University of Florida and on to Parrish

Thursday, May 7

Day 30

Another pleasant morning and then hit the road south again toward Florida. Still searching for Starbucks.  Ah, finally the green sign! We spent a little time checking email, etc and on to Gainesville. We found a hotel coupon in one of the advertising brochures we picked up called Hotelcoupons.com and decided to stay at the Best Western for ½ price. How nice it was compared to some of the hotels we have stayed in. Haha!  We actually sat and read by the pool for a while and took a dip. We considered the hotel restaurant but instead went to the Publix and got some chicken and salads and a bottle of wine and had a nice dinner in the hotel while Jodi blogged away. I am fairly sure I will never catch up on all these stadiums!

Friday, May 8

Day 31

After breakfast, we headed off to the University of Florida to drive and walk around. We both really enjoy seeing college campuses but Jack enjoys the stadiums the most. 

                        Tim Tebow                          Steve Spurrier                           Danny Wuerffel                          

 School was still in session here so we were able to walk right into the stadium and even get down on the field. I can see why they call it the swamp, it is hot and humid already. I can't imagine those late spring practices and early fall games! Actually I can imagine as I still remember the LSU trouncing of the Huskies as the hottest day of my life in Baton Rouge, September 2012.  The Huskies were Tiger Bait.  

The Swamp

Obviously planning the next championship!

 We drove over to Alice Lake in search of live gators but it is so forested and we didn't know where to park so never saw the lake. On the road toward Parrish, Florida and our next ATC stay. Parrish is located about 25 miles from St. Petersburg. We stayed with Roseann and Dick whom we actually met on the Riverboat Allegro in December when we went on a river cruise with Grand Circle. The Affordable Travel Club had several members on board, organized by Suzanne Miller, founder of ATC. It was great to see them again and be hosted in their lovely home and beautiful community. They drove us to a restaurant on the gulf in Bradenburg. It was right on the beach, very fun and crowded. I had the grouper fish tacos and Jack had grouper and capellini. Toward the end of the meal, the waitress asked us if we wanted to play the sunset timing game. We said sure and had to guess the time of the sunset to win a bottle of champagne. Roseann said 8:10, Jack said 8:13 and the waitress looked at him and winked and said too late, so I said 8:08. She asked if we wanted to add seconds, so Jack chimed in with 23 seconds. The sunset at 8:08:25. We won the bottle of champagne! We decided none of us wanted anything more to drink so Dick and Roseann have a coupon for the future! How fun is that? We had a great evening of good food and wonderful conversation. Travel club scores again!

We love it, and all the fine folks we meet.