Back From Florida

Spent the weekend in Gainesville visiting the younger heir.

Arrived after a nice Delta flight (one day I do need to fly myself there for the fun of it) and drove to meet her.

Picked her up and we headed to lunch at Liquid Ginger.

 

Excellent sushi.  Really good, and it hit the spot after the drive in from Jacksonville. 

On Saturday, we went to the Gators/Gamecocks football game.

 A sold-out crowd, on Homecoming weekend no less, assembled to watch the Gators win as they were projected to do and the crowd was fired up accordingly.

Sadly this expected hometown win didn't happen. 

It was quite a game day environment: Overcast with some sun peeking through on occasion, enough to get a sunburn, and the joy of 100% humidity and on top of a delay of game due to lightning within 8 miles of the field, 

 

 

Two shorts bursts of torrential rain and a 30-minute rain delay didn't help things either, nor did the delay give the Gators a chance to recombobulate and come back from their terrible on-field performance.

The Gators lost, and lost badly 38-19. The Homecoming crowd was not pleased.

Still a fun time out with the kid, and great to catch up on what she is up to, and see how she is doing.

After some rest we had dinner out and then on Sunday met up for breakfast.

I then took her food shopping for necessary supplies, as one does, dropped her back at her apartment, helped her unload the shopping, and then headed back on the road to Jacksonville to head back home.

Even with the Gator defeat, ending my record of 100% wins when I'm at a Gator Football game, it was still a great weekend. 

That's One Turkey Who Won't Make It To Thanksgiving

The Jerusalem Post: Florida police kill Turkish man threatening Tallahassee synagogue, Ron DeSantis 

A Florida resident shot and killed a Turkish national on Thursday after deputies said they saw him reaching for a gun while they were serving him a warrant related to threats he had made against both a Tallahassee synagogue and public officials, the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office said.

Ali Bayhan, 38, was suspected of making threats against multiple elected officials, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and of calling in a bomb threat to Temple Israel in Tallahassee, the office told local media station WCJB.

Threatening terrorist attacks on a synagogue and the governor of a state, and then pulling a firearm on sheriff's deputies when they come to arrest you is going to end in the appropriate result. 

Weekend At Gainesville

Went to visit the younger heir at University of Florida last weekend. 

Little did I know when I booked the flight and trip that it was Homecoming Weekend.

Traffic was rather interesting as a result.

Made it through the traffic jams, and had a great weekend.  Took the kid shopping and errand running as I had a car and she did not.  We hit her favorite restaurants as well.

We also went to watch the Gators play the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

I got us some decent seats in the end zone.

A field goal narrowly passed over our heads.

A crowd of over 90,000, mainly Gator fans, with a sprinkling of diehard Mississippi State fans watched it with us. Lots of good-natured banter went back and forth.

It got rather loud whenever a penalty was called on the Bulldogs: 

 

The Gators seemed on the cusp of defeat when they were leading 23-21 in the 4th Quarter, with the Bulldogs inexorably advancing down the field into easy field goal range with little time remaining on the clock.

All seemed lost, and then the Bulldogs threw a pass and it was intercepted, and the Gators won!

 A very exciting game, and I''m now 2 wins watching for Gators football live.

It was a great visit and a great time with the younger heir.

Florida Weekend

Went to Gainesville this weekend to show a friend's kid the University of Florida.

Got an AirBnB near the University which was very Gator.

A rather comfy place with all that was needed.

We hit some favorite eating spots like Cantina Anejo, Pho Hanoi, and Raisin Canes.

We had signed the kid up for a campus tour on Friday, and it was very well done.  He liked the campus and he's going to apply there.  Friday evening, we found out the Tigers were in Tampa for a series, with a game Saturday at noon, so why not go?

So on Saturday we got up and headed out to Tampa. We managed to get a screaming good deal on some great seats, so we did the two hour drive to the stadium.

The game was held at George Steinbrenner Stadium as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' regular stadium is out of commission.

 This will be the only season they are playing in there.  As a minor-league stadium hosting major-league teams, home runs were definitely on the menu.

It's a nice stadium and they've tried to have as many Rays logos over the Yankee logos as possible.

 

Interestingly enough, there were about as many Detroit fans in the stands as there were Tampa Bay fans and many Detroiters traveled to the stadium to watch the entire series. 

We got great seats, 5 rows back, right behind home plate.

