Birthday visit to Miami

At the end of our first subzero run of days Victor asked me what I wanted to do for my upcoming birthday. GET WARM! I said. We spoke to his sister living in Miami and turns out my birthday weekend would be a perfect time to come for a visit. We book flights out on 1/31, returning 2/5 via Chicago.

Yippeee! A warm holiday! I found all the summery clothes I wanted to take with and even packed a pair of sandals. We drove down to my folks in Racine on Wednesday and spent the night. Mom made a 5-course vegan birthday dinner for us, appetizer, soup, salad, entree and dessert. That was really cool. Jim said she was reading cookbooks all week. Turned out delicious and we were really thankful for the effort. Vegan wasn't too big a leap for them, they already are two of the three healthiest eaters I know.

So we get up the next morning and drive down to Chicago, easily finding our economy parking lot F and the corresponding bus to the train that will get us to terminal 3 and proceed to check in without incident, though I was fairly certain I would be busted for too big a suit case. We bought new suit cases in November and this was our first flight. We stopped at a Romano's Macaroni Grill and I ordered the Eggplant Quadratini with roasted eggplant, basil, tomato, ricotta salata and red chile (hold the ricotta of course!). This dish was vegan with square pasta that was both hollowed and curved almost like the mac & cheese pasta elbow macaroni, but square instead of round. It was an intriguing and well prepared dish, and big enough for the two of us to share. Victor also ordered a small  Caesar salad, so that was perfect.

We then walked over to our flight, waited til our group was called and board. I did have butterflies as I watched one of the security people stop a lady and make her try to fit her bag into the box frame that says "bag must fit this size" or something similar. Her bag did not fit and she was busy repacking everything and trying to shove that poor bag into the frame. I knew I was going to be next. But apparently it takes so long to bust just one person, this flight I got a fee pass on the too big bag. I was tempted to try putting it into the frame, but was afraid if it didn't fit someone would see me trying and flag me to pay for the bag. (The cost of which for one flight would be more than the cost of the new bag!) So I still don't know for sure, but the bag fits just fine on the plane.

We land in Miami at 6:30 and I have two messages that Cedaroma units 5 & 3 have frozen septic and what did I want to do. Hmmmm, what do I want to do about that? Hmmmm, how long ago did they call? Hmmmm, has it been resolved yet? Hmmmmm..... DANG!

So, let's review the weather again. Monday and Tuesday the temps reach 40 degrees and the snow is all but gone again. Wednesday it drops to zero. Wednesday night it drops down to 20 below zero and with no snow coverage, which acts as an insulator. Everything in sight and some things not in sight froze! 

So, I place the call. Yes, the guests have been relocated to the management company, Black Bear Lodge. A viable solution was found and all are seemingly happy. Continued report has all the units down, and what sounds like sewage backup in the cabins.We decide to try to enjoy the evening and see what we can do the next morning when we can speak to someone who was actually on site. 

Next morning we get a clearer picture. We learned that our own cabin, #7 does not appear to be suffering any freeze. The days new arriving guests have already been relocated from 6 to 8 and we have until Sunday when we will have overlap to resolve the problem. Time to call American Airlines and figure out the best way to get home. My helpful operator offers a $150 per ticket change fee and a $550 fare differential cost, per ticket to fly out on Friday. Saturday he said would be the same. This is substantially more than the loss of the business in moving one of the cabins to Black Bear again. So, I hang up and talk it over with Victor while I also do a search for a new one way ticket to Chicago. Wouldn't you know it, $300 on the SAME American Airlines, quite a different story than that offered by my "helpful" operator. BTW, American Airlines if you read everything published on the web with your name in it, I consider your trained approach in this matter total BS. I expressed an emergency need and asked for help finding the most cost effective way home. Your guy came up with over $1500 for the two of us for a one way flight. I got $600. Your help was not helpful, and really, in the long run is going to cost you a whole lot more than that in bad vibes as I share my dismay with your approach to customer service with my friends and family in the retelling of this saga. 

We make our decisions quickly, pay for the tickets and enjoy the rest of the day and then a night out in South Beach. The next morning we are up and on the road before 5:30, and in the air a little after 7am. We land Chicago 9:30, Racine for lunch with Marge & Jim and back home to Cedaroma moments before 5 pm. Nine seconds outside from car to house and I am frozen from head to toe as if I had never left! 

We check cabins and learn that two of the units had frozen in the line to the holding tanks, but there was no overflow into any of the cabins. Ed over saw the fix with a technician with a steamer hose from Rhinelander and all is flowing nicely! We figured out what caused the problems, different for both cabins, but the subzero temps froze them both at the same time. We believe it is better to have returned early to Cedaroma and have no back-up problems than to have stayed in Florida for the rest of our planned trip and perpahs come back to a to a different outcome.

I love the new life we are transitioning to here in Wisconsin at Cedaroma Lodge, really, I do. It's just those dang subzero days that I could do without!

This is the view from Favi's apartment on Miami Beach,
40 stories up with a huge wrap around balcony.

For the curious, yes, I did stick with my plant based diet throughout the trip. Saturday night I did manage to drink two beers, but did not really enjoy them. Will likely stay non drinking for now, it really helps with my resolve to not smoke, which has been successful since 12/28/2012! Yippeee, to be a successful ex-smoker, I think I can give up a few beers.