For the next two weeks I'll be alone with Spodie (Spring's [1] cat). Spring is spending the next thirteen days in Sweden [2] visiting Wlofie. [3]
I'm going to miss her.
I had no problems at all driving to the Miami International Airport [4]. It was under construction and I remarked to Spring that it was under construction the last time I visited the airport (back in '96 or '97). Spring said that some airports are under perpetual construction, like at Denver [5]. Silliness.
Upon entering, we found that parking for British Airways [6] (she has a layover in London [7]) is in the “Dolphin Garage,” [8] the first one we encountered. Spent ten minutes or so driving all the way up to the top to find parking.
It was odd, but there were a rather large number of roped off parking spaces on each level and they all seemed to be on the same side of the garage. Spring theorized that recent Federal guidelines from the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) [9] may mandate that parked cars have to maintain a minimum distance from the terminals. More silliness.
Finally parked on level six (section 6S). Head down to level three (terminal level). Now what? The map [10] we found on level three didn't list the terminal for British Airways. It didn't list any non-US based carrier. The terminals surrounded the parking garage in a U shaped configuration , starting with A and continuing up through H. Spring suggested starting with termanal E (in the middle) and head towards terminal A (since on the map, terminals F through H listed which carriers they served; A through E were blank, with the exception of D). I instead suggested starting with A, since it was closer to us anyway. Spring concurred. So we walked through parking lot section 3V to the crosswalk to terminal A and wouldn't you know it? British Airways was located right there in terminal A.
The concourses start on level three and there was this long line of people waiting to get through the security checkpoint to their gates. We looked but didn't see the ticket counters. We then took the escalator down to level two where we found all them. While mobbed, the lines for British Airways was very short. In about ten minutes, Spring was at the counter getting her tickets and checking her luggage. We then went back to the escalator.
Where we found a line waiting to go up! An airport employee was at the foot of the escalator next to a sign: “Ticketed customers only past this point.” I could just go outside, across to the garage, back up a leve, then cross over and be on the third level. More silliness. But not wanting to cause a scene or undue stress, Spring and I said our good-byes and I unfortunately had to leave Spring with a nearly three hour wait to board her plane.
Did I mention I'm going to miss her?
[2] http://www.visit-sweden.com/
[4] http://www.miami-airport.com/
[5] http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~busew/dia.html
[6] http://www.britishairways.com/
[7] http://www.londontown.com/
[8] http://www.miami-airport.com/html/terminal_map.html