Sunday
We woke up late Sunday. I didn’t sleep very well on the pullout. I kept waking up and was cold. Troy wanted a “real” breakfast instead of the continental breakfast they served at the hotel. We found a nearby Perkins and refueled our tired and somewhat hung over bodies. We went back to the hotel. Trying to somehow stick to my normal fitness routine, I told Troy I was going to go down to the hotel workout room. I got on the treadmill for 5 minutes, did a few sets of different exercises with dumbbells that would normally feel light. They felt heavy as shit and I bagged the workout after maybe 15-20 minutes. I just had no energy.
We got ready to go hit the sports bar. It was called Lord Rum Bottoms. From the outside it looked like a complete dive. 2 cars in the parking lot. Troy didn’t even want to go in. I convinced him to at least have a look. We were pleasantly surprised when we stepped in. It was great little bar with tv’s, pool tables, darts, pinball and all the little amenities you would expect. For awhile we were the only ones there. The lady bartender was extremely friendly. We played a bunch of pool, ate some lunch and hung out. The girl that recommended the bar showed up later. We had a great time talking with her and everyone else at the bar. I didn’t feel like drinking much, still suffering from the prior night. However Troy was hitting it pretty hard so I decided I would just coast along so I could be the designated driver. We met a bunch of interesting people, probably the most interesting was a local guy with the nickname of “Roadkill Eddie” I’m not quite sure about the origin of that name but I think it has something to do with stories of him grilling up roadkill to eat. The guy was a regular and was hammered as hell when he decided to start talking to me. Troy told him about his bcffl web site and how he would post a picture of Eddie on it. Eddie told me how he was already on a web site with a picture of him holding a 4 and a half foot shark. He told me this no less than a dozen times. He was really drunk.
We watched both the 1 and 4 oclock games and the start of the Sunday night game there. We were getting hungry so we asked our female tour guide where a good place was to eat dinner. She told us about a place called Victoria’s. We offered to take her to dinner to thank her for her kindness. Surprisingly she accepted. It was a cool place that served you HUGE, GIGANTIC portions. My eggplant parm was literally big enough to feed four people. I barely made a dent in it and had to call it quits. Afterward I was really tired and was ready for bed. However Troy and our friend were ready to hit yet another bar. Since I was the designated driver I had little choice.
She took us to yet another cute little bar in town that was a college kid hangout. It was loud but everyone seemed to be having a good time. As you can tell from this picture, Troy had fun too. The bartender was ultra-cool, towards closing he was giving people free shots left and right. Alas, all I had was one light beer. Being responsible is a drag sometimes but I vowed I wasn’t going to let anything disasterous happen on this trip so I kept clean. We closed out the bar at 2:15 am. I had to shower to get the smoke stench out again. I wasn’t in bed until after 3 am. Day 2 was another long one but very enjoyable one. I was really taken back by how friendly everyone we dealt with was. It was so refreshing. Florida isn’t known for friendliness. I was better prepared for the sofa bed this time. I was unable to find any Bayer PM so I settled on some generic night time cold medicine. It did the trick and knocked me out until 10:15 am the next morning when I was awakened by a……
designated driver
Ah yes, the tales of the designated driver… as you can see I hold the DD badge too. It makes me feel good knowing I’m helping out my friends and making the streets safer for everone.
Speaking of, I’m a member of Yaerd, it’s a anti
drinking and driving organization that promotes the use of these breathalyzer
keychains.
Wanna hear sometihng erie? I’m a PA native (Pittsburgh) moving to Florida (Orlando)… Freaky…