Road Trip 2019 - Day 8

Ok, so this post is a month overdue, but what's new? Hey that rhymed! I'm a poet and don't even know it. :) Well, let's see if I can remember what happened on this day many moons ago...

Day 8 was the day we actually made it back to Georgia, though the normal 5 hour drive to get home from West Palm Beach took way longer than it normally would...No, it wasn't Louisiana's fault this time (even though we all would love to blame Louisiana). And it wasn't for bad things like crashes or traffic. Natalie and I just decided that we would stop at every outlet center and Ross that we passed to do some shopping. We found some good deals along the way, which was great!

Then once we made it to Jacksonville, it was time for some more awesome fun! First up, go-kart racing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jacksonville also has a great indoor go-kart racing that we always have to go to. Once again, we did three races because why not?!?!?!? This time we actually went at a normal time, which meant other people were there. There are pro and cons to that. Pro - having a chance to actually race multiple people and pass them. Con - horrible drivers getting in the way of actual racing. It was still a great time...we weren't the best drivers at the track, but better than most. 

In one of our races we both had to deal with an obnoxious driver who 1) did not follow racing lines, 2) paid no attention to surroundings, and 3) lacked common sense. At one point I was passing on the inside line when he decided that he should drive there, which meant we were bumping cars around the turn...I decided to just keep the petal to the metal and came out ahead! The same driver also kept getting in Natalie's way and she had to avoid collisions with him.

Another fun story from racing is from the second race. We had just finished the last lap and they cut the speed to our cars, so everyone is slowing down. I ended being the last car in the line (only because I had lapped another driver) and as we were all going into the turn, I hit my brakes to slow down. BUT THE BRAKES WERE OUT!!!! Which meant I ended up ramming both Natalie and another driver. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Clearly, Natalie and I have no luck with these cars. Or we are so awesome and electrifying that we killed the brakes.

All in all, racing was a blast!!! Turns out, both Natalie and I are aggressive drivers...we went to the Verstappen School of Driving. Clearly we missed our calling of being F1 drivers. :)

After racing, it was on to IKEA to wander the store and dream of how we would design our houses if we had way more money (and if I actually had a house). Then it was off to Cheesecake Factory for dinner, which was again meant appetizers (the pretzel bites) and cheesecake. We thought ahead and placed the to-go order from the IKEA parking lot, so the food was ready by the time we got to Cheesecake Factory. ;) After we stuffed our faces in the small walkway (yeah, we have issues) between Cheesecake Factory and Barnes & Nobles, we finally hit the road again and made it back home about 12hrs after our drive first started that morning.

Once again, the daily Natalie-is-driving picture! Does she ever look at the road?

Sadly, this is the last of these photos from the trip. :(

"That's All Folks!"

Road Trip 2019 - Day 7

Day 7 was a another awesome day because it was full of country concerts and Chase Rice!!!!! We got up, did some shopping, and then went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Yay! Which meant we got appetizers (the pretzel bites are SO DELICIOUS!!!!) and cheesecake. Then it was off to the Rib Round Up country music festival! 

What is better than spending a warm sunny day sitting outside listening to awesome country music?!?!?!? We got to listen to Dylan Schneider, who is an up-and-coming artist with LOTS of great songs, Riley Green, Morgan Wallen, Chris Lane, and the real reason we were there...CHASE RICE!!!!!!!! 

Chase Rice interview before the concert.

 

Yeah, Chase Rice is the only one I have pictures of...

Here are some videos from Chris Lane and Chase Rice. I apologize in advance, the quality is not great and you have to listen to my musically-challenged voice singing along to all the songs! :)

Technically, Kip Moore was the headliner of the festival, but we aren't huge fans of him, so we left after Chase Rice. Shockingly, there are no awkward, amusing, arrest-worthy stories from this day. :)

"That's All Folks!"

Road Trip 2019 - Day 6

Well, I was originally planning on doing a post a day...yeah, that did not happen. Big shock! But anyways, here is the next post. And the good news for you is that is shouldn't be that long. :)

We actually were able to sleep in some on Day 6 because is was only a 3.5hr drive to our next destination. Yay! And in even better news, we weren't going to be on I-10 AT ALL!!!!!!!!!! Once we got up, we stuffed our faces with donuts and then went go-kart racing!!!! There was a track that was literally 5 minutes from our hotel so obviously it was meant to be. And we all know that if it's meant to be, it'll be, it'll be (thanks FGL for that)! Anyways, Natalie and I had the track completely to ourselves and ended up doing three different races. Unfortunately, Natalie beat me in all the races! :( Though during one of races, I suddenly heard this very LOUD thud and turned to see that Natalie had completely crashed into the wall. 😂Turns out the brakes on her car completely failed and then she couldn't go full speed anymore. After we had our tryouts for F1 (I know Mercedes is going to hire me as a practice driver soon), we hit the road once again.

