With some sadness, we bid good-bye to Florida on Friday. Our adventure was at an end. The airbnb where we stayed was a very nice place. I took one more walk around the place and the surrounding neighborhood on Friday morning. We had a great time!
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| The front. |
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| Part of interior. |
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| The front room with our packed luggage. |
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| The lanai in back. |
We left Naples at 3:00 on Friday afternoon. It was sunny and 75°. We flew back in a private jet. It was our first experience traveling that way and we were very impressed. We drove our car right up to the plane on the tarmac. They loaded our luggage onto the plane – no weighing bags, no waiting in line, no x-raying, or taking off my shoes and belt and emptying my pockets, no TSA people herding us disdainfully through the security gate. After loading our luggage, the airport staff returned our rental car for us. No worries. The plane, a Gulfstream G550, seated fourteen people plus the pilot and copilot. Mr. Rigas sat in the front of the cabin with his friend and his friend’s family. Stacey, Miriam and I sat in the back in comfortable leather seats, Stacey and I on one side and Miriam across from us with a table between us. The flight attendant, whose name was Colleen, was great. I had a window seat. Take off was quick. We flew north at almost 600 MPH. Across from our seats above the snack bar, there was a monitor that showed us our progress on a map and gave us our speed and arrival time. Yes, there was a snack bar where there was fresh fruit and crackers and cheese and shrimp cocktail laid out for us. Soon after take off, Colleen handed us a hand-written menu so we could choose what we wanted for lunch. Stacey and I had pea and ham soup, and chicken piccatta with asparagus and rosemary potatoes. Miriam had a vegetarian plate. There were canolis and cookies for dessert. We flew from Naples, Florida, to Bradford, Pennsylvania, in just two hours! When we landed in Bradford it was dusk, the sky was overcast, it was 23°, and it was snowing. Mr. Rigas’s son Mike and another driver were waiting for us with two cars. We loaded our luggage into the cars and headed for home. We were behind a snow plow all the way from Smethport to Port Allegany. It was a bit depressing.
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| On the tarmac in Naples. |
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| On the plane. |
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| The snack bar. |
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| Our menu. |
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| Stacey and my lunch. |
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| Miriam's lunch. |
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| Dessert. |
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| Up in the clouds. |
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| On the tarmac in Bradford. |
When we arrived home we found everything was fine. The house was a little chilly. It smelled like home, a familiar smell I can’t really describe. I did a quick check of my houseplants. My friend Nancy did a great job taking care of them. We unpacked and as I put my shorts and short sleeved shirts back in the drawer, I thought that the next time I will wear them will be sometime in late June. When I went to bed, as I crawled under a down comforter, two blankets, and flannel sheets, I thought how, for the last two weeks, I slept comfortably with just a sheet over me.
Yesterday morning it was cold, but sunny. I went down to the barn first to check my flock. They were well taken care of while we were gone, but I could tell they were happy to see me. Then I came up to the house to fill the bird feeders. While we were gone, no one filled them and they were all empty. As I filled the feeders, the chickadees flew down, scolding me for my neglect. Within minutes there were birds and gray squirrels feasting happily.
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| Saturday morning. |
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| Saturday morning. |
There were flowers to greet me here. My clivias have begun to bloom and the white amaryllis is in full bloom again. One of my orchids that I’d never seen in bloom before has flowers. That cheered me up. I spent an hour yesterday morning watering my orchids. Nancy watered them while we were away, but they didn’t get their weekly soaking and they needed it. As I soaked each pot and inspected the plants it occurred to me how much I have to fuss with my orchids just to coax them to stay alive and maybe, if I’m lucky, bloom. And I thought how in southern Florida, you can buy orchids at the grocery store (they had them for sale in every grocery store we went to) and take them home and strap them to a palm tree in your yard and they will grow, flourish, and bloom. I torture myself with these comparisons and I have to stop.
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| Clivias starting to bloom. |
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| My amaryllis blooming again. |
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| The orchid blooming for the first time. |
So we are home again and it feels good to be back in this familiar old ramshackle house. But part of me still longs for the warmth and the sunshine we left behind. As we settle back into our old routines, our brief time in Florida is already fading into a dreamlike memory. I’m back to wearing my flannel-lined pants, my wooly socks, and my fleece-lined hoodie again. Now we will wait for spring, watching for every hopeful sign that winter is losing its grip. There are a few indications. I found snowdrops struggling through the snow in the front flowerbed. There are red-winged blackbirds at the feeder and we saw robins on the way to church this morning. Hope springs eternal in the human breast.
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| Snowdrops. |
