Rick Rambles – A blog

The walk…
Well I have everything packed and I have run all then scenarios run and I think that I am ready.   We get up early…  the only time I have to get up early in the last two years is when I am on vacations.  That just seems odd.  But I would rather only get up early on vacation then all of the time…  silver lining …
So we get up and I have a nice scone, a banana and some diet dew.  Breakfast of champions.  We get everything loaded and we are off.  We  go to the gas station to fill up the car and that is where Marlo and I parted company.  I forgot to take the parting shot… picture that is…  I walk off back in the direction that we just drove.  It is 8:19.  I begin my journey.  I had programmed in Port Charlotte into ANB (the garmin) and put it in pedestrian mode.  It says that it is 18.2 miles and will take me 8 hours to walk…  I can do that…  well the moment I set foot on the sidewalk the sprinklers come on.  Hmmmm.  I walk for several hours.  My hips hurt a bit and my feet are getting sore… are we having fun yet?  The weather was perfect.  High 60’s light breeze.  This “breeze”  continues all day.  I later refer to it as the headwind…  I walk all the way down  Center Street and need to take on River Road.  I pass the restaurant that we had dinner at the night before…  something odd about walking a couple hours that you just went to by car in 15 minutes…  anyway I cut the corner onto River road and continue.  I determine that it is time to stick my thumb out.  I pass by the dirt road on my left and contemplate… shortcut…  I look at the map on ANB and see that I need to make a bridge…  the short cut will not do.  I continue on.  There is no shoulder so I walk on the grass.  My thumb comes to the rescue fairly quickly.  I attempted to record the exchange, but I had locked the recorder.  I got better about that later.  He was a retired man from way up North Minnesota.  He had just traveled through the ice storm in Kentucky.  He was headed to the golf course.   The good news is that it did not take too long to get a ride.  The bad news is that I only went 5 miles.  That is an hour walk though, so that works.  He dropped me at route 41 Tamiami Trail.  I have a long way  to go on this road.  It looks kinda like the Berlin turnpike.  Lots of local traffic.  No very conducive to hitching a ride.  I walk… and walk…  I see signs for a local bus.  I ask about it and am told that id comes by every hours.  Well I have been on this road for a couple of hours and have not seen a bus…  as soon as I come out of the gas station, poof, there is a bus.  I get in and ask all sorts of questions to the bus driver.  He starts with sit down, I am going the same direction that you were so we are good.  It cost $.75.  I ask for a map, but he is negotiating an intersection filled with emergency vehicles due to the accident.  He tells me to hang on a bit…  he drives me about 5 miles…  another short ride… hmmm….  I am back on the road.  I walk…. And walk…  I am now seeing signs for Port North.  This is a couple of town before Port Charlotte.  Not bad time actually.  I walk… my feet hurt and I can feel the formation of a blister on both feet.  They are forming at the top of the big foot pad.  They hurt a bit.  I walk, I thumb…  as I am lazily hanging my thumb a twenty-foot box  truck beeps and pulls into the road in front of me waving me in.  now this box truck has two guys in it and they tell me that I have to sit on the floor between the seats.  I immediately feel a little trapped, but not too bad.  We start chatting about this and that.  They call themselves brothers, but they are not.  They are just one big happy family.  I hear about one of there real brothers got a rich girlfriend in Long Island and is now better then everyone, we talked about computers, we talked about fishing and hunting…  they were Mark and Howard.  They were working..  they did pick-up and delivery of uniforms… I think.  So they are doing their route and pick up a hitch hiker…  ok…  Mark actually wanted to go into computers, but … well he drives truck.  He has a picture of a child on the dash.  I assume that it is his.  They are delivery drivers with some dreams…  well they offer to bring me all the way to Fort Myers…  well, looky , lookey, that was way further then I had  imagined getting to in the first day.  My distant hope was Punta Gorde so I have them drop me there.  It is a nice little tourist town.  I decide that this is a good time to grab a bit to eat and rest my feet.  I find this great café.  Café Ruelle.  They have live music, ok, a guy with a guitar, and free wireless internet.  Excellent!  I sit and update my facebook and break out my maps.  I  order a diet coke and a steak and cheese wrap…  pretty healthy.  I look at my map and try to figure out where I want to turn due east…  well it looks like I should go down to…  yup, Fort Myers!!!  Drat, drat and double drat.  I could have been there already.  I don’t get too upset because I have faith that the universe will provide.  I do have to admit I had some doubts over the next couple of hours.  I changed my destination a couple of time and then started back out on the Tamiami Trail (route 41).  Well I resolve myself to be walking a while because no one is going to stop right in the middle of town on a busy street…   I walk and walk and walk…  finally with the town behind me the road opens up a little bit and me and my little thumb get busy…  I walk…  well sometime later this van pulls off and I have a ride.  Now with all this time walking I attempt to rate the chances of different vehicles picking me up.  A sedan with a couple in the front seats rates about a 0.  A pickup truck with one guy driving is one of the better prospects.  That was my first ride.  Now I knew that trucks were a good bet, but I would have given the box truck a slight chance… live and learn.  Anyway this old van drives up and offers me a ride.   