Saturday, March 29, 2008

cK in Orlando, Florida

CK GOES TO ORLANDO FOR SOFTBALL, CHINESE BUFFET AND WRESTLEMANIA!

My journey started leaving Toronto on a Greyhound headed to Buffalo. On the bus, a gentleman in a suit sits next to me telling me of his life story. Pretty much, he has lots of bad luck. He didn't mention his name, but just went on talking about how he worked in Toronto and was taken advantage of by a guy who didn't pay him, and then was arrested. He was on his way back to New York City on a plane from Buffalo.

We get to the border and the bus parks so everyone can enter U.S. Customs. Everyone goes through, one by one -- the guy who was telling me his life story goes up.. and then they hold him. I get called up and then they clear me, sending me on the bus. The bus leaves without the gentleman, and I thought that would be the last I saw of him.

The Greyhound bus continues its journey and goes to the bus depot. From there, I take a shuttle bus to the Buffalo-Niagara Airport. I check in at the ticket counter for my JetBlue flight to New York City - which would connect to Orlando. My plane was delayed so I went to the food court and relaxed, eating some Burger King. Wouldn't you know it, that while I was sitting at my table -- I hear a voice shout towards me. It was the gentleman trying to get my attention from the security checkpoint line. I was surprised he made it! He came over to my table and then sat down to chat with me.

He told me that he was red flagged because of his history back when he was a youth living in New York. They fingerprinted him and then let him on his way. After a while of telling me that nothing in his life goes right, an announcement came over the speaker addressing him to get to the gate as his plane was boarding. He zipped away without saying his name --- would this be the last I saw of him?

Not too much longer, I went to the gate where my plane was boarding. Buffalo Niagara Airport is a very simple place. There are not too many terminals to get lost in and the gates are pretty straight forward. They could definitely benefit from a much better food court. Anyways, I board my plane that is New York City bound. The flight to NY - had lots of children on it. Screaming and causing trouble for their poor parents. I just stuck on my headphones and rested my head on the window to try and shut out the noise. After a brief flight, we arrive in NY. Once getting there, my plane was delayed --- a flight that was supposed to be departing NY at 9:40pm, is now leaving at 10:40pm.

JetBlue's NY Terminal has FREE Wi-Fi for everyone --- except for people like me that have a Wi-Fi enabled Palm that needs some tweaking to work --- which of course, I don't know how to do. So I just connect my Palm to my phone and surf the internet through there. Can't wait for that phone bill!

Eventually my plane arrives and I board it. Wouldn't you know, that a flight from New York to Orlando would be filled with screaming children? Yes -- all going to DisneyWorld. The flight was alright, as I zoned out watching the Travel Channel on DirecTV. I arrived in Orlando around 1:30am to where my family was waiting to pick me up.

The next day, my brother the TAZEMASTER invites me to come out and play softball. He picks me up and I since I'm still coming from winter conditions, I'm a little rusty in running fast and playing softball. Okay, aside the excuses -- I'm not that great in any season!! So he takes me to a park and there are a bunch of guys that meet together every Saturday at 4:30pm to play softball. It was a lot of fun. I hung out with my cousin, BIG RICH and their friends. They made fun of my fanny pack, (which they referred to as a 'man-purse') but I kind of expected it. I mean, I was wearing it to hold the camera for pics -- but it still looked funny.

After a nice afternoon of softball, where the team I was on defeated BIG RICH's team 6-5 -- we went out for dinner at the NEW CHINA BUFFET! The selection was no Mandarin, but it was really good. The food was tasty and there was a wide variety of things to eat.

The next day was Wrestlemania 24. You can read about that experience here.

My return flight was Monday. It was a JetBlue flight leaving Orlando at 12:20pm. After standing in the longest security checkpoint line ever, I get to my plane and board it. When I get to my seat, I see that there is someone sitting in it. After acknowledging that they were in my seat, the gentleman got up and allowed me to sit down. He was sitting beside me. All the guys in my row were wearing wrestling t-shirts. This made me quite happy, as I could talk all about the event on the way back. The guys introduced themselves and indy wrestlers from Hamilton, Ontario. They were great guys to be beside. The entire journey went by really fast as these guys cracked so many jokes making me laugh out loud.

Upon arriving in Buffalo, these guys were out of a way to get back into Hamilton when their arranged ride stiffed them. So I showed them the way I would be going back to Canada -- via shuttle bus from the airport and Greyhound. We all traveled together to the Greyhound bus terminal and they bought the next tickets to Hamilton, which was leaving in 10 minutes. Apparently, my scheduled bus wasn't leaving for another 2 hours. The guys wanted me to tag along with them, but the driver said that my ticket was not valid for boarding that particular bus. Oh well. So before the guys left, they allowed me to take some pics and they shot some promo vids for nwotoronto.com.

As they left, I waited in the dingy Buffalo bus terminal for another while until my bus arrived. When I got back to Toronto, I was greeted by the chilly drizzle of rain and I missed the hot Florida sun that I was experiencing just hours before. I can't wait for summer to arrive!