I am blogging to you from Orlando Florida where all the Riskies are attending the RWA National Conference. I have already declared that IT’S TOO HOT OUTSIDE and am determined to stay inside.

Also, I am going to reimagine my journey from Oakland California to the Dolphin Resort Hotel and it will be up to you to pick out the lies from the truths, if any there are of either sort.

I ran into a charming friend from the Beau Monde at the airport and thus I was accompanied in the flying post-chaise that was to bear me to my destination. I was worried about the unseemliness of traveling alone since my maid took desperately ill the night before and passed over, leaving me quite on my own. My companion was delightful and relieved the tedium of the long journey through the skies. I had, naturally, my own correspondence to work on, I owe a lengthy missive to an associate in New York and took this opportunity to add to my opus.

We arrived in Orlando Florida only a few minutes late whereupon my companion and I discovered there were several other persons whose destination matched ours. We engaged to travel from the flying carriage hostel to the inn where we were all to stay. But can you imagine? There was no carriage or horse to be had, despite our paying for it, for nearly two hours! Tempers flared and I do confess one of our party (not I) was ready to do bodily harm. She was restrained, but barely.

Oh the tedium of waiting whilst the conveyancers dealt with the masses of people who had reserved their trip to our hotel in advance. It seems it did not occur to anyone in their employ to count the number of reservations and compare that to the number of available conveyances… I can speak of this no more as I can feel the tears of frustration arise even now. Hire a private carriage if you can.

I sat next to a charming young lady (very young!) who had just flown in from London, but her baggage was damaged and the flying-carriage employees four times misdirected her as to where she might put in a claim. They were, alas, quite rude and uncouth and I confess I heard such tales from more than one person.  My charming new friend had been on this large post-chaise for an hour with no explanation for why they weren’t traveling anywhere but in circles around the hotel. She was tearfully considering returning home to London as she had by then been at the flying carriage hostel for four hours.  I gave her my cell phone number and my email and told her if she had any further problems or needed help at anytime during her stay to please get in touch, as she will be here for a year.

Three hours after alighting from our flying coach, we arrived at our inn. The poor staff appeared overwhelmed as there were fifty travelers awaiting assignment to a room and but two servants to make the arrangements.

We were, all of us, tired, hungry and, well, peeved, but being ladies nearly all of us, we maintained our cheer as best we could under such circumstances.

But now I am in my rooms with my delightful companion and fellow Risky, Mrs. Megan Frampton and I have showed her my new tattoo. She was in transports! It’s quite fetching. Tomorrow, of course, I will meet the duke of Orlando and we shall see if he suits me.

Yours ever so,

Carolyn

Lies? Truths? Opine in the comments.