Day 6 (January 12, 2025): An easy trip home!

We left the hotel at 9:05AM and headed to Tampa International Airport.  Gassing up the car, the airport drive on I-275, the car return, and the train from the rental car centre to the terminal took just 40 minutes - not bad!  Boarding began early, as we heard the pilot from the inbound flight tell the gate staff that they wanted to get out of Tampa early.  It was a good flight home, with lots of cheerful inflight service and a fairly small passenger load.  There is a definite correlation between flight attendant 'cheeriness' levels and the number of passengers onboard!

The FMEA conference was excellent:  Pam got a lot out of the sessions, the musical groups were so inspiring and, although I wasn't a conference participant, it was great that we could attend several concerts together.  The hotels were excellent, we ate well, saw lots, walked a lot and, despite the chilly temperatures, appreciated the mostly sunny weather.  From Georgia to Texas, snow has been commonplace all over the southeast this past week, so we really didn't do too badly, weather-wise. All in all, a big thumbs-up on the entire experience.


This is The Karol Hotel in Clearwater, where we stayed overnight.  A really nice place, and it was a fairly short drive to Tampa International Airport from the hotel this morning.

This massive artwork in the rental car centre at Tampa Airport is made of tiny beads.

The Air Canada Rouge Airbus A-319, which flew down from Halifax this morning, is taking us back to Nova Scotia.  It was barely half-full.  We pushed back 12 minutes early, at 11:18AM, and arrived at the gate in Halifax at 3:28PM, 39 minutes ahead of schedule.  Not bad for winter travel!

The flight route back to Halifax. What a difference a nonstop flight makes to one's travel day!

I've written in earlier blogs about how I enjoy the mac 'n cheese on Air Canada.  It really is delicious!  




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