Florida 2014: Tampa, Gainesville, Ocala

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Since I worked so hard and so late all week, I decided to splurge a little and got upgraded on my flight from Doha to Amsterdam - it was worth it. Comfy chair, great dinner, nice neighbor, and well deserved rest on my full layout chair. Yay! Plus, when you fly business on KLM, you get these little houses that are models of real houses in Holland and have a history to them; they are supposed to be filled with some kind of Dutch alcohol, but since this was an Arabic flight, none was with it. I still thought it would be a nice gift for my dad's bar. The guy next to me said his wife collects them, so he was picky about which house he got - but he asked the guys in front of us if they wanted their houses and soon our whole section gave him theirs! Hilarious! So, I gave him my business class provided socks that I never use to help wrap them up. Too funny.

I had a brief layover in Amsterdam before catching a flight to Detroit (one of my favorite airports); this was also a very quick and easy layover and there was a seat between me and the guy on the aisle so I was able to sleep much of the way in relative comfort. Going through customs was actually pretty easy and the officer said in the 12 seconds he was checking me in "You travel a lot. Welcome back!" Finally, I caught my flight to Orlando, where I was seated next a lovely older couple from Wisconsin. The woman was telling me what a dreadful day she was having (in a very sweet way) and how she was glad the flight was delayed for thirty minutes because she had to rush from the other terminal. So, how is your day going? "Oh, I've been flying for 20 hours from the Middle East..." She looked at me and laughed and said she would stop complaining. Usually I'm not much of a talker, but after 20 hours non-stop, you start missing the company so we chatted off and on through the flight and she gave me peanut butter crackers to eat.

Orlando airport is actually pretty nice; when you land, you catch a monorail to go to the main terminal where you collect your bags. Mine came through right away and I went downstairs to rent my car. Along the way I noted the "Disney Magical Express" signs as I would be returning here in a few days to head to the resort. I got my car through Hertz and honestly, I'm not a fan. The dude kept trying to sell me stuff and it started to get annoying. Fine, I got a small upgrade for a little more money and wound up with a Nissan Altima instead of a compact car. It had started to rain (yay!). So, I walked across the street to the garage, found my car, had to ask a woman how the heck to start it, and made my way out. It was actually super easy.

Unfortunately, while I enjoy rain and thunderstorms, after about twenty minutes I was over it. Traffic was heavy and it poured all the way to Tampa. I actually had to get my hotel in St Petersburg, which is a lovely little city. The hotel was ok and my room was actually pretty nice (even though it did not have a full curtain). I took a quick nap before my friends arrived around 7pm and we met up to go for dinner. There was a free shuttle to the downtown area, where we went to this Tapas bar they had previously eaten at. DELICIOUS! Seriously, it was so good! Our waiter was a NYC guy and awesome. We strolled back to the hotel - since it was first Friday, part of downtown was blocked off for pedestrian traffic only and had live music. It was super cool!

The next morning we got up to go to Autocross. Melvin, who i had previously worked with in Dubai, has found a new passion and he has kitted out his VW Golf. I was a little skeptical when he told me what he had, but after seeing it, I understand now. It is really cool. The track is created using hundreds of cones and lots of curves in a large parking lot; this one was right next to the police training facility. I was so nervous about doing this, but I was determined. I ran the first session while he performed sideline duties and then he ran the second session while I ran the duties. For the first session, Melvin found a young guy to ride with me to help. He was great - I improved my runs from 48.6 seconds to 41.7 seconds. Yes! It was actually quite fun. Then Melvin went while I watched from the sidelines to replace any cones that were hit. He did great - I think he got 36.1 seconds and was second in his class for the entire morning session.

Then we high-tailed it to Gainesville - a two hour drive (Melvin time). However, my wonderful rental car with 55,000 miles on it suddenly stopped accelerating about 60 miles from our destination. So, we made it (slowly) to the Gainesville airport where Hertz readily exchanged it. Much nicer car - Chevy Impala with 20,000 miles on it. Seriously - I paid more for that piece of crap Altima that looked dreadful, so I'm not a fan of Hertz at the moment.

Anyway, this meant we missed the first Gator touchdown, but were able to enjoy the rest of the game. I so miss college football season!!!

The next morning, Melvin said "Morning #1". Whaaaaa? Apparently I got #1 in my class, beating out another girl whose father is one of the bigwigs. Bwahahaha! That day we met with Melvin's driving club as a first Sunday and drove to Ocala. These are guys who love their cars and it was FUN. I was able to catch a ride in a red BMW, but there were porsches, audis, VW, BMW, motorcycles, etc. Very cool. It was a nice ride down on the back roads, where we got a good lunch on the outskirts of town. When we headed back, we saw what these babies could to - amazing! I now appreciate the car culture much more. Those cars really are great.

For dinner, Melvin cooked a steak dinner - YUM!! I love his home. He and his wife, Leilani, are from Hawaii and have totally decorated their beautiful home with Hawaiian themes. My favorite was the wooden Hawaiian islands on the wall of their great room. Beautiful. I miss this guy as he was one of my closest friends in Dubai and I would not have enjoyed my time there as much without him.

I was really sad to not be able to visit a couple of my girl friends who now live in Florida. Liz is in Gainesville, but we could not get our times to connect. Nicole is in Pensacola and I looked to see about going to visit her, but time was short and it is a long drive. Candice is in Orlando the weekend AFTER I was, so I was just missing her by a few days. I seriously should have extended my stay for a few days (however, it turned out well that I didn't because I returned to madness!!!)....

Next stop: Disney World!

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Photos

St Petersburg
Beautiful Church

The Last Supper
incredible stained glass at the St Petersburg Church

Guns and Ammo
welcome to the south!

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

U.S.
Enjoy the U.S. while you can

[lexispence10]

Enjoyed to fullest
I did! It was a wild, crazy and quick ride!