03-17-11 - Cool Stretch of Highway

03-17-11 - Cool Stretch of Highway
“Rollin' Down Highway 95
Sailin' Through this Hometown Countryside”
Packed up kind of later than I expected. I could have left St. Mary’s by 10 am, but I took my time. My friend Bob Allen would be working for hours after I arrived anyway so I took a leisurely pace to Orlando. Arriving just after 2pm I found my way to the I.d.e.a.s. headquaters just across from the Orlando Sentinel offices. I was greeted by Becky who gave Mischa and I the royal treatment. Mischa got treats and lots of attention by very friendly dog lovers. “Bubba” as he has been known since I met him in high school days was finally free for a few minutes and squared me away as to where they had arranged to put me up for the visit and directions on how to get there. Orlando had morphed in size since I lived there in 1989 and though some names were familiar, distances were not. It seemed like it took a much longer time to get to where I used to go than it did back then. But then, the traffic seemed to have quadrupled. It was a long drive but I finally got there.
Apparently there is a paucity of dog friendly motels in the area because I was below Kissemme almost into St. Cloud. These were the outskirts back then but it’s all developed for quite some distance beyond now. And Toll roads seem to rule the day. I think there may have been 3 before.
Settling in, I did some research and writing while waiting for a call from Bubba that he was free from work. He came by around 7pm and we went for dinner at Outback Steakhouse (immortalized by the picture of me with the large flagon of green beer - It WAS St. Patrick’s Day after all) We had a great conversation about the years since we last saw each other. About the growth of his business, the economic hard times, his family (His daughter’s birthday was the next day) and old friends reconnected via Facebook; technology in general and a lot of other topics as they came up.
It was a good night and a good end to a long day. We made plans for me to join him and the extended family I’d not seen for years the next day at the Birthday party gathering in the evening. I would occupy myself with writing and soliciting more benefactors as I was getting dangerously low on funds to move forward.
I got back to the room and started to write up the day, but soon found myself dozing, moving to the bed for a few seconds and then…I was out!
Luck of the Irish!