 

Great seats. Real hot and sunny out, so lots of water was consumed.

We unfortunately got to watch the Tigers get eaten by the Devil Rays up close and personal. 

The Tigers in the first inning managed to leave men stranded on the bases without scoring. But, they did manage to load up the bases with Devil Rays and then walk in a run, and after striking the very next player walk in a second run! Then a base hit right after brought in two more runs for an early 4-0 lead for Tampa, with none of the runs counting as earned.  A rather inauspicious start.

The Tigers manged to get in a run in the 4th but by then it was 7-1, with some solo home runs smacked in by the Devil Rays. You knew they were homers just how they sounded coming off the bat - fun to watch it happen.

We got to see the major league debut of Devil Rays' pitcher Paul Gervase, at the top of the seventh inning, and in six pitches he retired the Tigers.  Not a bad welcome to the big leagues.

The game mercifully ended 8-3 for the Devil Rays. The game was still a heckuva lot of fun to watch, and that's a nice little stadium, even as Detroit lost badly. 

I then drove back from Tampa and we got some BBQ for dinner at a great BBQ place in Gainesville, Adam's Rib.

 A solid slab of ribs were rather happy-making.

Got up Sunday morning for breakfast in Gainesville and then drove back to Jacksonville. Flew home yesterday and after over an hour delay departing from Jacksonville, arrived home to find the power had been out for three hours and the place was sweltering.

It had been a great weekend getaway. 

Getting The Kid Back To School

 

With all the weather on Friday night/Saturday getting the kid back to U Florida from Michigan was quite a challenge.  

The original plan was DTW-ATL-GNV leaving at an ungodly early 4:45 am from DTW, so needing to be at the airport ugly early.

 

Fun was driving to the airport in the snow. 

Snow that not a plow had touched at all.  In fact while, driving I saw all of one plow on the entire route.

 

The roads leading to the highway were absolutely snow covered. 

The highways themselves had no lane markings visible under the snow.

 

Thankfully the snow was not slippery icy stuff but more of a packing-snow type, so while slow going, it was reasonably safe going. 

Oakland County seems to be busy spending money on DEI rather than basic competencies like snow removal.

 

DEI and other progressive gee-gaws are luxury spending that, while a waste of money, should only even be considered after you have your core competencies down pat. Sadly they're sexier to Democrats than things like safe and clean roads.

Get to the airport at 2:00 am, the flight was soon announced as cancelled due to the mess in Atlanta.  Weather will do that.

Got her rescheduled to Jacksonville (would have to have had her Uber all the way to Gainesville but it was something) and got her through security at 6am for an 8 am departure.  Should be good as a direct flight bypassing Atlanta, right?

 

Wrong.

That flight was then cancelled due to lack of crew availability due to the weather messing up the system.

 

Then, I got her rescheduled back onto a later DTW-ATL-GNV flight at 10 am, which then was pushed back to 11 am and then was announced for boarding which was a good sign.

 

The flight boarded. But there was then a 1 hour delay sitting at the gate due to Atlanta being stacked for receiving aircraft.

 

They then got clearance to go, and they were off without incident around 1pm and landed in Atlanta. The ATL-GNV flight, then got rescheduled quite a few times but they got clearance to go around 6pm and she finally got back to Gainesville.

 

Upon landing, the pilot wished them all a happy semester and “Go Gators!” which was a very nice touch.  She met friends on te plane as it was mainly students heading back and shared an Uber getting to the dorm.

Through all the delays and weather trouble, the Delta  customer service reps were super helpful in rescheduling her flights and working to get her there.  

 

Thanks to Delta, the flight crews, and all the customer service representatives for all their hard work yesterday under some very trying circumstances. 

 

Having around 2 hours of sleep and hanging around the airport for hours trying to get her home did not make me a happy camper.  But she got there safely and that's what matters.   We could not get here there earlier to beat the weather as the dorms weren't open for students to return until Saturday, which is stupid. 

 

But she's now safe and sound in happy warm Florida.  I'm done shoveling out from the latest snowfall and back at work. 

Back From Gainesville

Had a great weekend in Gainesville. Good to catch up with the kid and see her settled in her new element.

We had a great time, getting her away from dorm food and taking her out to brunch and other meals; going to a bookstore; and going to a movie theater see Deadpool and Wolverine, which is hilarious and well worth watching if you haven't seen it yet.