Even though we were off to West Palm Beach, we headed west from Tampa (yeah, our plans always make a lot of sense) because we decided to take the scenic route and drive the Gulf coast for a little bit before cutting back in. The whole first part of the drive, we were like, "I'm so full...oh, look ice cream!" This frequently happened during the trip. We both would be completely stuffed with food and still pointing out every yummy looking food joint we passed. Yeah, we have issues. By the time we got to Treasure Island (yes, that is a real place), we (I) decided that we were hungry, so we did stop for some ice cream and beef jerky. While we were out of the car, we made a brief stop at the beach and then decided is was time to get to West Palm.

We ended up taking back highways to get there because the other option was going I4 back up to Orlando, then dropping back down. There was no way, we were going to do that, so back roads it was! It actually can be a really fun way to see parts of the state we normally would not. And it gave Natalie lots of practice passing slow(ish) drivers. lol.
 

The only pictures I have from this day are of Natalie!

Which is really all we need. :)

You can tell she is so excited to have her picture taken yet again!

Once we got to our hotel, we decided to just to hang out for the night. Which turned into listening to Chase Rice's new song that just dropped that day, 25 Wexford St, OVER AND OVER again!!!!! 


"That's All Folks!"

Road Trip 2019 - Day 5

Day 5 was D-day, or actually, b-day!!! The moment we all were waiting for. The reason we were taking this awesome road trip...MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!! And of course we had something awesome planned: ROLLER COASTERS!!!!!!!!!!! Natalie and I always talked about taking a roller coaster trip since we love to ride them, but we never actually did it. However, when we were planning this trip, we needed some more things to do. And WHAM BAM, we found roller coasters at Busch Gardens. YIPPEE!!! 

Of course, before going to Busch Gardens a necessary stop at Dunkin was in order. Every day should start with Dunkin donuts if possible. Especially the brownie batter and cookie dough filled donuts that are made in February. YUM! So delicious! Once we had our donuts (and coffee for Natalie) it was off to Busch Gardens...dun, dun dun...where there was already a line to get in the park lot right as they opened on a random Thursday in February. Weird! I'm pretty sure that the line was caused by the entire state of Iowa which just happened to be visiting Busch Gardens that day. Seriously, I saw more Iowa plates there than I actually do when driving in Iowa! 

Once in the park, we grabbed the park map to make a game plan. The plan was real simple: find the nearest roller coaster and get riding! It was a lot different than everyone else's plan, which was to get something to eat. Why would eating be the first thing you do when you enter an amusement park? Yo no se. Yo no se. *shrug* As we were walking to nearest coaster, we also found out that the park is partially a zoo as well. Who knew?!?!? (Well Natalie did, but not me. Typical!)

We spent the morning riding most of the coasters. Sadly, one of the coasters was down for maintenance. And another coaster was having mechanical issues when we went to ride it, so we ended up riding a couple of the roller coasters multiple times. I talked Natalie into doing a couple of the water rides. The first ride was the log flume and I sat in front, so Natalie didn't get wet. The next water ride we both got soaked though, which was AWESOME!!! Okay, I loved it, but Natalie wasn't that thrilled. :) 

We tried riding another roller coaster which unfortunately developed mechanical issues right before we were going to get on. Their sky lift also had mechanical issues at some point during the day. Yeah, not a great sign when that many of the rides have mechanical issues. Make me feels real safe when riding. NOT! I wanted to make a shirt that said: "Welcome to Busch Gardens" on the front. And on the back "Closed due to mechanical issues". :)

Since there are not that many rides to begin with and four of them were having mechanical issues, we ended doing any ride we could. So there was Natalie and I in a line with little kids to ride the carousel. Not quite as thrilling as a roller coaster, but close. It had me hanging on the edge of my seat.  Not really, but I could pretend. We needed some adrenaline rush after that so it was on to...Falcon's Fury! A 335-foot freestanding drop tower! With a special twist. Once you are all the way up in the air, the chairs tilt and you face the ground before falling!!!!!!!!!! SO. MUCH. FUN. We also did the much tamer, kids version of the drop tower which is only 35ft. The fun part of that drop tower is you are raised up, dropped some, raised back up, dropped some more, raised up, dropped some, raised back up, and then actually dropped to the bottom. 

Next to this drop tower was this really awesome wooden jungle gym thing that Natalie and I started walking through and then climbing through all the fun areas. A little ways in, I look at and actually read the sign which said "No adults except when accompanied by a child". Umm, oops! I think we count as adults and we didn't have a child. So we did the only thing we could...found a child so we could keep playing on the jungle gym. Just kidding! Once we read the sign, we climb back down. On the way down we saw like 5 more signs that said the same NO ADULTS! Apparently, we didn't read any of them going the other way. lol. 

