly indicated snacks on the flight to Fort Lauderdale, so we all brought sack lunches.  Of course, Continental served lunch instead of snacks so we all had more than enough food.  The flight was uneventful and even all our luggage showed up in Fort Lauderdale.

A week before departure, we confirmed all our flight, motel and rental reservations.  Everything was perfect, except for Budget Rental Cars, and Mr. Luff ended up spending many, many hours on the phone with them getting our rental reservations straight.  When we got to the reservation desk in Fort Lauderdale, we found the reservations a complete mess, again.  Once that clerk got everything straight, the shuttle bus took the adult advisors over to pick up the cars, where they found the cars the were the wrong ones, which meant another trip into talk with a reservation clerk.  Although we never did get what we original asked for, Budget did at least get us vehicles that would suit our needs.

Finally, we had the cars and we loaded up the luggage.  Since there were only six of us for that leg of the trip, there's plenty of room with three in each vehicle.  Once the FRS radios are fired up, we were on our way out of the airport (with a little confusion along the way) and then headed south on the Florida Turnpike.  Through all the interchanges between the airport and the Turnpike, the two-way radios really paid off.

The drive from Fort Lauderdale to Islamorada wasn’t much to talk about and the Scouts all caught catnaps on the way, with the driver’s wishing they could, too.  We arrived in Islamorada at 5:15 pm.  Our first impression when we pull up at The Islamorada Motel is, ‘wow, what a dump’.  Obviously an older structure, it’s brightly painted in island colors, with a gravel driveway.  We have no choice but to check in as our diving package included rooms at this motel.  Once we open the doors to our rooms, we’re all very pleasantly surprised.  The rooms are clean, freshly painted and each has its own kitchen … perfect for our needs at a great rate and the owners are nice folks, too.

Once we get all our gear thrown into our rooms, we jumped back in the cars and drove to Tavernier to eat at McDonald’s.  After dinner (?), we went to the nearby Winn-Dixie to buy groceries for the next several days so we could save money by preparing our own meals in the motel room kitchens.

NEXT: Day 2