Disjointed and mildly rantish thoughts that occurred to me over the past week.
Dodge Stratus
What a piece of turdsludge. While I grant that I am very happy to have made the 1800+ mile trip to Miami and back without significant vehicular incident, that doesn’t mean that I don’t have my gripes about the rental car. [ul][li]No Scan button on the radio. []Nothing to keep the driver’s side safety belt latch from sliding to the bottom of the belt when it retracts. []Turn the lights off, they stay on, but turn them on again, then off again, they go off: who thought this shit up? I’m supposed to hope that they go off automatically? And that goddamn windshield. Widescreen is good for movies, but God shot the earth in Super35, and I very much prefer to see the open-matte version of it when I’m driving. I can’t tell you how many times this little exchange happened over the past week: [/li]
Her: Look at that!
Me: What?
Her: Up there!
Me: Can’t see it.
Her: Oh. It’s pretty!
Me: Fucking windshield.[/ul]
Savannah
More specifically, note to self: wear tennis shoes when walking. The 3 miles or so we walked while sightseeing on Thursday, with tennis shoes on, were tiring but not actually injurious. The half mile or so we walked that night while killing time before the ghost tour, while wearing my tie-but-no-jacket level dress shoes nearly cost me my left foot, as I would gladly have cut it off to end the pain I was in. Not Savannah’s fault, but the association will linger.
Note to future Savannah tourists: If you’re going to the Oasis to see the bellydancing, bring singles. They want tips, and will not be subtle about it. Also, order the beef tenderloin kabob. Sweet alien Jesus, that’s good.
Drive to Miami
More notes to self: When driving from Savannah to Miami, leave earlier next time, get gas near Orlando, and choose a different destination: Miami’s not worth going back to.
Miami
About this, the less said the better. Two best things about Miami: [ol][li]Good eats the second night (Monty’s Stone Crab, highly recommended). The Braves lost. [/ol]See? The Braves losing made the list of the two best things about Miami. That’s how bad it was.[/li]
Greasy Spoon on US1 we stopped in for breakfast Sunday
Say it with me: Sweet. Sssssswwwweeeeeeeeeeeet.
Tea. Teeeeeeeeeee.
Sweet tea.
Sweet tea.
Learn it. Love it. Live it.
More importantly, serve it.
Kennedy Space Center
Sadly, the detour onto US1 cost us a couple of hours that wanted badly to be spent at Cape Canaveral. On the other hand, I was debating between the jumpsuit and the leather jacket when they announced the gift shop was closing, so maybe it’s better we ran out of time. I wound up getting the Apollo 8 patch at a savings of approx. $150.
St. Augustine
Generally, we like bed-and-breakfasts because they’re quiet and homey. And after the drive from Miami to Cape Canaveral to St. Augustine on Sunday, we really needed some quiet and homey. Alas, our room was the one adjacent to the common room, 10 feet from the dining room one direction and the entrance another direction. “Sleep late” was not on the agenda for Monday morning. More sightseeing, but fortunately by this time, my foot had mostly healed. The sights of St. Augustine don’t compare too favorably, IMHO, with stuff we had been seeing all week (with all due respect to the Castillo de San Marcos, it looks pretty puny when you were standing underneath a Saturn V rocket the previous day). The lion bridge was cool, and I saw a real jellyfish for the first time. I’d guess I’m immune to Spanish colonial in general, though.
Oh, and if you’re in St. Augustine and want to earn yourself some good karma, stop by the White Lion restaurant when they’re busy and tell two people that you’ve heard the service there is awful. Trust me, you’ll be doing them a favor.
Home
Another note to self, really: When returning rental car to airport 45 minutes away, be sure to give them back the key, even if they forget to ask about it. Return trip will greatly diminish time you could spend recuperating before going to work the next day.