Dear self,
Remember the grit, grime, gunk and long waits at bus stations when you have the brilliant idea to take Greyhound instead of flying again to save a little dinero. That was ridiculous. There is no reason to ever subject yourself to anything like that again. Flying is really the way to go, it's faster, more convenient, and usually you can get decent prices if you are looking around. Don't take Greyhound ever again. Sincerely, me.
I went to Tampa this weekend. I got to work a little before 6AM Thursday morning, finished up and got a ride over to the Petersburg bus station. The bus was late. Great start. Luckily I had a 4 hour layover in Richmond to wait for my next bus so it didn't matter the bus was an hour late. When I got to Richmond I was quickly reminded of how much I dislike taking Greyhound. The chairs are uncomfortable, dirty and there is no where to sleep while you're waiting for your bus to arrive. I got on the next bus, fell asleep quickly since it was already 7:50PM when I got on and was rudely awoken by the bus driver tapping my head as a slept telling me I had to get off the bus until they called us again to reboard.
Waiting at bus stops near plugs is not the most fun thing in the world. They do have "charging stations" at some bus stations at least. Most of them (like Richmond) have very few plugs and some of them are oddly placed 5 feet above your head. They're also so loose you have to hold your plug in at an angle in order to get it to work. It's so frustrating. When I got to Jacksonville a guy came up to me and was SO excited I had an ipod... which everyone and their mom has an ipod these days right? He wanted to charge his, I'm nice so I let him. He went to smoke and came back in... he asked me where I got my plug and I told him I bought it from the apple store. He asked how much I got it for, I told him $30 bucks. He went back outside to finish his cigarette, came back in and offered to buy my plug for $20 bucks... I was like, "dude, I just told you I bought it for $30, why in the world would I sell it for $20?". He offered me $30. I told him I wasn't interested unless he was going to give me $300 because I used it for my ipod and phone, so why would I sell it, then I wouldn't have a charger, duh.
Weird people.
I finally got to Tampa where my CS host picked me up and we drove over to St. Petersburg where the Rays play. The stadium was interesting looking, all indoor stadiums are kind of ghetto. We bought the cheapest tickets, took a few pictures outside as per my custom and headed inside where I took some more pictures. We missed free t-shirts (to the first 10,000 fans), I blame
Greyhound for that since I was over an hour late. I got over it really quickly when I saw them. They were baby blue and quite ugly at that, I would have just donated it to Good Will anyway. We found some seats in the front of the bleachers where we sat until we were kicked out. We thought perhaps the man at the end (we dubbed him 'peanut man') would be nice and let us sit next to him, instead my CS host got sprayed by peanut flecks and spit from peanut man's mouth when he was yelling that the seats next to him were taken. Interesting. We moved down closer to the players and I was having difficulty seeing because tall people kept sitting in front of me... and the lady behind us was all into the cow bell thing (which is really loud and annoying). A family sat in front of us and I occupied the youngest girl by making funny faces (fish, platty, etc). Soon more people moved into our row and we were forced to move again.
We moved down closer (you'd think we'd have to move further but that was not the case). We sat in an almost empty row on the first base side. A guy in a hat was sitting 8 or 9 chairs down from me. It was the worst hat I've ever seen, I almost lost it right then as I was turning to say something, my CS host made a comment sending me into fits of laughter. It became the butt of our jokes for the rest of the night. I got a picture of it too. Wow. It's interesting right? The Rays and Yankees both had home runs in the game, continuing my streak of home team home runs (home runs in general really). The game was uneventful, the Rays beat the Yankees 9-3, no come backs by the Yankees at all. They had indoor fireworks... really the lamest show I've ever seen in my life, but they let us walk across the fake astro turf and exit out the back which was kind of neat.
We left the game and went back to the small parking lot we paid to park in ($10 vs. $20 for the team parking lots that were the same distance away-within walking distance). I wondered if the lot even belonged to the boys and father who were taking money
and showing us where to park behind the fence. I really doubted it. We got into the car, I ate a snack (I refused to buy food from the Rays and support them more, especially since tickets cost $23 each for the cheapest ones!) and we headed back to Tampa on a mission to find a restaurant to eat. I spotted IHOP and we pulled in. It was super cold inside so I went out and got my fleece pants and sweatshirt. It was a good choice. I got a Spinach & Mushroom omelet with 3 pancakes (cheesecake pancakes with blueberries on top). Unfortunately I couldn't really taste any cheesecakey bits so I was a little disappointed but they were still good nonetheless. The Hollandaise sauce on my omelet or whatever it was, was disgusting so I scraped it off and proceeded to consume my entire order. There were some interesting people in IHOP at 1AM including a girl who looked like she wasn't wearing any pants when she walked past. I didn't get to see the rest of the ensemble, but that's probably for the best.
