March 23rd, 2008
Sleep? Me?
Yes, I slept a full night sleep two nights in a row. Unless I make a big mistake tomorrow, I’m going to declare myself the victor in the battle against jet-lag. It took a full week, which was longer than planned, but still less than the other trip. Yay for sleep! Now that I am back on a regular schedule, I can start getting things organized and call my recovery period done. I was still so tired (even when I wasn’t actually sleepy) that I just wasn’t really doing anything.
Vacation Trip Preparations
As I discussed quite often last month, I said that I wanted to take a beach trip after returning from Japan. Well, I did return from Japan, and now it’s time for my next adventure. I had discussed Hawaii, and I did a lot of research on that while still in Japan. Yes, I could afford to do it, but it was still rather expensive even with student airfare. I couldn’t stay for more than a week. I really don’t much care for sightseeing, I just want to spend a lot of time at the beach; I don’t need Hawaii for that. So I started looking at Florida. It’s cooler in early April, and I have my doubts about the first place I am going; it might still be too cold there when I arrive. But I can drive there, pay for gas, and spend three whole weeks there for about the same cost as just the plane ticket to Hawaii. I am estimating my budget for the whole trip, including crazy gas prices, at right around $1000. I can do a lot more in three weeks than in one, especially if I don’t have to worry about being broke when I return.
No Job and Three-Week Vacation? How’s That Work?
One of the ways I have managed to do it cheaply is by staying at campgrounds. This is no hardship, since I like to camp and didn’t get the opportunity at all last summer. I have to admit I’ve never tried it for three weeks before. I’ve checked the April weather history for each place that I am going, and it shouldn’t be too hot or too cold at any of them for camping. I have a nice large tent and all the necessary supplies, so that’s no expense; over the next week I will be on the lookout for a good new tent though; mine requires a bit of time to set up. One thing I had not done before was reserve a campground space online; here in Ohio I usually just show up and they give me what they have. Florida uses www.ReserveAmerica.com for reservations, and it couldn’t be easier. It showed me which campsites were available on any particular day, and which places were completely booked up.
The problem came in that most of the places I wanted to go were booked up. My goal was to leave here on April 1st, but I quickly saw that that was going to be simply impossible. I ended up shifting everything for more than a week, and even then there were some problems. Try as I might, I never could find a good park available for the 19th and 20th, so I ended up paying for a hotel those two nights. That’s OK too, after a week outside I’ll probably be ready for some bed rest and an indoor shower by that point in the trip. I could say something very similar about the one night at Little Talbot Island; the park doesn’t sound that interesting, but it was the only place in the area that night; it’s not a destination, it’s filler. There was one park, Bahia-Honda, that sounded wonderful on their website; maybe too wonderful since they were booked up for the entire summer. I couldn’t get in there at all, but fortunately they are only a short drive from the John Pennekamp Coral Reef park that I am going to, so I see no reason I can’t make a day trip there at some point.
I bought some snorkeling equipment a couple of years ago for that year’s Virginia Beach vacation. I was disappointed to find Virginia Beach too murky to use those things. According to the websites, several of the places this year ar good for snorkeling, including both the Coral Reef park and Bahia-Honda that I just mentioned. That’ll be fun.
Where and When?
Here’s my schedule. This stuff is all reserved and paid for already, so it’s not likely to change. If I get bored, which is unlikely, I can always cancel my reservations at the last place or two if I want.
Sebastian Inlet State Park 4/12-4/16 (4 nights)
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park 4/16-4/19 (3 nights)
A hotel in Miami Beach 4/19-4/21 (2 nights)
Gamble Rogers State Park 4/21-4/24 (3 nights)
Anastasia State Park 4/24-4/26 (2 nights)
Little Talbot Island 4/26-4//27 (1 night)
Wekiwa Springs Park 4/27-4/29 (2 nights)
St. Joseph Peninsula State Park 4/29-5/3 (4 nights)
Sebastian Inlet, first on the list, is up in northern Florida, and as I said, might be cool in early April. Pennekamp and Miami are in South Florida, and those will be plenty warm. The others work their way back north, but time will be passing and getting warmer all the while. I think it’ll be fine. I’d be more confident in the weather if I waited another month, but… I don’t want to wait another month.
The next dilemma is how do I get there? My car is running fine, but it’s twelve years old. Do I trust it? Yes. But I know nothing about repairs and if anything does happen, I could be stuck. I don’t want to have to buy a car when I get back. I don’t really expect a problem, but I usually consider everything that can go wrong.
The other option is to rent a car. I checked, and renting a car is about $440 in Florida, which means I’d have to get there first. I can get a flight for $231, which puts me at $670. Another option is to rent a car here, and drive the whole way. A rental from Dayton seems to be $660 for the same time period. I wonder why the difference? If I did that, I’d have to pay for gas, but mileage is unlimited. Another option is to rent the car in Florida and take a bus down and back, but I don’t much care for that idea. They also want an arm and a leg for insurance, and make it sound pretty nasty if I don’t get it. I dunno; I’ll call my car insurance place Monday and see what they say.
Living in Torment Right Now
And of course, Sunday is Easter. I went to my brother and sister-in-law’s house for the afternoon. The kids had seen me at a restaurant since I got back from Japan, so my being there wasn’t a surprised for them, but they sure were excited. They hadn’t gotten to play with me in close to seven months, and the uncle tormenting genes within them had been working to a full steam. I’m amazed that I can still hear. They’re great kids, but the first visit on a sugar-overload holiday might not have been great timing.
I gave them their Japan gifts, and they liked them. One of the gifts I gave was a little paper map with stickers of the flags of all the big countries. My niece pointed to one of them with green,, yellow, and red. I thought it was France, but she said it was Italy. Then she pointed to one with a little coat of arms on it and said it was Mexico. Yeah, OK. Then I gave her the next gift. I should be on the game show “Are You Smarter Than A First-Grader?” I would lose on the first round.
I bought them some nice stuff, but I also threw in some little stuff. Some of this was a bunch of little refrigerator magnets that came as freebies on Pepsi bottles in Japan. I figured we could look at the funny writing on the packages and talk about that; I never expected they’d like the magnets as toys. Nope; the nephew played with magnets and ignored most of the big stuff. It’s all about the toys with him.
But we fought with swords and they tackled me a dozen times, and generally I survived their toughest torments. The bruises and scars will eventually heal. It was a good day!
Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It’s Off To Work I go!
As I said in the beginning of this post, I am starting to feel normal again, so Monday sounds like a good day to hit the office and start getting organized there. I have tons and tons of old merchandise to sell off, and I’m not going to do that without a lot of work. I plan to look for a regular job after my trip to Florida, but I could probably live off eBay for a solid year just with the stuff I have in storage. Besides, I should be able to easily pay for the Florida trip in the time I have before I leave. I have a nice savings after Japan, but why use it if I don’t have to? Besides, I can use Florida as a mental “reward” for selling enough to pay for the trip. Silly, but I need all the motivation I can find to get back into that stuff. There’s a reason I wanted to go to Japan and get my degree; I am sick and bored of online selling.
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