Tampa to Savannah….

So Jack and Maria shared my room last night, there were two beds in it and it seemed silly for them to pay for their own room so they shared with me.

They were flying out at 7am this morning so had to be up and off by 5am, i heard them get up around 4am and they left the room at 4:30. I went straight back to sleep and woke around 8am. Greg and i were driving to Savannah today and id arranged with Greg to meet him in the lobby of the hotel at 9am so we could get an early start to the six hour drive!

I showered, packed and got my camera and cell phone off the table on the room but noticed something was missing!! I always put my cell phone camera, money and everything else in my pockets on the table together however my rental car keys were not there!! i know they were the last night as i checked! It then clicked, Jack must have picked up my car keys from he table thinking they were his before they left this morning for their flight!

I KNEW they were there and no one else had been in the room.  I called Maria’s cell phone and left  a message on her voicemail then I went down to the lobby and explained the situation to Greg. I went back up to the room and phoned Budget car rental. After 25 minutes i finished on the phone. Can you believe that Budget do not keep any spare keys for cars!! I had two options, call a locksmith out myself and pay for whatever it cost, however they would have to fax Budget and obtain the VIN number for the car and then fax the manufacturer and get the key details, this all sounded too much and there would be too many people involved and things would go wrong, i just knew it. Option two was Budget would arrange for a new rental car to be brought out to me on a trailer, they would open the old car up so i could get my GPS unit out and then take the old car back and i could be on my way! This was obviously the easiest and most straight forward, however it was the most expensive! $400!!!!

Would you believe that only one hour after calling Budget the new car arrived on the trailer!!

   

The guy brought a couple of tools and made opening the locked passenger door as easy as opening a bottle of coke!!

   

rental car breakin!

Once the car was open i got my GPS unit and my hoodie out of the trunk, the guy lowered the new car down and i loaded our luggage into the trunk of the new car. I went round to see Greg who was talking to Lori and Ralph outside the lobby and by the time i got back the guy had already got the old car out of the parking space and was starting to load it on the trailer!!

Sad me with the old car!                              Happy me with the new car!

 

I made the joke that i wasn't happy with the colour of the car and asked Greg, Ralph and Lori if they thought they would bring me another one out if i complained,lol they probably would for another $400!!

I said thanks to the guy and he headed off with the old car on the trailer and we headed off to drop Lorri and Ralph at the airport for their flight back to West Palm Beach.

Dropping Lori and Ralph at the airport, will see them again in a few days in Denver and Vegas:)

 

It was nearly 11am now and i hit the hotel in Savannah on the tom-tom and it said 5 hours 30 minutes! and we would be there at 4:11pm, i was hoping to get there for three in the afternoon if all had gone well so  being there just after four wasn't bad at all considering!

Few random pics from the drive to Savannah

Florida oranges                      Shark in a jar!                More sharks in jars            Crocodile heads!

     

15ft Crocodile!                    Georgia!                             Lost his boat keys ???       BBQ anyone ?

   

We stopped at a gas station for a smoke break for Greg, as you can see above they sold countless weird things including Shark embryos in glass bottled and crocodile heads!! We saw a few boats and car on trailers and worked out if they had all paid $400 each for losing their keys someone was making a serious amount of money! we even saw one motor home towing a car, we joked that was in case they lost their keys to the motor home! We also wondered if you loose the car do Budget bring you a spare set of keys out ?

Maria called my cell late afternoon, she had just got home and turned her cell phone on, she was sooooo sorry and told us how they couldn't understand when they returned their rental car this morning how they had two sets of keys for it! so they left the keys with the Enterprise guy who was even more confused than them!!

We arrived in Savannah around 4:30 and went straight to the hotel to check in. My throats been real sore the last few days so we walked down to the local CVS and i got a couple of things to try get rid of it!

    

   

Greg doing his Comfy Numb thing on a local wall!

Greg and a local wall!

Had a quick look round the town and then headed back to the hotel via looking at a few restaurants to see where we could eat tonight. Its now 7:30pm and I'm laying on the bed typing this up before we head out to eat. After what happened this morning this was a very expensive blog entry!!

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