I record the conversation.  I have not listened to it.  I think it will be a little boring.  Well Bob was retired and he lived in Fort Myers.  Score…  I decide at that point I am staying in Fort Myers tonight.  Also in Punta Gorde as soon as I updated my facebook, a friend called me and told me that he was just down the road in Fort Myers at his fathers’ with his kids…  go figure.  I also have a friend currently at Disney and another  one somewhere in Palm Beach…  go figure…  anyway Bob drives me into the city and we start checking out hotels.  I see a holiday in that looks good to my weary body but we continue down a ways.  There are a bunch of cheap motels along the way, but I am thinking nice pool, wireless internet, and a comfy bed…  Aheb Patel’s hotel might not cut it.  Bob is on an errand to check out a new car.  I tag along…  I really have nothing better to do.  I read my book, check out hotels with ANB and my cell.  There are rooms to be had and fairly reasonably.   Also the cigarette lighter in the van has power with the van off so I am able to charge ANB.  That makes me feel better.  He spends about an hour shopping for a car.  I read.  I am comfy.  After he is through we cruise back the way we came headed for the hotel near the road I am considering walking the next day.  The room is very nice, non-smoking king overlooking the pool.  It also has a great signal to the included wireless internet.  Sweet.  It also has a reasonable flat-panel hdtv.  i change and head down to the pool to get some sun and a swim.  I look down and I have an awesome road-grim tan going on.  I took a picture.  I dive into the pool.  I am pretty sure that I left a ring… maybe I should have showered first…  I did not really want to walk through the lobby all wet…
There were a few people at the pool.  It was nice.  Just after I left the pool was infested by rug rats.  I got out just in time.  The hotel had a decent hotel right there and I was getting hungry.  There were not a lot of people there.  I ended up chatting with this guy that pulled a fifth wheel trailer to perform breathing apparatuses certification.  Mostly for fire departments, but also for the Navy.  He was interesting.  We discussed the   merits of crossing through central Florida.  He was of the opinion that there were none.  He even offered to give me a ride, but his schedule would not fit.  He told me that there was a whole lot of nothing between here and there…  I asked how far apart the service station and towns and motels were…  he said that they were up to 50 miles apart… hmmm, that did not sound appealing…  now  the odds of getting a ride across were not too bad.  Most people that were on that road were ging all the way across.  So, it I got a ride in the beginning I would be all set and I would get dropped near either Fort Lauderdale or Miami.  I still had to decide what airport to get a car at also….  I had some thinking to do.  I could probably get a and it would be one ride all the way over… OR I could simply catch a ride with Tom who would pick me up at the hotel and drop me at the airport…  I actually made the conservative choice and decided to accept the ride from Tom.  Now I had to wait for him to call and confirm that he would do it…  he had not called by 9:30, so I called him.  He said that he would pick me up at around 6:30…  ouch, vacation getting up early.
After I confirmed my arrival on the east coast, I had to figure out where I wanted to get the car and where I wanted to stay.  It was a long arduous process to get that all figured out.  First I had to back into a departure date…  I figured a couple of days in Miami, a couple in Key Largo, and a couple in the keys.  It was going to cost me a couple hundred bucks a day to stay so I did not want to spend too much… but hey I was here.  Well I was looking at about a week and the price of the plane tickets dictated that Wednesday was the day to go back home…  $79 ticket!!!!  Sweet!  It was more in Miami so that made the airport choice for me as well.  I then decided to attempt priceline for my hotel…  not great.  The place I got was the same price on their own web site as I was paying!  50% off my azz!  Then I needed a car.  So I went to expedia and checked that out then to the Hertz site to check out my discount.  Well the Hertz deal was actually better.  A week with a decent car for around $400.  Not bad!  Now I have a ride, I have a car, and a place to stay.  I kick back and watch the rest of the action flick.  Then I read and go to sleep… for not too long…
He called me at 5:40…  I was not overly pleased about the time AND he had not left the house yet…  but, hey, that whole beggars and choosers thing…   I was ready.  Tom had just gotten a new Garmin so I gave him the address of the hotel.  He was not able to get it in before he let so he pulled off the exit to enter it.  It is a good thing he did because he was coming up on the exit that he would need to take to gather me and my stuff up.
He got there at 7:15 or so…  I have been  awake for far too long already.  Fortunately I had my diet dew.  I also replied back to the guy in Fort Myers that I would not be able to make lunch because my ride was a-leavin…  well, it was a long desolate stretch of highway between Fort Myers and the east coast.  I am fairly confident that would have gotten a ride, but this was not the route that I would have choosen…  I took some pictures.  The ride went quickly.  There was little dead air time.    I went to the Hertz place to check in and I was way early.  It would cost me an extra day if I picked it up then.  I am waiting and typing.  I am actually all caught up.  I am typing about typing while I type.  This has got to end…  I will post it and go get the car. …  posting now…. Ahhh make it stop….

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 9:24 am and is filed under Florida 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.