Taking the Long Way to St. Petersburg Florida

The worst thing about a long vacation with multiple destinations is that you also need to repack your luggage multiple times (I know, you cruisers will say you don't have to do that on a cruise...we'll get to that point in another post coming soon). Luckily, we started last night with the packing and we're getting better about only taking out what we need while we're at that destination.

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Our rental car is loaded up with precision...we have to leave room in back for Tim's travel chair along with the luggage and room for Letty in the backseat. Because of the difficulty in loading Tim into a normal car seat outside of his wheelchair means that 9 times out of 10, he gets to ride shotgun.

We're making sure he's very comfortable and secure. It's a major pain in the rear to keep hauling him and his chair out of the car so we've prepared him to be sitting in this seat for seven hours.

That's right...seven hours.

Tim's OK with it this time because he's not really a fan of flying if he doesn't need to do that. And, if you think about it, it's just a little longer than flying. An hour and a half to fly from Atlanta to Tampa, plus arriving two hours before the flight, plus an hour minimum to get to the airport, plus another hour to collect our luggage, then another to get to our hotel in St. Pete.  What's that add up to...about six, six and a half hours?  The drive doesn't look so bad in comparison.

Once we're clear of downtown Atlanta, traffic eases up and about an hour or so later, we cross into Florida. After crossing under Interstate 10 (hey, it's the San Bernardino Freeway!) we soon make a planned stop for gas, bathrooms, and snacks at the Love's truck stop in in Jasper, Florida.

Loaded up with candy, cookies, soda, and a couple of 5-Hour Energy's (just in case), we head back out on Interstate 75.

There is barely any traffic. We set the cruise control for 73 miles per hour and enjoy the lush scenery all the way to Tampa, where we finally hit a bit of traffic going through downtown.

An easy trek across a very long bridge on Tampa Bay puts us on the peninsula and into St. Petersburg. The GPS on my phone smoothly glides us to our hotel in the heart of downtown, the Hyatt Place.

We unpack the car, check in, and head up to our room which is nice but has a bit of a spartan feel to it. It's Hyatt's 'minimalistic' design but it's a nice, comfortable room with a window pointed out towards the bay. Unfortunately, the huge condo under construction next door blocks our view but, if we get closer to the window, we can see the water on either side.

The hotel manager tells me there's a row of restaurants and bars along the waterfront a little over a block away. We walk over there, ending up at Canopy restaurant and bar.

The Canopy is a rooftop bar on top of the Birchwood Hotel with a beautiful view of Tampa Bay. An elevator takes us and Tim up. It's happy hour so we order some cheap drinks and a couple of appetizers.

We share this flatbread pizza...

...and this dish of loaded tater tots.  It's very delicious and fills us up well for less than $30, including the drinks.

We're here, we're settled, so we still have some time to take a stroll along the waterfront where we find a couple of giant banyan trees.

The sun is setting so it's time to head back in. There'll be plenty of time to see this beautiful city in the next few days.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Car Shows and Dr. King's Neighborhood: Atlanta, Georgia

There's a show on the NBC Sports network called Caffeine and Octane which is a car lovers dream. Each week, it visits the largest car show in North America. In addition to showing some of the best car porn on TV, it profiles some of those machines and owners.

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We watch it from time to time. Then, I found out that it happens just down the street from our hotel at the Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody, Georgia. On the first Sunday of the month, which is today, and it's free.

Guess what we're starting this day off with...

We wander around the large, mostly empty mall lot (early Sunday morning) and then we find it. Thousands and thousands of cars and truck. Mostly organized around type, make, or model. For example, there were a lot of Jeeps parked together as were Jaguars and Mustangs. Mostly because car clubs would show up early and park together.

This is just the outer edges. More and more vehicles make up the rings as we head towards the center. When the cars show up in the morning, the show organizers are there to cherry pick the best of the bunch. A few hundred are redirected in the center corral of the mass to be featured on the TV show.

It's both an honor and a curse to be selected...if you outside of the center, you can go whenever you want. If you're selected, you have to stay the entire show because the producers want to have a 'full' look to the proceedings and don't want cars leaving early to show empty spots.

