Tampa's Chickens are Loose!

Day 15:  The jungle loomed above the car and from my reclined sleeping position, I can see out of the windshield twinkling green leaves and the sun bursting through the branches.  It was serene.  That night was probably one of the best night’s sleep I have had on the trip; at least in the top 5.  We rested in a Cracker Barrel parking lot in Tallahassee, Florida with the intention to head down south towards Tampa.

Chad was still out cold, but I was wide awake. I snuck my phone out and worked on editing blog items in the comfort of my pillow palace. The morning air was crisp and the wind peaked inside the car occasionally to keep me company. Chad finally woke about 45 minutes later, also extremely rejuvenated, and we started the morning in high spirits.

We made the rounds to Starbucks for a faster internet connection and Chad worked on destination map points. Once caught up on previous adventures in New Orleans, we hit Costco for gas. Apparently, it was so windy yesterday coming across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama into Florida, we went from getting 40 mpg to 33 mpg. Yikes!

I totally succumbed to a carrot cake (side note:  back home, I went on a carrot cake exploration to determine which local shops had the best carrot cake.  I had not tried Costco’s).  This cake was super special because they had put apriocot filling between the layers of the cake and had dumped extra raisins into the batter.  YUM. 

The frosting ratio of cream cheese to sugar was perfect and the apricot flavor was interesting.  It got lost in the flavor of the cake and overload of frosting.  But, my taste buds were bigger than my stomach….it was a huge cake!  Chad doesn’t prefer raisins and only took a few bites….that’s way too much for me to eat alone!  Hopefully, if we blast the car with AC, the cake will last a few days.

Destination mapped to Tampa, we cruised for over 4 hours without stopping into any towns along the way. We pulled out some bananas, a bag of baby carrots and a large cucumber for breakfast. Munch. Much. Refraining from chugging water, I finally reached a spilling-over point.

“Chad, just giving you a heads up that I will need to stop relatively soon.”

Changing the subject, Chad responded with, “do these carrots taste funny at the bottom of the bag? We will have to throw these away and then we can look for a place for you to go. But, carrots first!”

😉 Someday Chad, I will be driving and I will pass by all of the travel stops to get you back.

Tampa destination #1: Heights Public Market.  Chad had read that there was a really good Cuban sandwich there to try at Hemingway’s, so we ordered the Hemingway Cuban and the La Frita Cubana.  The Cuban was really good; the Frita was so-so. 

The environment of the market was super cool. The place was inside a large building that used to house Tampa’s street cars back in the day. The owners’ transformed the space into an indoor/outdoor market, co-working space and a place to hold large events.  I would for sure go back!

It's been 15 days and Chad finally has some definition to his little beard spikes (left photo in collage below). His chin reminds me of little hedgehog quills ;) Soon, he will have his majestic millennial mullet back like before (we hope).

(Side note: Chad has been participating as a model in the Twin Cities Wedding Fair about 3-4 times a year since 2014.)

After food, we were really close to Ybor City and decided to pop in for a brief visit. On the way in to Tampa, I read out loud about the history of the state of Florida and it came in handy. While walking around the main street, there were historic plaques all over reiterating exactly what we had just learned about.

The best part about walking the main street was a really weird store we walked into where a lady was selling dead things (I found a dentist chair and tooth grinder!) and the wild chickens running around the city streets. 

Some of chickens were the breed called Golden Laced Wyandotte!  The only reason I knew this was because I raised this variety to show in 4-H when I was little.  (Grand Champion Breeding Pen & Grand Champion Showmanship!!)  Hard core throw back 😊

Hoping over the bridge into St. Petersburg, I found a little tea place that offers wifi.  When we arrived, it was a really chill joint called Muddy Water Kava with people slumped on the bar and the comfy couches.  They offer Kava (wow, who knew by the name of the shop??) but we stuck to regular tea.  The waitress asked for the tab name, and I said “Chad”.

The barista responded, “you’re name is Chad?”

I responded sheepishly, “no…he’s chad.”

The barista “oh, that would have been cool if your name was Chad.  Talk about a gender-bender.  I mean it could have been a neutral name like Alex, Morgan, Jordan...my names Jordan…and then there’s Chad.” 

We all busted out laughing and she mentioned she was inspired. “Catch me when I have kids, they might be called a Chad.”

I nailed out some blogging and we partook in a surprise birthday party. I know, crazy. Someone brought in balloons, a cake, lit candles and handed out noise makers to the locals. We were almost about to walk out the door when the birthday boy walked in. Happy birthday to you??? 😉

So, at the end of the day, my body was not really happy with the weird tea we had (it wasn’t that good at all, which is weird because it’s tea…) and the Cuban sandwiches, so it called for a body wide evacuation. Everybody out the way you came in! ☹ No dinner for me that night, all that I wanted to do was go to sleep. Let’s eat better, Katie!

Of course, right before bed, I got my appetite back and was craving grits (plain, no additives). Oh well, there is always tomorrow. Chad has an iron stomach and its a bottomless pit, so he hasn’t had any issues.

Rest well, Crack Barrel in St. Pete’s.  We parked and were all situated for bed when the sound of jet engines fired up.  It wasn’t a jet, but a commercial airplane taxiing to the end of the runway, which happened to be literally on the other side of the tree line from where we are parked.  It was so loud!!!  The car and ground shook when the plane accelerated, then the world was quiet again. 

Rule #526:  Don’t sleep next to an airport runway.