Hello, St. Pete Showers!

Day  16:  Chad is turning into a true tourist as he is not considering getting out of bed before 8 a.m.  Back in Minnesota, we would wake at 5 a.m. and be at the gym by 5:30 a.m.  Talk about changing your circadian rhythm! I laid awake in St. Pete’s, FL Cracker Barrel parking lot listening to the commercial airplanes take off from behind a group of trees.  I counted at least 6 plane take-offs before Chad peeked out from under his sleeping mask.

“You’ve got to be kidding me?” he said as I was curled up, wide awake and reading a travel blog written by some of our friends.

So, I was up a few hours before him...it’s not a crime lol.  My road trip inspiration came from our friends Monika and Glenn and their adventures when they went on Tripzilla back in 2001.  I think every morning I will add reading their blog to my routine.  Glenn is updating their old site and moving the content to a new site, so stay tuned for the big reveal whenever that may be!  They have great stories 😊

Summarizing (super short version): having lived in Chicago their whole lives, they literally packed their things into storage, asked family and friends to watch over their pets and plants, and went on the road to experience new ways of life and look for a new home-space together.  They happened to be touring around the U.S.

for over 5 months (including a trip to Hawaii😊)!  I loved hearing the stories from Monika and I couldn’t wait to do something like that when I got older.  Well, here I am!  I’m not sure how long this trip will last, but Chad and I have been having similar experiences like they did.

Pleasantly awake, we tootled to a local café which happened to specialize in gluten-free bakery items too. I set up shop and Chad came back with a slice of bell pepper quiche and two cups of black coffee. Oh, the quiche went down so fast.

Chad, nervous about not getting his share, took out the knife and proceeded to slice the piece down the middle.  “The person who cuts it, gets to eat it!” exclaimed Sir Chad, and he happily claimed his territory. Obviously, someone was hungry 😊

Caught up on the blog, Chad started to launch ideas out of nowhere and rapidly talking.  I think the caffeine hit…hard.  We made a cartoon out of myself sipping coffee and a collage of Chad’s many stages of beards. Check out yesterday’s post to see Chad’s previous majestic millennial beard.

We made it to a real, pretty beach! And where there are nice beaches, there are also showers. Hello, cleanliness! At this point, it has been 8 days since our last shower in Dallas, TX. We have been routinely using wet wipes multiple times a day to make sure we can comfortably sit in the car with each other without holding our noses.

But first, a run on the beach.  It was midday (oops…. like the hottest part of the day and notably terrible for getting sun burned easily) and I lathered up in 50 SPF sunscreen, shorts and a sports bra.  Chad opted to skip SPF for now since his skin isn’t as sensitive as mine and dawned running shorts. Time for barefoot running!

We also downloaded a metronome to beep a 180 beats per minute cadence for us to run to. (Chad researched running techniques while I blogged and wanted to try them out.) So, we practiced running to the beat, pushing off our feet properly (or trying to at least) and went for at least 30 minutes. I guess 30 minutes was too much for our skin!

I burned my shoulders and arms, while Chad completely toasted his back. Ugh.

The shower water was so refreshing and slightly warm. We brought out the soap bar and went to town on our skin. We did not wash our hair with soap, but only scrubbed our scalps with the fresh water. We have found that our individual hair oils do better if we don’t rinse them out with shampoo (avoid the poof and tame the curls!!).

We also rinsed out some of our Patagonia attire (Patagonia Princesses all the way) and dried it on the hot hood of the car. They were all done in no time!

Our friend Bob, who we are in route to visit, recommended a list of things to see while we make our way down the west coast of Florida. We are ready to accept the missions.

First stop on the list was to cross the Tampa Skyway Bridge from St. Pete’s peninsula onto the main land.  We then set the GPS to Caddy’s at the Beach for dinner.  OH HO HO!  They had beach front property, volleyball nets and indoor/outdoor seating.  Welcome to the vacation destination restaurant! 

We tried the Grouper Reuben Sandwich (say what!?) and it was really good. Who thought of putting a fish into a sauerkraut sandwich? The jalapeno poppers were poppin’ good and the seafood chowder was yummy to chow down. 😉 Super burnt and super warm, we retreated to the car and set off to find a rest spot for the night.

But first, PIE! :) Chad found a little Yoder's Amish Village restaurant that has over 30 homemade pie flavors available and a little restaurant (there was also a veggie stand).  We ordered pie to go from their to-go window and ate outside on their pavilion.  The pecan pie was REALLY something.

Chad’s comments (high on caffeinated truth serum *read fast to get full effect*) “I could actually taste the different flavors as to compared to when I worked at Baker’s Square. When I had pecan pie it would only taste like one flavor. This is quality homemade pecan pie! I wonder if John Meier makes a good pecan pie?????? He makes everything yummy. Dana is sooo lucky.”

I tried the black berry pie and really liked the bitter/sweet taste. The filling actually held together and didn’t spill out onto the container. Now that’s a good filling.

Now, the bugs are actually active at night and I had to defend our fortress from a little quarter-sized spider trying to crawl in last night.  We actually had to take action now and figure out how to put bug screens up on the back seat windows. 

While Chad engineered the window coverings in a Home Depot parking lot, I typed away and caught up with my Dad about Easter plans.  We won’t be back in time for the big family bash, but I hope everyone has a great time!  Drive safe you northern rellies, enjoy the cities 😊 

Window A: the bug screen is tucked into the weather sealing around the glass using a tool engineered from the handle of a gallon water jug.

Window B:  the bug screen is adhered to weather stripping around the entire window with duct tape.  The duct tape is not visible from the exterior of the car.

Ugh, we were so bummed that there wasn’t a happy Cracker Barrel close to where we wanted to stay.  We had to settle for the parking lot between a fast food restaurant and Wal-Mart.  There were trees lining the parking lot and dividing the parking rows, so it felt like you were still in a grove of trees. 

We parked in the back facing the main road, which was next to a little grove of crunchy palm tree leaves and constant foot traffic walking behind us towards the restaurant.  Ughhhh….. it wasn’t going to be a great night for sleeping.

Before bed, we bought some vitamin E lotion from Wal-Mart and lathered up!  Uh man!  The first day and we are toasted…. Now the West Coast trip will be identified with the smell of cocoa butter. Here goes sleeping in the jungle!