Road Trippin

So after working for 2 weeks for the city I decided to take some time off. Actually my friend Jason was moving down to Florida for a summer internship and I promised I would head down with him to keep him company. Braun decided to accompany us as well.

The road trip started with a quick jaunt over to Chicago. A friend, Kane, now goes to school there and was nice enough to give us a place to stay and show us around for the night. We got there around 830 and after an hour or two of just chilling and watching tv, we made our way down to Wrigleyville. A pretty quick cab ride brought us right past the famous ballpark and to a bar a block or so away. We arrived to see the last 10 minutes or so of the ‘Hawks game. Tied at 5 when we go there. Bartenders and patrons were all dressed in jerseys or shirts and within a minute of walking in the Blackhawks had scored and the fans were going crazy. Free drinks were handed out and another goal in the next couple of minutes got the fans going again. The Blackhawks sealed the deal and more free drinks were on their way. A pretty good time at the bar led to our decision to take some pictures in front of wrigley field and we eventually took the L Train home at 2 in the morning. 10 hours in a car through Chicago, Indianapolis (Indiana is quite possibly the most boring state to drive through) Louisville and Nashville and eventually a tiny town just inside of Alabama. A few of Jason’s distant relatives let us stay at their place for the night. It was a long night after a long day. Shooting pool and listening to crazy stories that were hard to believe. This eventually led to Tim (Jason’s 3rd cousin) trying to trade some Alabama gear for the MSU shirt off of Braun’s back. This wasn’t very successful. After Tim tried on his entire wardrobe in front of us no deal was made. So Jason and I shared a twin size bed with loaded guns underneath it and knives in the bedstand.
The next day our goal was to make it the 11 hours to Port Charlotte but around 9 PM we arrived in Gainesville. A quick decision to check out their campus and grab a drink turned into staying the night in a hotel. We checked out the football stadium and got some pictures by the gator. Some beer on a patio and no Tim Tebow sighting and we called it a night.
So Thursday we finally made it to our destination. We quick dropped our stuff off and headed for the beach. We chilled there for a couple of hours and actually took it easy that night. The exhaustion had set in.

Day 2 in Port Charlotte and we hit the beach around noon. It was partly cloudy so we hit the water. After just floating around I picked up a shell that we threw around for entertainment. Pretty boring stuff. Braun decided to swim some laps and went out a bit further. As he came in he brought a friend with him. Following behind him about 20 feet was a large black object looming below the surface. Obviously we were freaked out. And began backpedaling towards the shore keeping our eyes on the killer shark/dolphin/submarine. As we got back to about waist deep water a few others noticed the object as well and were more curious than we were. One man strapped on his goggles and decided to check it out further. He hovered looking at it briefly then surfaced. He had a smile on his face and motioned for his wife to come over. It was no shark. Just a lost manatee. Obviously that was pretty cool. It was just swimming slowly around and we all reached out to touch it. It kinda felt like an elephant I guess but parts of it were covered in algae or something. As more people gathered around to check out our new friend, other beachgoers weren’t as happy to be seeing this manatee interact with humans. Two women began yelling at everyone. “You are going to kill it.” “You will be arrested” “It will get lost and die here” “I will give you 2 minutes to get away from it.“ Naturally I thought these ladies were a little crazy and were taking this a bit to seriously. And this was a once in a lifetime chance to see a live manatee in the wild so I didn’t really care that I was going to be arrested.
But the manatee was losing interest with us as well and it wandered farther down the beach where more people surrounded it and those ladies continued to yell at people. A cool moment somewhat ruined by these ultra conservationists. But anyway it was way past lunch time so we went to grab lunch at a beachside grill.

The volleyball nets had been taunting us with either no one playing on them or people who were clearly not worthy. As we came back from lunch we saw a ball flying through the air and we checked them out to see if they were any good. As we walked by randomly this guy asked if we wanted to play. We jumped at the opportunity and played a few games to get our kick. A nice little rain shower cooled us off a bit but by the end of the day I was still fried. Our volleyball friends invited us to come out to a bar with a live band later that night. Pitchers of Beer and Pool. They were pretty fun dudes.

So 2 hours of sleep later and we were off to the airport. A long trip and a short stay but it was worth it. Now I am back to work and preparing for Tanzania. Staging is set and I still have no idea who is in my group. Oh well I guess that will make staging that much more fun.