Florida-Days 5 & 6

I woke up at 6 and Mom was not happy, as our bill had been slipped under the door. Our original reservation had us checking out on Sunday, but we had subsequently arranged to check out Monday since I would have the room alone for 24 hours. Thankfully, we were able to handle it and they said I could get a free breakfast when I came back. I drove Mom to the Wal-Mart in Clearwater to drop her off for her tour to Savannah. The rain had started by now, so it wasn’t smooth sailing on those roads. And on my way back, my GPS got me lost. Apparently, it wasn’t  anticipating the detours in the roads. So it took me 45 minutes to get back instead of 30.

I ran five miles on the treadmill, then headed into the hotel bistro where I ate egg whites, bacon, sourdough toast, and a few bad breakfast potatoes. Needed seasoning! After doing some more schoolwork, I headed north in the rain to Lifepoint. It turned out the Saturday night service had been cancelled, since they had already run a dozen Christmas week services. I introduced myself to the woman behind the desk and she was amazed that I went to Willow Creek Church. People really seem to have a fascination with that church and with Bill Hybels. The music was loud and the pastor talked about a new start in 2014. I don’t remember too much about his message, but I remember at the end he pointed out that you can’t start a new chapter if you keep re-reading the last one. That’s something I’m gonna take with me.

I took off and drove nine minutes southwest to Peabody’s, home of the Jets fan of Tampa Bay club. It was a pretty huge bar and the Jets fans had their own room, which was kind of cool. We had a huge projector screen to watch the game and there were probably 30 people or so. They said it was kind of a low turnout with the game being on locally, Christmas time having just passed, and the Jets being eliminated from playoff contention. But I went there to make some noise and the Jets gave me reasons as they dominated the Dolphins 20-7, eliminating them from playoff contention.

I met a few interesting people like Al, who has been a Jets fan since 1960 (bless his soul) and Melissa, a recently converted fan, who gives great hugs. She also likes the Bears and is originally from Fort Wayne, IN, so she was pretty interested that I was from Chicago. I’m still trying to figure out how to contact her. They had a 50/50 raffle for cash and Jets prizes. I contributed five dollars, which gave me ten tickets. The total pot was $22, which means people had spent $44 total. So I had pretty good odds of winning. They pulled nine tickets and none of mine were ever called! One guy actually won four times! In the end, they gave me a Jets mini-pennant, maybe out of pity.

I left with the rain falling harder and drove south down 4 and 275 to downtown Tampa. I hit a pretty hard traffic jam, so instead of going back to the hotel to clean up, I just headed straight for the parking lot. I parked about three blocks away from the Tampa St Pete Times Forum just as the rain was stopping. I changed from my Jets t-shirt into my white Henrik Lundqvist jersey. I walked to Thunder Alley, the concourse outside the arena and saw a lot of Rangers fans. I conversed with a lot of them, asking where they were from, if they went to a lot of games, etc. I even bought a couple of Lightning pucks from the store. They had a Lightning logo but with a beach background, so I thought they were pretty cool.

They let us in an hour before game time and I headed straight to Section 105, where the Rangers would come out for warm-ups. I took time to observe the arena and was quite impressed. They had a huge scoreboard just like the one at Cowboys Stadium, the seating areas were clean, the seats were comfortable, and they had a huge pipe organ behind one of the goals in the upper level. It was like Phantom of the Opera at a hockey game! The warm-ups finally did start around 6:35, it took 45 minutes of waiting.

I sat in the upper level in Section 304, on one of the corners in an aisle seat. The pre-game was pretty elaborate with electric waves going off around the scoreboard. The fans were pretty loud although they could use a little etiquette about when to cheer. The elongated goalie chant is done after the home team scores, not at any random moment. And they were singing all these songs in one section, 307, though I couldn’t make out any of the words. At least they had energy.

Most importantly, the Rangers won 4-3, thanks to three power play goals and some exceptional play in goal from Lundqvist during the third period. I did have a really good hot dog off a flat grill with mustard and sautéed peppers and onions. Getting downstairs to get the hot dog was brutal, there is only one escalators that go from the 300 level to the 100 level and one on the opposite side that goes the other way. That’s probably my biggest complaint. And I stayed after for the Lightning postgame radio show, where the hosts interviewed Anders Lindback, the Tampa goalie. It was pretty cool to have that approachability between fans and the organization. I got back to the room and watched the end of the Philly-Dallas game to determine the NFC East champion. Surprise, Cowboys lose. Third straight year their season ends in Week 17 with a chance to win the division. Sorry Dad.

On Monday, I woke up at 7 to grab one more workout at LA Fitness. Those tricep press downs and incline presses felt great. Then after a peanut butter and banana protein shake, I packed, checked out of the hotel, and dropped the car off at Sixt. With ¼ tank of gas, just like when I picked it up on Christmas afternoon. With some time to kill before my 12:20 flight, I took the shuttle to Terminal F instead of E. I had to pass security, but I wanted one more taste of Columbia for some Cuban food before I left. So I sat down at the Columbia Café bar and ordered a half and half: 1905 salad and Cuban sandwich. I got to see the chef mix the salad and assemble the sandwich right in front of me, which was really cool. He explained to me the basics of the Cuban roast pork and how the combination of orange, lemon, and lime bring different flavors to the pork, but make it taste great. It was really cool.

So when that was done, I took the shuttle back to the main concourse, took the shuttle to the E terminal, went through a much longer security line, and got to my gate. I made it easily and flew home. After picking up my bag, I had to sprint to make the Blue Sky van to get back to my car. I had to run so fast, I didn’t even have a chance to put my jacket on. So I’m running outside in just a polo shirt and it’s 15 degrees out! Not what I had in mind! I got the van though, packed my car, paid the $48 bill and headed home.