Aside from power still being out in spots, and lots of trees being down you couldn't tell a storm had come through.

 

Utility linemen were out in force clearing fallen trees and restoring power to the city and then did a very good job of it. Gainesville missed the bulk of the storm for sure, and thankfully got off easy.

Weather during the visit was beautiful being nice and sunny.

The sunset while in the plane flying home was stunning.

It was a pleasant journey home, not nearly as rough as the outbound leg as turbulence was minimal. We actually arrived in Detroit early and I then made decent time getting home, which was nice.  A great weekend trip.

Onward to Gainesville

I had planned to go to Gainesville, Florida to visit the younger heir at U Florida.

A little thing like a hurricane wasn't about to stop me. 

I flew into Jacksonville after an hour delay due to aircraft repositioning to avoid the hurricane yesterday.  Overall a good flight with a decent amount of turbulence even as the pilots routed around the remains of the storm. Jacksonville appeared practically untouched and it was an easy drive to Gainesville.

Gainesville didn't get hit by much except for winds that have knocked down trees, power in areas, and many traffic signals.

Aside from that, luckily the area is pretty unscathed, unlike other areas in Florida that took the brunt of it and some serious damage.

Diving In For Something A Little Different

This last weekend, as Delta had held a seat sale that I had jumped on, I flew to Ft. Myers, Florida and then drove an hour up to Venice and arrived after midnight Saturday.

Sunday, the next morning I was up bright and early and headed to the dock to get on a boat at 7 am run by Venice Dive Center. It was Shark-Tooth diving time. They've got a nice roomy boat and they offer a 2 dives per day trip. The only downside with them is you have to bring your own weights so I lugged 10lbs of lead through the airport which is kinda dumb.

We headed out to the fossil grounds and soon I was doing a giant stride entry off the stern of the boat and into chilly 71 degree water with 6 feet of visibility or less.

Monday, I got up and went to the meeting spot for Aquanutz Dive Charters.  They offer a 3 dives per trip and provide weights,  They sadly had no openings on Sunday. Aquanutz has a smaller six-pack boat so you don't do a giant stride off the stern, you do a back roll off the side of the boat into the water.

Do you know why divers do a back roll off a boat?  Because if they did a front roll, they would land in the boat and bang their heads.

So I did 5 dives in 2 days.  The water temp was 71 degrees F, so it did get a tad chilly. Bottom time was anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour per dive for me.

Sunday, the water was pretty choppy but not a big deal except it made getting back in the boat a fair bit of work.  Visibility was about 6 feet and mucky.  Dives were to 30 feet or so.    Monday it was less choppy but visibility was still low and there was still a fair bit of current.

I sadly didn't find any Megalodon teeth, but did find a fossilized Lemon Shark tooth and a lot of fossilized bones - Dugong (ancient manatees) and fossilized turtle shell. Still neat and fun diving. A few fish but mainly mud and current was moving pretty good.

I also inadvertently almost petted a stingray as I was searching for fossils.  He was hidden on the bottom in the muck and as I went near him he jumped up, I jumped in response.  We both agreed that we startled each other and would mutually go on our separate ways without any further ruckus.

After the dives following a recommendation, I headed to Nokomo's Sunset Hut for a great lunch.  A blackberry Jack Daniels tiki drink and a Grouper sandwich really hit the spot.

Great restaurant, great service, and one heckuva nice view.

Monday I again got up early and  headed out with Aquanutz.  It was a fun boat with quite a few neat people on board. They also had some spare neoprene hooded vests to go around, and I put one on top of my wetsuit and was much more comfy for the dives.

Visibility was again about 6 feet or less, but less choppy. 

Quite a few more fish to see at these dive spots, including on the last dive a huge Grouper (bigger than your head in size) hanging out by the anchor line.

Sadly while all the experienced divers found some great Meg teeth, the two newbies on board, myself and another fellow, both didn't find any. We were, as the captain said, Megless in Seattle. Apparently it is hard for newbies to find them, but once you've found one your brain knows what to look for and you then find more a lot more easily.

On the upside on these dives, I found a Bullshark tooth, whale ear bones (they're rather neat), more dugong bones and a big whale bone.

I also came across some large fossilized sand dollars. These are each slightly larger than the size of a teacup saucer.  Kinda neat.  Also neat they survived the trip back to Michigan. The regular smaller sand dollars tend to disintegrate as you ascend from depth as they are a lot more fragile.

