| Cape San Blas, FL Spring Break 2018 - Day 2 |
| Dad left in the morning for reasons I cannot remember. When he did, the dogs sat by the door and awaited his return. They all have serious separation anxiety and cannot handle being away from him. And people say that I have problems. But he did book us an Executive room, which gave me access to the Executive Lounge for breakfast. I had just put together a plate of food when the fire alarm went off and they told us we had to exit the building. Like any sensible person, I wrapped my bacon up inside of a napkin and took it outside with me. If the building was going to go up in flames, I wasn't about to let that bacon go to waste. As I stood outside eating my bacon, the fire trucks arrived and the brave first responders entered. After a few minutes, we were allowed to go back inside since there was no real fire or threat to our safety. I put some more bacon on my plate, ate it and many other breakfast items, then went about hotel raging in a way that only I could do. |
| If you have been following along from the start of this adventure then you know that nothing has gone according to plan and we meant to get down here a lot earlier than we did. When we rolled into Port St. Joe, we needed to get some groceries and the only thing still open was a Dollar General Market. We picked up a couple of necessities for the coming days, but while I was roaming through the isles, a box of Moonpies caught my eye. I have never eaten one of these marshmallow, graham and chocolate desert cakes in my life, but I do follow them on Twitter. This is only because they are savage as fuck and amuse me on a daily basis. On that basis alone, I purchased and consumed their product. And I was glad that I did. |
| Word of my arrival and mischievous doings must have been spread around the hotel, because soon after I arrived in the pool area the one man who was doing laps completed his regimen and left the pool area. And for the remainder of the time that I was there, no one else set foot inside of this room. There are only so many cares that one can give in this World, so in times like this I give zero cares as I go about my way living my life in the only way that I know. And that is to enjoy every single minute of it with reckless abandon like I am still a child who cares not about what the outside World thinks of them. On this day it meant doing multiple cannonballs into the pool while filming them in slow motion, trying over and over and over again until I got it just right. If I had to testify before a grand jury, I might be able to provide the evidence necessary to explain how much time I spent doing this task, but at this time I do not feel that is required of me. I could have done this all day, but check out time was at noon and we still had an 8 hour drive ahead of us before we got to our final destination. But I am glad that I was given the opportunity to hotel rage, eat some bacon and do some cannonballs. Without this, I wouldn't be right in the head. And Lord help us if I am not. |
| I love hotels because they offer many amenities that I do not have at home. I already spoke of one of them (free breakfast), so I suppose it is time to talk about the second one - a pool. Most hotels have a pool and if they do not, then there is no way in hell that I will spend my money to stay there for the night. When I went into the pool area there was one other person there who was using the pool as a normal adult would by doing laps as means of exercise. If you didn't know by now then let me tell you that I am not a normal adult. I was splashing around, filming videos while jumping into the water and then taking underwater selfies. Perhaps it's a good thing that I only get to stay at hotels a few times a year. Any more than that would be too much for them to handle. |
| It's just about an hour and 20 minutes from Nashville to the Alabama border. We got off at the first rest stop in Elkmont, AL so that I could cross another State off of my list. It is my goal to make it to all 50 of the United States of America and I am currently at 36 of 50. While Lynyrd Skynyrd did proclaim that this place was "Sweet Home Alabama" and Reese Witherspoon starred in a movie of the same name, I had a differing opinion of this wasteland. It was not sweet. And it was definitely not home. So I am not sure what else to call it because I was unimpressed with my surroundings and I didn't want to stay here any longer than I had to. And if it wasn't for the rocket, we would have blasted off from this place faster than the speed of sound. |
| There is a replica of a Saturn 1B Rocket at this rest stop, so I just had to take a selfie with the beast powerful enough to take things and people into space. The US Space & Rocket Center is in Huntsville, Alabama so it made perfect sense that this artifact was at the welcoming center at the state border. This state (like Florida and Texas) prides itself on the Space Program, so who I am to tell them that they cannot erect a rocket in a public area that is bigger than my head? Many people have tried to be the opposing force to that and all of them have failed. Since this was my first time in Alabama, I wasn't about to add my name to that egregious list. |
| The sky was trying to tell me something. If I knew what I know now, I would have heeded her warnings. I don't want to spoil anything for you, but this trip would be a mix of some really great good and some horrible bads. I should have cashed out and taken my losses. I should have turned back. I should have headed back to Wisconsin. I should have done a lot of things. But instead I pressed on towards Florida. |
| Home |
| We stopped at a lot of rest stops because the dogs (and Pops) needed to stretch their legs and pee. Not necessarily in that order. And then we crossed over into Florida. From this rest stop I knew all that I needed to know about Florida - they don't allow skateboarding or roller blading and they love dolphins and sunshine. At that moment, I realized that I may be able to overlook the dolphin thing (assuming I would still be allowed to punch them in the face) because I too don't allow skateboarding or rollerblading and do enjoy sunshine. |