Trip to Florida May 2012

On Saturday, May 26 2012, Denny and I left for our Florida trip.

It had been very pleasant in South Carolina, but it seemed like the temperature rose about 20 degrees when we crossed the Georgia line - and stayed hot until we crossed back into South Carolina nearly a week later! 

Our first stop on the way down to Florida was in Georgia at at a rustic looking gas station that had a shack attached to it that said “BBQ” – where they were apparently cooking whole pigs. We decided to eat a sandwich on their picnic table. It was 95 degrees there – and the flies were so thick that I feared one would go in my mouth with the sandwich. So after two bites I gave it to Denny and went inside the gas station. They had little nets to put over things to protect from the flies INSIDE the convenience store! Nice people, just felt like we were in a different world…

Our first night was spent at Moody Air Force Base near Valdosta Georgia. Wow – beautiful apartment! We had a living room / dining room, kitchen, two bathrooms, and huge bedroom. The only problem here was the officer’s club was closed for the Memorial Day weekend – and the only way to get food was to drive to Valdosta. We drove a long ways and the first place to eat we found was called “Cuz’s Sports Bar”.

Oh my gosh, Cuz’s was an experience! Really rough décor and rough looking patrons!!!! I whispered to Denny “are we safe in here?”. While we were there, someone broke a glass and then would not move for the lady to sweep it up. I wanted to take pictures of the inside but feared for my safety if they thought I was making fun of the place. There was a sign “design your own ceiling tile for $10”. The undesigned ones were horrible looking – and the designed ones were mostly… well…. a bit strange. The only saving grace for the place was in spite of the young people in there, no loud rap music! They actually played some fairly pleasant country music. I’m sure they wondered what the clean cut old fogies were doing in their place!

The next morning we stopped to look at the antique airplanes before leaving Moody Air Force Base. (There seemed to be no modern planes there.)

We spent Sunday driving from Valdosta to Tampa – headed for Macdill Air Force Base. The room was probably the worst Air Force Inn we have ever stayed in – still like a decent hotel – but they are usually like very nice hotels. What this base lacked in billeting, it made up for in scenery. It is surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico. Beautiful!

On Monday morning I talked with my cousin Laura and coordinated going to visit my 95 year old Uncle Jimmy. He is the younger brother of my grandfather (my mother’s father) – who died before I was born. I am so glad we went to see him! I brought my iPad so I could show him some pictures. And I also brought my laptop so I could record some of our conversation. He said he did not think he was strong enough to do that – but then started telling stories – so I just started recording. Later we told him what I was doing and he agreed to do some with a microphone.  He even sang a song!!!  Uncle Jimmy has a very special voice – I always thought it sounded like Jimmy Stewart – so I am very glad I got it recorded. I'm uploading the recordings to YouTube and will post the links at the bottom of this post.

On Tuesday we checked in at the Marriott Waterside in Tampa and I spent the afternoon working on my presentation. What a beautiful place! That evening my cousin John (my Uncle Jimmy’s son who is close to my age) came and had dinner with us – and stayed for a nice chat by the water in front of the hotel. Wednesday I did my presentation – expected ten people – and had a room full (maybe 30 or 40?). John came too! Thursday I had a second session called “Tech Boot Camp”. All of the sessions I attended were great! I especially enjoyed the ones about Google Apps and meeting a Google employee from California. Thursday night I went to a Cuban restaurant with two colleagues from Clemson.  Here is Denny sitting on the hotel boardwalk:

We had a very long trip home after the conference on Friday --- whew --- and it’s taken two days and we’re both still exhausted!!!

Here are the links to my conversations with Uncle Jimmy:

Dwight meets Zella

Uncle Jimmy goes to Darlington

John McKey stories