It has taken me a week to find time to finish this series of posts, so I will post date it. Day #7 was travel day. On day #6, after we returned to the hotel in Fort Lauderdale, we discovered that our room keys had ceased to work. While waiting for engineering to solve the problem, they fed us snacks and gave us that hotel night free of charge. It was another unexpected blessing during the trip.

We got up early on travel day, loaded up in the rental car and headed to the airport. I dropped off my sister and niece, whose flight was departing first, then went to drop off the rental. We still had Eli’s shovel in the back of the minivan, and he wanted to try and get it through security, but I figured the TSA wouldn’t look kindly on that, so I offered it to the man who worked for the rental company and was receiving the vehicle. He accepted it with gratitude and told me it would make its way to his family in Haiti. That made me happy.

As we boarded our Delta flight, Eli made some comment about the cockpit, which he could see through the open door. Ann, the flight attendant welcoming us aboard, told us to stow our luggage, then come back to go in the cockpit. While Eli was talking to the copilot and enjoying sitting in the pilot’s chair, I thanked Ann for her unexpected kindness, explaining Eli’s medical status. She was so sweet and upgraded Eli and Ella to first class (there weren’t any other seats for me, but I got a row to myself). Ann arranged for us to do pictures in the cockpit after our flight without masks, at which point we met the Pilot, Welden Boyken.