There's no place like HELL!

We landed at MIA and got our luggage....after traveling to world class cities and airports....Traveling through MIA is like traveling to a third world country.....The baggage claim area is dirty and seedy....and painfully slow! I guess the handlers need time to rummage through your bag or time to damage it.

Next comes my favorite MIA experience...Taxi cabs.

In Germany, Amsterdam, Austria, Budapest, Prague, Brussels...almost all the Taxi's are nice new Mercedes Benz. If not Mercedes, they have a few cars that are cool for Taxi use (Fiat and VW)..... As in most European cities, the public transportation is easy and efficient.....In cities like Frankfurt and Amsterdam, the city trains can take you from the airport to within a few blocks of any place in the city.

It's not that Miami has a very limited public transportation system or that most of the MIA cabbies are Haitian and play the Haitian talk radio stations (extremely loud), it's getting inside a 1984 Chevy Impala with bad shock absorbers and fearing for my life as they weave through traffic.

To add to the enjoyment of the MIA experience....the never ending road construction. I wish I could find the statistics on how long the toll booth at SR 112 has been under construction and how many times I have been stuck in traffic becasue of it!

A new sign should be posted at the airport......"The lobbyists and corrupt local government of the great city of Miami .....Welcomes you to HELL!"

I haven't even mentioned the terrible dark and dingy parking garages, the silly sky-bridges with moving sidewalks that are inconvenient and difficult to find, the shameful helliport that was built and only used once, or the rigged security bids that required that the security software operated in Japanese to lock-out competitive bids.

What a bad image for the millions of travelers that pass through MIA (including cruise ship passengers) who are terrified to even stay a day in Miami...what a shame!

I guess I am like a frog that was dropped in a pan of water.....someone has turned the stove on, but I have lived here so long, I never felt the heat ....until I traveled to other places!

But Miami is home....and there is no place like home! Now it's time to open mail, pay bills, read the Herald, watch Fox News and WWE in my Lazy Boy, return phone calls, work a little bit, get updated on the latest gossip, and start another diet.....after (5) weeks away.....it is really great to be home on South Beach!