So sadly, no Meg teeth for me. Other folks on the Aquanutz charter did find some real beauties including one that was 4.5 inches in size, meaning the Meg it belonged to was around 45-feet long!

I then headed back to the hotel, washed the gear and hung it to dry and did some work until late, then ate at the hotel restaurant.

Tuesday, I again worked at the hotel until it was checkout time, checked out of the hotel, drove back to the airport and dropped off the rental car and then worked at the airport until it was time to leave.

TSA at Ft. Myers Airport was both the nicest and most helpful bunch of TSA people I've ever seen.   My artificial hip, as I set off the metal detector with it, now gets me fun with the x-ray machine for screening every time now.  They were cool about it, and actually listened when I told them that would happen and so they routed me right to the scanner rather than wasting everyone's time by first beeping at the metal detector. They were fine with the bones and sand dollars in my carry-on but did search the bag to check out the dive computer and regulators.

Then I got home around 11:30 pm to 43 degree weather after enjoying the 80s for the past few days, and had court Wednesday morning nice and early.

In short, it was a great experience and I need to keep looking for Delta seat sales to do that again in the future.  Delta was perfectly on time and offered nice fights with great service on board. I will find some Meg teeth eventually and the fun of those dives and the thrill of the hunt is still there, even if I didn't find any.

Police Caught A Hardened Criminal

 From Florida, of course.

The Detroit Free Press: 77-year-old Florida man accused of getting ED pills to distribute in retirement community

A Florida man has been federally charged after investigators said got $1,800 worth of erectile dysfunction drugs with the intention of distributing them locally in a popular retirement community.

The 77-year-old resident of The Villages, a massive retirement community between Orlando and Gainesville that has become infamous (albeit due to some tall tales) for its lively and frisky residents.

An interesting choice of drugs to peddle, but he certainly knew his target audience.

Oh, Perhaps That's Why The NAACP Issued A Travel Advisory To Florida

On Memorial Day, a shootout between "two different groups" led to 9 people many not a part of the two "groups" being shot and wounded on a crowded beach.

Florida Today: Florida Memorial Day shooting: What we know about injured, suspects in Hollywood Beach

Yahoo news:  Hollywood, Fla., Memorial Day beach shooting leaves 9 injured: What we know

Both of these initial reports, and every other one I've come across so far very much did not state what they know.

All stories actually deliberately failed to truly identify an important piece of information that was known about the suspects, leaving out a rather important piece of identification that was pretty relevant tpo potentially apprehending the criminals.  

The stories also happened to fail to report on the identity and the nature of these groups.

Not until now do we get photos of the suspects and those in custody, and yep they are very much as you might suspect based on the deliberate lack of prior identification. At least people can now stop pointing fingers at the Amish for this event.

Verily, the NAACP is doing quite a public service warning Black people to stay out of Florida to prevent them from being shot by other Black people.

That was after all why they issued their travel warning, right?  Oh right, that wasn't the reason for it at all. Pity, that.

Back Home Again

Spent Monday and Tuesday at a legal conference, in Dunedin, near Tampa which was kinda a hot spot in June but still very nice to be there.

Learned a lot, met some really good folks and spent two days in a conference room with the evenings spent socializing and doing a bit of bar hopping, eating at restaurants, chatting with people, etc. 

Not a bad time at all, next time I need to take some extra time off and hang around a bit, hit the beach, etc.

Overall, the hip was pretty good.  Walked everywhere but did smartly (per doctor's orders) bring the cane along for the quarter mile walk into and around the town from the conference center, and it was needed.  So, I'm still not quite 100% yet.

Tampa airport is exceptional, flows well, great layout, efficient security lines, and what an airport ought to be.  Detroit's airport, well, not so much.

So yep, I really, really, felt the hip last night after arriving back at DTW.

I arrived back at Detroit Airport's North Terminal (now the Evans Terminal)  at 11:20 pm.  Of course, they had closed and blocked off the closest entrance to the level down to the baggage claim nearest the plane's gate. So I had to walk all through the North Terminal to the very front, then down to baggage and back to where the closed entrance was to get to the baggage carousel.    This annoyed the hip rather a lot.

But got to the baggage area.  They stated the bags would come out of Carosel number 2, and the markings on the display for #2 matched the flight so we stood around number 2.

Out cameth the baggage and many people got their bags and they were happy.

