And That Was That!

We checked into the airport hotel in Ft. Meyers and Shane the receptionist asked, “Do you have a car?”  I said no, and that was that.  DVDV is now officially retired in North Port, Florida where I hope she will have a few marvelous years providing the same great service to the Hayes family as she did for twenty years to the Embees.

It was a great trip, a total of 1200 miles with lots of excitement and adventure.  We had an overnight in Jacksonville at a lovely Marriott where I burned enough points to get us an upgraded room with access to their Executive Lounge.  We went there before dinner for a drink and appetizers and noticed a customer starting to rearrange all the furniture. There were a total of about 12 small tables and she took eight of them to create a big table in the corner and then took 12 chairs to finish the project. None of the staff seemed to say anything so I just wondered what in the world she was doing. Ten minutes later I got my answer.  Seems that there was some kind of corporate meeting and they took over the lounge, brought in their own really smelly Indian food from a take-out place, and opened bottles of their own booze and settled in for a long evening. People came in to have a drink and there were no tables or chairs and the staff said nothing. 

We hightailed it out of there since the smell was making me gag and headed down to dinner.  On the way I stopped at the front desk to see if what was happening was normal; I’ve never been to a lounge that allows you to bring in your own food and booze. The desk clerk seemed nonplussed, apologized and said she would add 1000 reward points to my account. I said that is not what I wanted, I just wanted to know if that was normal.  The next morning there was a written apology under the door from the manager with confirmation of the 1000 points so I’m guessing it was not a normal event.

Had a fun trip from JAX to St. Pete via back roads.  Cindy is an excellent navigator and took us around lots of traffic delays and gave us the opportunity to see some of the countryside for a few hours until we were finally able to get past the worst of the traffic and hop onto the main highway for the final two hours to St. Pete.  We normally stay at the Hilton but decided to try a different hotel with a little local color. The Hollander Hotel - built in 1933 and renovated five years ago - was a step back in time and was just a perfect change of pace from the cookie cutter big chains.  The main reception area was all wood, exactly as it was in 1933, and the staff were so genuinely friendly and ready to do anything they could to make our stay enjoyable.  We arrived at three and ten minutes later the heavens opened up and it rained like crazy for the next five hours.  We were snug and dry in our small but clean room and we enjoyed a little happy hour at the old fashioned bar before our nap. Dinner that night was fine and in the morning we were able to have a coffee at the attached shop before our last leg to North Port.

Our time with the kids and grandkids was fabulous; long dinners filled with multiple conversations and great wines. The time just flew by and we are thrilled that we made this journey.  All’s well that ends well and this ended very well indeed. 

Best to all, Cindy and William

Ciao DVDV

Road Food and Fun

Easy Peasy trip today, only six hours of driving, the usual rain storms, delays due to Truck Tag, when big 18wheelers decide to pass each other on the uphill on two lane roads but nothing major. Breakfast at the hotel consisted a cup of coffee and a spoon of flax seed meal with a prune that Cindy had thoughtfully remembered to bring. Since we only had a quarter of a tank of gas, I had promised an early stop to refuel followed by a proper breakfast. We found a perfect spot and when I opened the car door the smells were promising. While I filled the tank and cleaned the windows, Cindy checked out the options. They were unfortunately sparse, but the menu offered homemade breakfast biscuits which looked promising.  Unfortunately they stopped serving those at 9:30 and it was now 9:55, bad luck.  The only other hot things were five kinds of deep fried chicken, two deep fried types of potatoes and little tubs of gravy, that unctuous mixture of fried sausage in a milky roux.  We passed and Cindy ended up with a banana and blueberry biscuit and I opted for the breakfast of champions, an ice cream sandwich. I have to tell you, a bite of banana followed by a bite of ice cream sandwich is a marvelous combination and did the trick.

We drove for another three hours, this time though really heavy squalls, and once inside of Georgia, we stopped for gas and lunch. It turned out that for me, it was gas and gas.  I gave into the temptation of a Circle K hot dog, with all the trimmings.  I enjoyed every bite but it came back to haunt me for the next two hours.  Cindy had the delightful and always tasty two day old microwaved breakfast burrito, which she declared nearly edible.  Needless to say, we are looking forward to salads for dinner!

Do you remember when the current administration said they were going to be spending bigly on infrastructure?  Given it’s been a problem for decades we were hoping something might have finally changed, but there is zero evidence of any of that money having been spent on road improvement in West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia or Florida.  The roads are a mess, mile after mile of potholes and poorly painted marker stripes, and no evidence of road construction, repair or maintenance. Very sad!

We finally got proper nourishment in the Marriott restaurant where the manager told us the grouper had just been delivered and the salmon was also very fresh.  We had one of each, simply grilled with lemon - and simply delicious.  The manager is from Albania and we’d had quite an interesting conversation with him earlier, all about the EU and Brexit and the perks that Albanians get from Greece (you read that right).

Heading south again today ... Cindy and Wm

We'll miss you DVDV

The day we knew would come has in fact arrived. We begin our final journey as proud owners of our Desert Violet 1998 Ford Explorer, lovingly known as DVDV.  Valley’s family needs a reliable heavy duty car and DVDV got the nod.  I have spent the day getting her ready for the run to North Port, Florida: washing, vacuuming, polishing, gassing her up and getting an oil change service, just to make sure all is well on the trip.  We’ll not be setting any records, having decided to take our time and make it as relaxing as possible, so we’ll be spending three nights in hotels and we’ll only average about six hours of driving a day.

Smart folks would have timed this to begin in November when the weather would be much cooler, but hey, 90 degrees and frequent thunderstorms, as predicted, add a certain amount of adventure to the transfer.  As we were getting things organized for the trip, we began to discover things about the car that we either didn’t know before or forgot.  For instance, the sun visor on both the driver and passenger side has two visors so that if you move the big one to the side window, you still have a smaller backup for the front window.  Ingenious!  I’m betting that there is no one out there that has a car that has a built-in cassette player as well as a CD player and an option to connect your phone so that you can play whatever is on your playlist. Oh, and today I found out where you add the fluid for the rearview window washer, not that it matters since that wiper hasn’t worked in years.

We are all packed and the car is filled with things that the Florida kids want, which is a joy since we really would like to unload lots of our stuff. We’ve got a cold six pack of Evian, a bag of peanuts, a bag of almonds and a jug of Vecchia Romana, an Italian brandy for beddy-bye sipping. We’ll keep you posted!

We had a crack of dawn start today, that is if we lived in Hawaii!  It was to be a six hour trip Rock Hill SC but with rain, trucks and tons of traffic outside Charlotte, it turned into a 8.5 hour ordeal. No biggie, we arrived safe and sound.  Since Cindy isn’t running, she packs lighter than normal and the receptionist gave a that look like, I know what you’re here for!  We had a lovely dinner and unwound from the day’s drive and got to bed much earlier that normal.  Tomorrow to Jacksonville!!