Destination: Tampa, or at least the suburb of Brandon.

It’s Saturday morning and I’m headed to Tampa, well actually Brandon. It’s a suburb but it’s close to I-75. It’s just an overnight stop on my way further south.

I leave Pensacola about 7:30 after having a complimentary breakfast of whole wheat toast and tea in the hotel lobby. I’ll be heading east on I-10 before hooking up with I-75 to head south. Traffic is light and I make good time.

It’s noon when I cross the famous Suwannee River. Yes, the one in the song. “Way down along the Suwannee River, far, far away…”. I file that away just as I did when I crossed the Tallahatchie River back in Mississippi. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the bridge Billy Gentry sang about in Ode to Billy Joe”, but I still got to cross a river fabled about in a song.

My computer has been acting up the past couple of days, and I can’t seem to fix it. The Windows Explorer interface just suddenly stops working and the machine freezes up, or swaps windows applications in the middle of working. I am frustrated by the fact that machine is doing this without any reason too, and I’m also frustrated I can’t fix it!!!

In the outskirts of Tampa I stop at a Best Buy to solve the problem by buying a new computer. I really don’t need the expense while I’m on the road, but I have little choice. The sales clerk, Sarah, is sympathetic to my plight and helps me find an open box Toshiba Satellite with a 14” screen that’s costing more than I really want to pay, but it has some storage, processor, and memory advantages over the 11.6” screen Acer that I already have. So I bite the bullet.

Back on the road it’s another 30 minutes to Tampa’s suburb of Brandon, and The Hampton Inn. It’s a newer hotel, nicely laid out, and just far enough off the Interstate and main connecting road, to be very quiet. I inquire about dining options from the desk clerk and he suggests the mall a few blocks up. It has a number of mid-level chain restaurants, like Olive Garden, Cheescake Factory, and California Pizza Kitchen.

First though I need some computer supplies to transfer the data from one computer to the other, so I stop at Staples to pick up a networking cable.

Then on to my dining adventure. 

A quick turn around the very large parking lot of the mall across from the Staples reveals a couple of promising options. So I park the car way out beyond what could be Cincinnati considering the distance I have to walk. I look at one place that seems to be Island inspired but it doesn’t open until October. I check out the lineup at the Cheesecake Factory and realize I want to eat before sunup tomorrow, and then spot a Red Robin. It too isn’t going to open until October, so I settle for the California Pizza Kitchen. I have eaten at one in Hawaii on one of my more uninspired dining nights, and they are OK. I order a draft Sam Adams, and Kris the server says they don’t have anything on draft today. How totally un-American! I settle for a bottle of Budweiser, and some Carnitos Tacos, pulled pork tacos, and I order it with Avocado for $1 more. Another uninspired dining choice but the tacos are tasty, and messy. The house made salsa is surprisingly good. The bottled beer is what it is.

It took me nearly thirty minutes to get out of the mall parking lot. On a really bad day, thirty minutes is my entire commute to work. I only live 11kms from my work. On a good day it’s 13 minutes depending on lights. It took the thirty minutes to go what would be one city block. Who would believe a traffic jam in a mall parking lot, except at Christmas? Or maybe my sheltered life is showing.

Back in my room I turn the on the TV for some background noise while I work on the new computer setup and data transfer. I also have a couple of Heinekens I had stashed away in my ice bag. The new setup goes well, and by bedtime I can start moving data over. There are a lot of large photo and video files so it will take a few hours to move them all.

The TV is showing a repeat of an Hawaii Five-O episode. It’s one with Jimmy Buffett as a helicopter pilot, and I take that as a sign I’m still on the right road to eventually make Key West.

I fall asleep quietly after turning the TV off. I’ll get up once in the night to start another data transfer, but other than that I sleep well.