Mine did not come out, nor did a number of other passengers, and we were getting perturbed.

Then bags stopped coming out and we grew a tad more perturbed.

No, it turns out our bags for some unknown reason instead went to baggage carousel number 3.  

Why?  Who knows, it's Detroit airport.

Bag found, I then walked over to the exit of baggage claim to head to the shuttle to parking.

Went to the escalator, went up the escalator, walked across the long bridge, down the escalator and then out to the shuttle pickup.

Lots of walking ensued.  Got to my car and then back home without incident. 

So, I'm rather beat today, and have a really full schedule.

Gov Half-Whit's Jet Jaunt Story Changes Yet Again

One of the problems with lying is the inability to get your story straight.

Combine layers of lies upon lies and it becomes harder and harder not to dig yourself in even deeper.

It also makes you appear less than credible, as your story keeps changing to cover the consequences of your last lie in the series that you used to spin your tall tale and get out of the fallout from your prior lies.

The Detroit Free Press: Whitmer's campaign will pay for controversial Florida flight

The Detroit News:  Whitmer's Florida flight cost shifted to campaign after FAA concerns

Yep, her last explanation that her non-profit paid for it created all sorts of problems with both the FAA and IRS.  It wasn't legal for her non-profit to "pay" for the March flight -but recall that they only helpfully paid it in May after details of it came to light.  

Now, in the latest round of obfuscations, it's being shifted directly to her campaign fund which likely will be a campaign funds violation.  On the upside for Whitmer, this changes the crime from an IRS violation with the non-profit inappropriately paying for it to a state campaign finance violation .

That changes the enforcement agency back to the state rather than the feds which is most convenient. 

Since she's best buddies with both AG Nessel and Secretary of State Benson, who would be the ones "investigating", you can predict the investigation will be duly done and found nothing occurred, or that at most there will be a minor slap on the wrist rather than a real penalty applied.

This likely still doesn't fix the FAA violation, but that only affects the airplane owner/operator and not Whitmer.

On the upside, we now learn that the 4-day (not 2 as originally claimed after the initial denial) trip included her daughters and allegedly a security detail.  Of course, it doesn't explain how the campaign can now pickup the bill.  After all a  Michigan governor doesn't typically campaign in Florida for re-election, especially as she's stated repeatedly the trip was for person reasons to visit her very sick dad who was "in failing health", and suffering form chronic illness" and had naught to do with her campaign.   Of course, the sick dad excuse has also been shown to be rather dubious as he was been seen in public back in Michigan quite soon after her trip being rather spry.

In short it's likely this was a massively hypocritical spring break trip out of state and she really needs to quit lying about it as she just keeps digging in deeper.

Expect further story changes as the consequences of the latest change come to light.

At Least Someone Is Asking Very Pointed Questions About Gov Half-Whit's Trip

There's at least one reporter not afraid to call Gov Whitmer out on her layers of lies about her Florida trip, and that reporter is the venerable Charlie LeDuff, 

Deadline Detroit: LeDuff: Come Clean Gov. Whitmer -- Who Flew from Michigan to Florida with You? 

Go read the whole thing.  He succinctly sums up the sordid tale and how Gov Half-Whit and her team's obfuscations and lies are just sucking her in deeper.  Deeper in that with the latest story she and her non-profit have likely committed some nasty tax code violations from her non-profit per the latest story about who funded the trip, "buying" her flight for her. 

Of course, having the non-profit charter the flight (again the story is dubious as the expense of the March flight only suddenly appears on their books in May while she was looking to spin what happened and claimed the non-profit had chartered the plane) violates the FAA rules for the operation of the aircraft - this can lead to severe sanctions against the pilots and owners of the plane.

In short, Gov Half-Whit has thrown the plane under the bus.

She's also setup her non-profit for one heckuva nasty audit, assuming the IRS decides to investigate a Democrat Governor's slush fund's doings. In addition, this may have also caused some campaign finance violations.

Here, the governor's coverup may indeed be the crime.

Governor Half-Whit Just Dug Herself In Even Deeper

As it is often said, it's not the crime its the cover-up.

Here, the cover up may indeed be the crime.

As you may know, Governor Whitmer, after admonishing everyone else not to travel outside the state -- and especially not visit Florida! -- then flew to Florida for 4 days - and she got caught doing it.

She's been denying, accusing, ducking, and confabulating ever since.

