Random thoughts about my interests which include (in no particular order) poker, finance & investing, politics, football and whatever else I happen to see that piques my interest

Monday, July 18, 2011

51 is just another number


Yeah, it's one more than 50 and one closer to 100.  Well I'm back from parts unknown even to a geography lover like myself.  Besides going to the not so thriving metropolis of Two Egg I also managed to get to such places as Steam Mill in Georgia and Watercolor and Panacea in Florida.  I just missed going to Sopchoppy as well.  All in all a very cosmopolitan kind of trip.

We did enjoy ourselves quite a bit though the weather was not very cooperative to say the least.  It rained every day and considering we stayed in the Sunshine State almost the entire time, there was a definitely lack of sunshine.  I really didn't see the sun come out for more than a half an hour until we were about 3 hours from home on our way back. 

Still the rainy weather did not dampen our trip.  For the most part it was more enjoyable as it kept the traffic down from most of the beach communities.  The drive was really nice, sometimes close to spectacular as the road at times had us within 15 or 20 feet of the waters edge.  Stopped at some little places for breakfast and lunch, we decided no chain restaurants this week except for Whataburger (no Whataburgers around here anymore) so we hit places like The Breakfast Nook, The 3 Squares Diner, Bobbies Waffle Iron, etc.  Contributed to the local economies and found some good food to boot. 

On the way out Friday we made it to Seaside where they filmed "The Truman Show".  I would consider that one of my disappointments of the trip.  I knew it wouldn't be like in the movie but I didn't expect it to be as touristy and commercialized.  There were stores and shops everywhere but what really threw me were all the food carts they had there.  I read how Seaside was a master planned community and figured if I lived in such a community, the last thing I would want is for tons of businesses to be opened up around my home.  Looked to me like the people running thing there decided to cash in on the fame the movie brought them and grab what they could.  Surprised me as I expected different.  Oh well what do I know? 

Down the road from Seaside was the Grayton Beach State Park.  What a nice beach.  Sugar sand with emerald green water.  With the weather as it was, the wave action was pretty good.  The beach wasn't crowded due to the weather and we got some nice pics there.  I'll post one that I liked later on.  As it was getting toward 6pm (actually 5 as we were in the Central Time Zone now) we decided to head to our hotel and check in.  It was about an hour from there to the hotel and the weather was turning rainy again so it seemed like a good time to get. 

Guess I better end here and finish up tomorrow.  Gotta get some sleep now.  Good night all.