Cape Coral to Tampa….

So after staying the night at my friend Gary and Debbie's house i awoke around 9am and had a couple of toasted English muffins for breakfast. By the time id showered, had breakfast and had i chat to Gary it was 10:30 and time for me to head out to Tampa. Just before leaving Gary gave me a zip lock bag with some of last nights cookies, a banana and a bottle of water, my own packed lunch for the drive:) cheers for theta Gary.

I said goodbye and started the two and a half hour drive to Tampa. Maria, Jack, Hassan and Amir had gone to Harry’s gig in Miami last night and i got their texts in the morning when i turned my phone on to say they had a fantastic time with all the band at the gig and there were no more than 100 people there. Dave, Graham, Marky and some others from the band got onstage to jam however Roger stayed on the floor enjoying himself. Maria called around 12 and sad they were about 3 hours away from Tampa and would see us at the hotel

   

   

The drive to Tampa was pretty uneventful, well for me, not for the guy in the truck that had gone into the grass between the 4 highway lanes and crashed! took about 15 minutes to get through the build-up of traffic that this had caused but that was the only problem along the way.

On my way to Tampa                                    WTF ??                          An Angel on  Harley!!

   

My throat seems to have been fine last night and this morning after having had a hot lemon drink before going to bed  however the colour of the stuff i was coughing up seemed to be the contrary, its bright green! I've got some penicillin anti-biotics with me so I'm gonna start taking them today and see how things go but I'm struggling a bit to be honest (I'm writing this entry on Thursday morning the day of the Atlanta show and my throats getting worse, nothing i can do thought but battle through it, I'm pretty sure I've picked up an infection and hopefully the pencilling will sort it out over the next couple of days)

I had a moment of worry when i turned to my right and saw a little green car that appeared to have no driver, for five seconds i thought WTF and then looked further forward and saw it was being towed.

Driverless car, driven by the GPS?       No, just being towed                          Arriving in Tampa

   

I got to the hotel around 1pm, Greg and Mike were already there as they had driven up the day before and stayed last night. I checked in, saw Greg in the bar, and headed straight down to the pool.The weather was fantastic, hot, sunny skies and about 85”

i laid on the sun lounger for a couple of hours, occasionally jumping in the pool just to cool down and then getting straight back on the lounger. Greg and Mike hung out by the pool and around 3pm Jack and Maria arrived. They didn't have tickets for tonight's show so i brought the laptop down to the pool area and within 20 minutes they had a great couple of seats  off the floor dead centre courtesy of Ticketmaster.

Marias Tattoo                                  I am so gonna rent one of these before i leave, maybe in CA:)

We hung out at the pool for another hour before heading up to the bedroom to get ready for the show yet again. Maria and Jack were sharing the room with myself tonight as it was pointless them getting a room when i had a spare bed.

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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West Palm Beach to Cape Coral….

A touch backwards again as this is yesterday stuff as i haven't finished the entry from 2 days ago but i’ll catch up

So i was driving over to stay with my friends Gary and his wife Debbie today, Ralph was leaving for work at 6:30am and Cristina was leaving for school at the same time. I’d asked Lori to knock on the bedroom door before the left so i could say goodbye to them both. I was awake at 6 though so went out to say goodbye to them both and then headed back to bed for a couple more hours sleep before getting up at 9am and taking a shower.

It was about a two hour drive over to “the Cape” from where i was and the usual route was the main highway that goes across from East to West called Alligator Alley. Id driven this several times when id been to Florida and looked on the map for an alternate route just to see something different for a change. I chose Highway 80 which does the same thing and goes from East to West but isn't as busy and isn't as boring of a drive!

I stopped off at Lake Okeechobee on the way over and climbed up the grassy banking to see the view from the top, took the panorama picture below which came out well and sat there for 10 minutes just watching the wildlife and the birds

   

I could have sat there for hours watching the boats and the wildlife but i had  a couple of hours driving left and wanted to get over to Gary's place to see him and Debbie.

The drive over wasn't anything special and unlike Alligator Alley which is one straight road with virtually nothing on it or nothing to see i went through a few towns on the way over and had to drive through a couple of residential type areas which broke up the drive and me just sat there with the car set to 55 MPH on the cruise control.