After our trespassing adventure, we wandered the park looking at the different animals for a little bit. Then it was time to ride some coasters again! The original coaster that was having mechanical issues was back up and running, so we rode it. And rode it again. And then re-rode another one of the coasters because why not?!?!? 

I didn't take my camera to Busch Gardens (for obvious reasons), so I don't have that many pictures. Here are a couple that I took on my phone. 

This looks just like me and Natalie!

Told ya so!

Just hanging out! :)

The alligators are GIANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like they ate the gators that are on Jekyll!

On the way back to the hotel, we did a quick pit-stop at Cheesecake Factory for dinner and CHEESCAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE CHEESCAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"That's All Folks!"

Road Trip 2019 - Day 4

Well day 4 dawned...I know, I know, that is how all these posts have started. Day *fill in blank* dawned. Would you prefer if I start with: day *fill in blank* set? Wait, that doesn't make sense...Yeah, but does it make dollars? Dollar dollar bill y'all...ok, sorry. My brain got sidetracked, let's get back to the reason y'all are actually reading this...

First on the hit list for the day was the Pensacola Naval Aviation Museum!!!!!! I had found out about this place from one of the volunteers I work with and decided we HAD TO GO!!!!!! Thankfully Natalie loves me and is willing to (occasionally) indulge my obsession with military aircrafts (or watercrafts too). An awesome thing about the museum is that because it is on a Naval base it is free! Yay!

When going in the museum, your bags and ID are checked and your hand is marked. We made it through the security checkpoint with no issues, which for me is always a win because for some reason I often fail/am double-checked at security checkpoints. *shrug* Once inside, we spend a few hours wandering the two hangers filled with glorious, marvelous, wonderful, splendid, fantastic, beautiful, gorgeous, remarkable, majestic creatures. And no I am not talking about all the Navy fellows walking around.;)

Home of the Blue Angels

 

Me with my new love!

 

There were also LOTS of cockpits that you could climb into, so Natalie and I ran from one to another climbing in most of them like we were 5 year olds. And it didn't go unnoticed by some of the volunteers. When we were walking back from Hanger Bay 1 to Hanger Bay 2 (main entrance building), one of the volunteers asked, "So did you fly them all?" Our response was, of course, "Yep"

Ms. President

 

 

She's now a space shuttle pilot!

 

Natalie is Goose to my Maverick!

And these are not even all the cockpits we climbed in...

Beside acting like little kids, climbing into and touching everything we were allowed to, we had a couple incidents that made me glad we weren't kicked off the base. :) First, I thought there was another hanger bay with planes, and there was a building next door with a path to it, so we went over there and tried to open it a couple times. It was at this point, I finally read the sign on the door that read No admissions or No exhibits or something like that. Basically a sign that said this was NOT part of the museum. OOPS! There was a Navy guy working on a laptop near there and he saw us trying to get in and asked if we were meeting someone in there. We then had to explain that we were illiterate and didn't realize it was not part of the museum, or something like that. Then from there, we walked back into Hanger Bay 2 and into our second great story.

As I explained early, you have to get marked before entering the museum. Well at each door into all the building, there is a person (people) stationed to make sure everyone has been checked. Well Natalie and I walk in and the guy asks us, "Have you been checked." We nodded and held up our marked hands and kept walking as he nodded us along. We get past him and Natalie suddenly looks over at me and goes, "Wait, that was my unmarked hand." 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 We both started rolling with laughter. 

And we weren't even done terrorizing these poor folks. Now it was on to the flight simulators!!! The first one we did, we actually got to control the simulator and fly the fighter jet! So cool! Though we had to be careful because we were warned that if we were to aggressive with the joystick, the simulator might get stuck and if you are upside down, you could be hanging there for at least 15 minutes...oh, goody!...We didn't let that stop us from doing a couple barrel rolls. SO. MUCH. FUN. And great news, we didn't get stuck! After that simulator, we did a couple other much tamer simulators that sadly we weren't able to control. Following that, we hit the gift shop where I got a pilot rubber ducky to add to my collection and lots of postcards. 

Once we left the museum, we stopped at a lighthouse next door. We were hoping to climb all the stairs, but it was unfortunately closed due painting. Despite the fact that we are painters (mostly), we weren't allowed to climb. Then it was time to get off the base before being brought to the brig. (What I love alliterations)

 

 

With all that awesome craziness behind us, we hopped back on the interstate and made our way to Tampa Bay!

You have to love overpasses decorated like this!

 

Our daily Natalie-is-driving shot!

Florida sunset as seen from I-75

 

 

"That's All Folks!"