We headed back to sleep, he slept on the couch and I slept on the bed because he felt bad that I had spent so long on a Greyhound bus. When I woke up it was nearly 1PM and unfortunately the last run for kayaks was at 2PM so we missed that. There was also a new zipline Safari in Florida that was full for the night (moonlight Safari). Rock climbing was expensive and the other options just didn't seem worth it so we went down to the pirate ship and bay walk where I got a jumping picture in front of the boat and we walked for an hour down the bay walk and back. It was nice and fun to just chat and hang out (for free). On the way back we stopped at Bo's for ice cream, I got a vanilla ice cream cone dipped in chocolate. It was great. We hung out for a bit at his place before we hit Carraba's where I got lobster raviloli which were delicious. The bread was good, my salad was better with cheese on it and I was disappointed to find they no longer at canolis. There were some kids going to prom there also.
We hit the grocery store to get some ice cream (moose tracks with health magic shell) and headed back. I was excited to watch Die Hard... but it turned out that Live Free or Die Hard was on Sunday night, not Saturday! So disappointing. We ended up watching Fever Pitch and The Bank Job instead. Fever Pitch was okay, I didn't really like the acting but the story was decent. After all, I do like baseball. Could you tell?
I went to sleep again on the bed after taking a shower and woke up at 7:30AM, ate some breakfast and we were off to the Greyhound station... I was not excited. I said farewell and waited for my bus. It was late. I got on and we ended up getting late to our stop in Jacksonville (big surprise) and I ended up missing my exchange. Luckily there was another guy who missed his transfer also... because we ended up outside McDonald's in Waterboro, Georgia and sat there for over 20 minutes wondering if we had just got left in the middle of nowhere. We got on the correct bus and I sat next to an ex-Marine (the CSer I stayed with was also an ex-Marine). We chatted for a bit before I passed out and was sleeping soundly. We arrived in Columbia, South Carolina at 1:15AM, only 5 minutes behind schedule. My bus was scheduled to leave at 2AM, his at 2:50AM. I was glad mine was going to leave earlier. Unfortunately... they ended up leaving first and my bus didn't leave for an hour and forty minutes after the scheduled departure. We got to Charlotte, North Carolina late and to Petersburg, Virginia an hour and forty minutes late. Luckily I had chosen the earliest arrival so I was still on time to work. I got everything done and was able to make it to my appointment for my oil change and dentist on time. It really pays to work ahead and sort everything out to be sure that I won't be swamped on Mondays.
Overall, Tampa was definitely more fun because my host was hilarious. We joked around like old friends and had a blast. The food was good and I was a fan of the ice cream as well. I love couch surfing. I have made so many good friends while traveling around sleeping on people's couches. Good times, but I'm still never taking the Greyhound bus again. It's definitely not worth it!
- run for life
While in Knoxville, we watched movies, ate food, and hung out. It was fun. We drove up to Louisville, Kentucky where I need to do 2 more things on my list: go to the Louisville Slugger Museum and run the Kentucky Derby Marathon. It was AWESOME. The museum was one of the greatest places I've been, and I've been a lot of places. Perhaps it's because of my huge affinity toward baseball, but it was good times. I ran the marathon and had local ice cream in both Tennessee and Kentucky while I was in each state. 
For the first time I had a spectator with me, which was nice so I have some pictures of myself while running (Sam was there when Kristen and I ran the Greenville marathon/half, which was super great so I have pictures from that run too, but this was also more special because my spectator was there specifically for me). I just wish I was actually in shape... haha! Well, I haven't slept much due to driving around so much, but I figured I'd throw out a quick update on my ever jam packed life of traveling and experiences.(I am tired because I left Knoxville around 11:30PM/midnight Sunday and slept an hour on the way to work and last night of course only slept 6 or 7 hours as usual. I need to get back on my regular sleep schedule!). Well, gotta sleep, more work and letter stuffing (for the Tucson mission trip) ahead before the New Jersey marathon this weekend. I'm excited.