As i was driving along one point of the road i passed a vehicle parked in the middle of both the highway lanes, it wasn't till i had actually passed it that i realised what it was. It was a cop car! however there were no lights on it, no signs, no marking or anything just a plain  dark blues car parked in the middle. The second i went past it i looked at my tom-tom to check my speed, i knew i was fine as the cruise control was set and i was just driving along. However as i looked at the speed and saw i was doing 70 MPH i also saw the car pull out behind me and hit his red and blue lights! UGGHHH

I pulled into the side as i knew it was me he was stopping, there was nothing else on the road ahead or behind me!

I got my license and my rental car agreement ready and as he walked up to the car i put my window down.

“ The reason i stopped you was you were doing 70 mph in a 55 mph zone can i see you License and registration please” he said I handed him my UK license and after looking at it for five seconds he said “ do you live here in Florida”   No I'm on vacation and heading over to a friends house in Cape Coral i said, he then handed me my license straight back and said have a safe trip and slow down a little.

Whew! That was about the 4th time id been stopped in the twenty years iv been coming to the USA and also the 4th time id got away with it!

So i set back off, set the cruise at 55 and arrived at Gary's place around 1pm.

Driving over to Cape Coral

  

I first met Gary in 2000 in Las Vegas at Rogers show, we all used to post on the Roger Waters message board at the time called ATD (Amused To Death) I met his wife Debbie there as well but there were 35 of us all met up and to be real honest i only have a vague memory of meeting him and Debbie. The ATD message board closed a couple of years later in 2002 and Gary and I lost touch. About 6 months ago Gary posted a message on the AFG forum and mentioned the last meet up he was at was at Ricardo's in Las Vegas in 2000!! i knew it had to be the same Gary and sent him a Private message through the forum. It was indeed the same Gary and we kept in touch since. Gary had offered me a place to stay before i had made any plans for the Florida leg of the tour and id taken him up on the offer of staying at his place one night on the way up to Tampa. We had met briefly for a chat a couple of nights ago at the Ft Lauderdale show and confirmed everything that i was still staying over at his place.

The view from the back of Gary and Debbie's house!

 

I was speechless when i walked through the house and saw this view, it was absolutely stunning. Debbie was out at work and Gary was preparing the dinner for tonight so i made myself at home and layed down next to the pool with my legs dangling in the water. It was a night off tonight, no show so it was again nice to chill out with nice people and in a nice surrounding.

The Pool                                                   My new friend Sadie, one of Gary's beagles

 

Gary then offered to take me out for a drive around the area and over to Sanibel island, a beautiful little island that also has another island called Captiva linked to it. Took us about 30 minutes to drive over there and i am so appreciative that you took me out there Gary, really was great to see it. We walked on the beach and the pier for a while and around the old historic lighthouse. The beach is apparently one of the best there is for collecting shells and the whole area around where the waves lap up onto the sand was just full of shells of all shapes and sizes.

Gary little toy!                                 Hair blowing in the wind                    Sanibel island

   

   

After wandering around for half an hour or so Gary drove me up the main street of Sanibel, the authorities have kept it free from fast food places with the exception of a Dairy Queen that's apparently been there a long time. There looked to be not only some beautiful restaurants abut some amazing homes out on the island as well.

Sanibel main street!                            Looking back to the island                  No i wasn't driving!

   

After driving back via a liquor store to pick up a bottle of wine for me we headed back inside and i could smell the dinner cooking as soon as we got in the house! Was nice to sit down and eat some home cooked food! Beef, Mashed potatoes and some real nice corn. It always amazes me the hospitality of some people, here i was sat in someone's house whom id met 10 years ago briefly and couldn't hardly remember meeting them and they had offered me their home like it was my own. I cant thank both Gary and Debbie enough for everything they did yesterday it was an absolute pleasure to sit and chat to you both and your company was fantastic. Debbie finished the night off by making some fresh home made chocolate chip cookies with a glass off milk! If i hadn't had another show to go to I'd still be there now!!

I got an earlyish night and was asleep for 10pm after having a glass of hot lemon to try sooth my throat that's still giving me a bit of a problem after a couple of nights ago, i think its a combination being around people smoking, the smoke from the pyros at the show and the stuff people are smoking in the audience!!