Tampa, FL
Yesterday was one of those days when I felt like a black cat had crossed my path. It started off well enough with a 7 hour drive from Marathon to Tampa. I was coming to Tampa to meet a boyhood friend of mine, Kevin. He was coming here for business and we were to meet for golf and some catching up. The drive out of Marathon was gorgeous. The bridges of the Keys cannot be topped. The 7 Mile Bridge, which, you guessed it, is a bridge that is 7 miles long. I think they filmed the end scene from True Lies (with Ahnold) here. You drive with the blue ocean water on both of sides of you. I left at 8:15 AM and had Van the Man cruising for most of the morning. I then hit Miami (I hate that turnpike). I had to pay $4 to go 30 miles, but you don’t have much choice.
Then I headed west on Alligator Alley and made my back through Naples, Estero, Sarasota and finally into Tampa. I met Kevin for a late round of golf. I was feeling good about my game after my 81 last time. Kevin and I are very competitive. When we were younger I played more than he and would typically beat him. He is one of those guys who can pick up a sport and be good at right away. His experience is now catching up and he has caught up to me. We teed off and things went as planned. Fairway, green, two putt and par. Things fell apart after that. The golf gods must have been royally pissed at me. Over the next 4 holes I had 6 balls in the water. That’s not a typo. My usual mellow self was not too pleased. If you know me, you know how the Gemini in me comes out on the golf course. I struggled big time. My driver that I loved the last few times was killing me. I started with a par and ended 9 with a par. In between was ugly and led to a 51. Ouch.
Kevin played well. I’d never seen him hit it that well and long. He had some 290 yard drives, straight down the middle. He shot a 41. I struggled all day and had a few more penalty strokes. I had a ball go into the trap and fried egg right next to the lip. A bad luck penalty there. I was ready to go and we finished. I ended with a par on 18. Good I guess.
From there we rushed back to the hotel. This is my first hotel in the entire journey. I don’t count it though because it’s split. I will say a hotel is great. Kevin is working and I’m sitting here in A/C doing laundry. I just got done working out and will hit the pool.
After golf we headed down to Ybor City, the old cigar district of Tampa. I had never been here so I was excited to check it out. I smoke a cigar every now and then and we were both starving. We left the hotel at about 9:30. We are staying up in North Tampa, so it took a while. Being the tourists we are, we were armed with our maps. We made our way and began to veer onto 275 south. As we pulled onto the ramp I was surprised to see a row of 4 sets of lights coming at us! 4 cars were headed our way down the ramp. “Whoa dude. Did we take the wrong way?” we were confused. I began to turn around and realized we were right. There was a major traffic jam up the ramp on the highway. I had already turned around when Kevin explained what was going on. As I turned around a few more cars came down the wrong way. I pulled down the ramp and headed to find a new route. I replayed the role as a car and I came face to face. I veered to the right and began to turn. I was at the light when I saw a different set of lights. They were blue lights. Yes, cops. The fuzz. 5.0. Whatever you want to call them, they were right in front of me blocking me off. We didn’t know what was going on. There were 6 cop cars staring at us. There was a line of 3 more cars behind me. We were the unlucky ones not to make the turn. I played follow the leader and got burned.
“Hello sir. License and registration please. What are you doing going this way?”
“Maam, I am not from here. I got on the ramp and saw 4 cars coming at me. I thought I was going the wrong way. I turned around…”
Whatever. I got a ticket for illegal backing up or something. $90 for that junk. At first when I got on there I thought I was wrong. Then I turned around and realized I was right. Then I was already heading down and traffic was on me so I stayed the course. Then I met Tampa’s finest.
Lesson to be learned: Don’t follow the leader. I thought I was right. Then I saw others doing something else. I followed. I was wrong. Not everyone gets caught, but you might.
So there is a new experience in my journey. One I didn’t want to have. I took it in stride as Kevin and I took a couple of pics with the officer.
We finally made it to Ybor. We realized we are not young bucks anymore. Most of the people down there were college age. It was Wednesday night and all. We ate some pretty good pizza. Watched the TWolves win game 7. And went to a cool bar where I got a pic with the prettiest gal in the bar. I think she thought it was some cheesy line and I guess to some degree it was, but she called to me and I had to talk. Gorgeous.
We made it home without a ticket.