Stacie and I flew to Key West on Sunday for a week in the tropical paradise. We knew Irma was out there in the Atlantic but were sure we would be back home before she became a threat. We were in a great B&B a block from Duval St and had a great time Sunday evening and Monday. By Monday night we knew we'd have to cut it short. I was able to change our flight out from Saturday to Thursday. I felt we were in good shape at that point although Stacie was a bit worried. We rented scooters Tuesday and bombed around the island seeing the sights. After lunch at Sloppy Joe's we returned to the B&B to park the scooters so we could do some bar hopping. It was then the B&B manager told us about the announced mandatory evacuation and that the airport was closing at 6 pm Wednesday. We hopped back on the scooters and rode to the airport. Delta, nor the other two airlines had any seats. Same story at Greyhound and there were no rental cars left.
Stacie started looking for tall buildings and even suggested we steal a car!
We had used Uber for the first time to get from the airport to our B&B Sunday and it worked like a charm. So I pulled out my phone and pressed the Uber icon. It asks for a destination and I just entered Dade County. Two minutes later Stanley arrives in his SUV. He is a 24 y/o immigrant from Haiti. He did not know where Dade County was and asked me to type in a more specific address. So I entered Miami International Airport. He said: "No problem, but I need to go by my girlfriends work and give her the apartment key so she can get in when she gets off work. That done, we headed for the mainland at a little after 7 pm. Three hours, 160.93 miles and $349.72 later we were at a Choice Suites a mile from the Airport. There were no flight available out of Miami either so using Orbitz I reserved a Hundai Elantra for Wednesday morning at 9. I 75 was already bumper to bumper but Jim Parks guided onto US 27 which was mostly free flowing and we made it to Tallahassee about 10 pm. Had a late night pizza dinner then drove home on Thursday. Key West is a cool place but don't go there during hurricane season!
