Hertz Rental Car problems and bad weather and traffic- not a good start

We had an early breakfast in the Hotel and then the Hotel shuttle bus dropped us off at the arrival part of the terminal where all the Car rental companies are based. There was not a long queue waiting to be served at Hertz but only three staff to arrange booking in but there was problems with two parties as it we had to wait almost 25 minutes to get served. If we had not prepaid for the car I would have gone next door to Alamo.

Finally we got served and they tried the usual tact, Sir with having a car for two months you really need a bigger car, no thanks I said and off we went to the garage across the road where all the hire companies store their vehicles. This garage is so dark its almost impossible to check the outside of the car for damage and for that matter inside you cannot see at all. However we chose a vehicle which had a large boot (trunk in USA) and loaded all our cases and headed off for the exit where they check all your documents and then let you out. Well at this point it all went wrong as they scanned the car several times and could not find it on their system and so could not let us leave. All this took about ten minutes with other car drivers hooting us in frustration and so finally they said we should go back and choose another car which we did. We returned to the bay for mid-size cars only to find there were none left and so we were upgraded to the next level and a bigger vehicle. We then had to move all our luggage over to the new car and we finally left having been trying to collect the car and leave took nearly 1.5  hours and therefore we were behind on our planned schedule.
With the SAT/NAV  positioned ready to go we headed off for our first stop in Sarasota en-route to Rotonda West but the journey was anything but easy with heavy rain and a considerable amount of traffic jams we finally arrived in Sarasota and stopped for a Wendy’s burger for a fast lunch and then on to do our stock up shopping at Costco.

We bought all the usual stuff, steaks, lamb chops and many other goodies and at check-out the cashier asked were we having a ‘Superbowl’ party, needless to say as Brits this is of little interest to us.
From there about another hour to Rotonda West and the nearby Publix supermarket where we purchased a few last minute items before heading off to the rented house where we finally arrived at about 18.00 and nearly 2.5 hours later than planned.
The house is very nice with great views from the back of the house and we tucked in to our Costco ready cooked chicken with salad and a nice glass of chardonnay before heading for an evening of TV watching. Some years ago we purchased a Amazon TV Fire Stick from Amazon USA and by plugging it in to the back of the very large TV we can watch our Netflix and other stuff.
And so to bed.