Tampa Day Trip: Houston, TX

Houston, TX

I have to do a day trip to Tampa, FL today flying into the Tampa/St. Petersburg International airport (TPA). This is one of two airports serving the Tampa Bay area. The other is St. Petersburg (PIE). I’m not sure that any scheduled service airlines serve this airport anymore. I know that at one time ATA Airlines (TZ) had served it.

This is a day trip that takes quite a bit out of me when I do it every now and then. I was up and atom at 4:29a, about 30 minutes later than planned. I had only gone to bed at 1:30a and I think I did not fall asleep until about 2:00a.

I got ready as the shuttle bus (Super Shuttle) would arrive at 5:00a sharp. They wanted to show at 4:40a, but I deferred to 5:00a. They had warned me that since I had chosen this time, they would not be responsible if I missed my flight. I did not even know they had a guarantee in place.

The driver asked me for directions to his next pickup which he said they had also scheduled for 5:00a; actually they had scheduled three trips that were not next to each other for the same time. Luckily when he picked up the other two they seemed O.K. He then picked up one more passenger and we were on the highway at 5:21a.

The lone lady indicated that she was going to Terminal B, I told the driver that in 9 minutes, I’d let him know which terminal was mine as I’d get my TripAlert then. Sure enough, it came at 5:30a and the Terminal was C. I did not bother to say anything figuring that he would go to C anyways.

It was 5:47a when we pulled off U.S. 59 for the airport and 5:54a when I pulled into Terminal C. I paid the driver the 25 USD plus a tip and exited the van.