Then the question as to how did she get there was asked.  Turns out she traveled on a private jet that happened to be owned by some wealthy Detroit businessmen.

A further question then was: What was the quid pro quo when a private jet owned by Detroit Businessmen took her there?

Now her newest lie to dig her out of the prior lies and omissions is that she claimed her non-profit Michigan Transition 2019 doing business as Executive Office Account paid for the flight.

So what is Michigan Transition 2019?  Allegedly it was formed as a non-profit designed to pay the costs of her 2019 inauguration but now does "other things" - So, can you say slush fund? 

So Michigan Transition 2019 paid for the flight and she claims to have reimbursed them $849, which is awfully generous of her considering the flight cost either $27,521, or $40k depending on who you ask.

There's a few problems with that.

The Detroit Free Press: FAA: Company that flew Whitmer to Florida not authorized to operate charter flights

This is a big deal.  The company that owns that plane can't legally operate charter flights and she and her minions have now just described the activity as a charter flight.

Ooops.

This can lead to serious sanctions against the company, and the FAA takes this kind of line-crossing rather seriously. You can lose your certificates over this sort of thing. 

You could say that Whitmer just threw the the plane under the bus.

Digging them in even deeper that that, their latest cover story is alleging that Michigan Transition 2019 paid the costs and received Whitmer's payment of $849 back in March when the trip took place.  

But, the organizations books only reflect these payments occurring in May,  and is dated after the details of the private jet came to light and people started asking how she got their and who paid for it. 

All that cover up and they forgot to backdate the books first?  How sloppy of them.

Anyone really believe her latest story?  Anyone?

Gov Half-Whit Does Not Deign To Fly With Commoners

Our dear governor continues her pattern of having one standard for her entourage and herself and a different one for everyone else in this State.

On one hand she advised and cautioned that no one from Michigan should travel out of state and especially not travel to Florida.

So of course, after making such a pronouncement, she went to Florida which she then lied about but was caught in her lie.  

On the upside, she made sure she traveled in luxury - on a private jet - the cost to charter such a flight would be $40,000.  Likely this was done to hide the fact of her travel as it was not paid for from her own pocket or from a state fund.

Instead, the jet was provided by three wealthy businessmen (you know the ones Democrats allegedly hate on - except when those same business men are providing charter air service for Dems), and one has to wonder who paid the fare as the financial details of the flight as well as many other facts of her travels are being withheld by the Gov. 

One also wonders what quid was given pro the quo of the jaunt.

No possible conflict of interest there mixed in with the double standards and lies that are the hallmark of the Whitmer administration.

Democrat politicians - if they didn't have double standards, they'd have no standards at all.

That's Got To Sting There, Gov Half-Whit

After Governor Whitmer proclaimed that Michigan residents shouldn't travel due to Covid, she decided to head off to Florida.  

Again, yet another Democrat governor with a "My Rules Are For Thee, Not For Me" Attitude.

Her little trip to Florida, violating her own guidelines, as well as a trip to Florida by her Chief Operating Officer Tricia Foster did not go unnoticed.

Florida tourism officials decided Gov Half-Whit's visit was worthy of commemoration:

The Detroit News: Florida official sends Gov. Whitmer tourism information after trip

Florida's chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis, sent Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer tourism pamphlets Monday, making light of the governor's out-of-state trip during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I know members of your team are telling you to downplay the recent trips to Florida," Patronis wrote in a letter to Whitmer. "Don’t listen to them. Now that you and your COO (Chief Operating Officer Tricia Foster) have personally experienced what the Sunshine State has to offer, I encourage you to share your experiences publicly.

"More importantly, however, don’t be a stranger!"

 Gov Half-Whit still won't formally admit she traveled to Florida while telling everyone else in Michigan not to go anywhere, nor would she confirm the dates she left our state for Florida. 

One could say she's been on, and is still on, quite a power trip.

That Little Boat Beside The Yacht

That little boat underway beside the yacht and dwarfed by it in the pictures, besides being not all that little really, was also flying a couple flags:

Yep, that's a Trump 2020 flag alongside the US flag.

It certainly tweaked quite a few of the Democrats on the water taxi, I'll tell ya.

Florida: Now That's A Yacht!

In Ft. Lauderdale we took a water taxi, which is highly recommended.

For $238, you get a pass that lasts all day and you can hop on and hop off at any stop from the downtown to Margaritaville and many points in between.

