As noted in our previous post, we made our way back to Orlando, Florida. We landed on Friday, one day prior to the landfall of Hurricane Irma. Upon arrival to Orlando we rented a car and bought the FULL insurance just in case the car incurred damage. It was a weird feeling being back in Orlando. While most things seem to be the same, everything and everyone was completely focused on the approaching hurricane. If stores were open, employees were doing everything they could last minute to protect the property. We went to several stores looking for supplies, water and food to survive for 48 hours while the city was shut down. The stores were insane! The lines were much longer than Black Friday. The store shelves were empty and it was really hard to find bottled water. We were lucky to find an Aldi that still had what we needed. Thank you Aldi Clermont!
After a quick visit to our extremely packed storage unit, we hunkered down at our rented condo to wait out the storm. We have never watched so much
Weather Channel coverage in our lives. As the storm came in, the windows shook and the trees rattled. The blowing of the wind was so loud. It went on for hours and hours. While the experience was a bit scary, we were some of the lucky ones; we never lost power.
Once the storm passed and curfew was lifted, we couldn’t wait to get out of the condo. We checked our rental car and were glad to see no damage (bummer we paid for all the insurance). We walked around the complex to survey what the local area looked like. There were some down trees and high water levels but overall, it was just debris everywhere.
We were very blessed that Orlando did not receive as hard of a hit as expected. Our hearts go out to those in South Florida, the Caribbean and Jacksonville that are dealing with much more devastating circumstances.
During our visit to Orlando we were able to take care of a lot of prep work for our upcoming adventures over the next 90 days. We also had an opportunity meet up with some of our friends. It was so much fun to catch up with them and hear about all the stuff we missed since we have been gone. We shared some of our travel stories as well. Sorry we weren’t able to see everyone!
We are now at the airport waiting for our flight to Dusseldorf and then Rome. Funny thing is, we are flying on Air Berlin, which was supposed to go bankrupt today and stop all flights. Luckily the German Government stepped in and extended the international flights to proceed until next week. Fingers crossed we make it to Rome!