Ft Lauderdale to Orlando…

I’m a day late on this and am sat in the United lounge at Orlando airport writing this, waiting for my flight up to Washington DC.

I had an e mail from a guy i met in Vegas in 2010, Mike. He offered me a ride from Ft Lauderdale to Orlando as he would be doing the shows and was renting a car. Id already rented a car and picked it up a couple of days ago so after a few e mails he agreed to hitch a ride in my rental with me.

Mike’s friends dropped him off at my hotel around 11:30AM and we hit the road to Orlando. It was a 3 1/2 hour drive to Orlando and after taking the wrong turn and heading South for 7 miles then getting back on the same road and heading the correct way, North we were finally on our.

As much as i like my own space while travelling it does get a bit lonely and it was great to have some company in the car for the journey. We chatted about all things Floyd and Roger related and it wasn't till we were 30 miles out of Orlando that i realised we hadn't even turned the radio on! The 3 hours went pretty quick due to chatting.

Mikes friends were driving over from Sarasota for the show and he would get a ride back with them. My hotel for the night was about 1.5 miles from the venue which we passed on the highway as i went to check in. We then took a cab to the venue but it was still early (3:30) so we found a nice bar recommended by the cab driver and sat and ate dinner and had a couple of drinks. We ended up sitting there till nearly 7, i did only have one Long Island Ice Tea though. Mikes friends Ray and Fern arrived around 5PM then Brett and his buddies arrived around 6pm. Ralph and his brother Mark arrived just after 6 and the group was complete!

Mojo’s were we met up pre show

   

Ray and Fern                                       Mike and myself.                                  Mike and Brett.

   

I headed into the venue around 7pm, i had a friend Dee from Ohio coming to the show tonight, her daughter lives in Orlando and Dee has just retired and was down here looking for a house to buy. We’d chatted online and known each other since 1999 and hadn't met up since the Dark Side shows in Indy. She messaged me to say they were on the highways and then again to say she was in her seats, pretty much as high up in the venue and as far back as you can get! the same place i took the panorama picture  below from, a great place to see the whole show! it was great to see her again and meet her daughter Jeannie who hadn't seen the show before.

I then headed down to the floor and made my way to see Ralph who was sat with his brother Mark front row right in front of Dave and Snowy, it was Marks first time seeing Roger and couldn't have had a better seat for his first wall show! I took my seat next to them and waited for the start of the show.