The kids enjoyed it a lot especially one of the stops we made.

It was lots of fun with the boat crew narrating the various sights you see, including the homes and boats of the rich and famous as you go by. They also serve a very generous rum and coke for $5 which makes the trip even more enjoyable.

So we passed by a certain yacht.

She's the Seven Seas, and she happens to be owned by Steven Spielberg.

To say that's a big yacht is an understatement.

This amazing luxurious super-yacht is 282 feet long complete with pool, helipad, a 30-foot sportboat and a 34-foot limousine boat and of course a huge 150-foot wide movie screen. It cost around $200 million to build and it can be yours for rent....for a bargain price of $1.5 million per week for 12 guests. Per the guide, that rental rate does not include the food, fuel, and crew tips for that week.

Rumors have it that Spielberg is now having an even larger super-yacht made at a cost of $300 million, as this one is apparently a little small for his needs. Good for him.

Florida Bird Is The Word

After surviving lousy drivers in many states on the way down, we reached Florida and finally got through to our destination.

When we were in Florida in December, the weather was warm but a front had moved in that made the sky typically overcast, and the ocean much too rough to swim in for anyone. Sadly, that meant no shark tooth diving for me as all charters cancelled their trips due to the big waves and lousy visibility brought on by the front. Ah, well.

This was on the gulf side, later we drove over to Ft. Lauderdale area to visit the family.

On the positive side, it was warmer than Michigan and was a time to just relax with family, so no complaints there.

On the beach we relaxed, we also on occasion would wade into the water and get smacked by the waves which was fun. No swimming though.

Quite a few people were on the beach on December 25 as well as some feathered visitors.

This crane Great Blue Heron had no feathers to give for all the people on the beach.

He'd just stand there within arms reach of people, move through crowds as he wished, and then when he got where he wanted to go, he would stand still and glare at everyone and on occasion flex his wings to demand some space.

He didn't mind posing for pictures either.

Then he'd takeoff and stand near the next bunch of people fishing from the shore, hoping to cadge a snack.

A very close encounter of a feathered kind.

Then a very pleasing sunset on the beach.

Basically we spent our time on the Gulf side at the beach, just relaxing and unwinding. Then we headed to Ft. Lauderdale.

Random Thoughts On Road Travel Through Different States

Michigan roads seriously suck. You can actually feel the difference when you leave the state and enter Ohio.

Ohio drivers, for some reason, seem compelled to pass you on the right of the highway, even when the left lane is clear and available for passing. Why this is, no one knows.

Ohio is also a helluva long state, and just as you think you've made it, the area in Cincinnati right before the bridge between Cincinnati and Covington, Kentucky is always under construction, always having a goofy traffic jam and the signage basically sucks. Again, no reason why, it just is, Every. Single. Time.

Tennessee drivers tend to be fine, although just as in the above states, BMW drivers have not ponied up for the expensive turn signal option for their vehicles.

Georgia - Atlanta traffic on 75 really sucks, and Atlanta goes on forever. Not having the express lane open was a BS move there Atlanta, really. The traffic just past Atlanta near the 475 Valdosta bypass somehow manages to suck even more and go even slower. But at least there are good BBQ stops close to the highway which makes up for it somewhat.

Florida drivers are their own special breed:

Yep, lots of left lane hogs at or below the limit, with lots of people in all lanes that couldn't find a speed limit with both hands. Those people were coupled with those who thought the speed limit should be ignored and weave in between those who don't doing about 95. Watched one moron do 10 lane changes going across all lanes no less, in less than 3 miles, complete with tailgating before each lane change, and it didn't actually get him all that farther than if he just stayed in a lane.

The most important question with Florida drivers is: Can someone please tell me how the living hell you can manage to be useless enough cause an accident on a clear day, with perfectly smooth and dry roads, with said accident being big enough to shut down the entire freeway going south to a complete halt for over an hour and a half?

That was no fun parked sitting in that and finally seeing 4 tow trucks come up from behind us and then go on up to the accident location and it finally began to open up after that. Sheesh.

One possible answer could have been drivers like the one idiot I saw texting with both hands, while speeding on the highway and doing a fair bit of weaving, because hey, who needs to touch a steering wheel when going 80-85 mph, texting is more important, right?

It was an adventure getting to Florida last week, and that was without any particularly bad weather aside from a dash of rain in spots.