We see many mint-condition classics, oddballs, and custom restorations. It's great fun but around the edges of the show, there a few douchebags that have to do burnouts, loud revs, and speed runs. It doesn't seem safe to be walking around out there.

After getting our fill, we leave and head back into the city for some more history lessons.

East of downtown Atlanta, in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, is Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Park. It was here the civil rights leader was born, where he attended church, school, and is now interred.

There's a large parking lot on the north side of the park, across the street from the visitor's center and the current edition of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church he and his family were heavily involved with.

We start off in the visitor's center where a film on Dr. King's life is shown, along with exhibits of his efforts to secure rights for all Americans, his death, and...finally...his burial.  The rustic wooden wagon that served to carry his coffin is also on display here.

Afterward, we make our way down the block to the fire station that became Atlanta's first integrated station then on to the house, a half block away, where he was born.

Tickets for the fully accessible tour are free at the visitor's center but they had already given out that day's quota.

For us, we had to be content with the exterior, walking around the porch, and into the backyard.

On the way back, we go through the pools and fountains of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. Dr. King was passionate that his cause would not be violent, at the beginning of each march, hundreds of knives and other weapons were taken from marchers so that they would not be the catalyst for fighting.

This center, adjacent to the national park, is also where Dr. King and his wife are buried in a marble tomb at the center of the pond.

An eternal flame burns nearby.

Next door is the original Ebenezer Baptist Church, now part of the park.  A docent deploys a portable ramp for Tim. Inside, a lift takes him up to the second floor sanctuary.

We wander around the space where King and his father preached from the pulpit. Much of the support and planning for Dr. King's efforts came from this building and this room.

Across the street, Sunday services are in full swing at the current church. You're welcome to attend but in our touring clothes of shorts and t-shirts, we limit ourselves to watching the vigorously spiritual service from the foyer where large glass windows and speakers allow visitors like us to watch from just beyond the back pew.

This visit makes a good counterpoint to a visit to the Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Dr. King was assassinated. Here, there is more of a celebration of his life than a focus on his death like there is there.

It makes for an inspirational finale to our time in Atlanta.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018
All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2018
All Rights Reserved

We're Down with Downtown: Atlanta, Georgia

Stadium 28 now in the books, it's time to see what else this town has to offer.  We picked this  hotel, the Hyatt Place Perimeter in Dunwoody, in part because it is close to a Metro station.

We walk over and catch the train into the city at the Sandy Springs station.

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We're hungry so our first stop is an Atlanta institution for lunch. A couple of blocks due west from the North Avenue Station is The Varsity. Entering their doors and hearing the calls of their signature cry..."what'll you have"...we hang back just a bit to get our bearings and check out the menu before ordering.

A massively long counter beckons us where we head up to order a few of their famous hot dogs and a BLT for my wife.

We take our lunch to a table adjacent to one that President Clinton sat at (picture on the wall proves it!) and dig in.

While the hot dogs are indeed tasty, they're also pretty tiny. Tim and I could have easily had another two to go with the two we ate. Being in Atlanta, though, the cold Coca Cola went deliciously with those little dogs.

Back on the Metro, we continue on to the Peachtree Center Station in the heart of downtown. A short walk to west brings us to Centennial Olympic Park, which served as a daily gathering place for Olympic visitors and participants during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games when they were held in this city.

There is a computer-controlled fountain in the shape of the five Olympic rings that has frequent shows set to music to watch. At other times, you can splash in them to cool off.

It was a short distance away from here that a bomb went off during the games that killed a mother bringing her daughter to a free concert and a cameraman from Turkey who later died of a heart attack after being wounded.

A ferris wheel is across the street, offering views of the city. CNN offers tours of its studios at the south end of the park and Coca Cola has a kind of expensive attraction at the north end, explaining how the drink is made and the cultural impact it has had around the world.

It's time for us, though, to call it a day and we head back to the hotel. Tomorrow, there'll be some Civil Rights history touring for us.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018
All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2018
All Rights Reserved

Land of the Braves: Game Day in Atlanta

It was a very long travel day yesterday, more frustratingly long than actual time-wise long, so we slept in as long as possible. Of course, that means we would miss the hotel's breakfast hours and would have to fend for ourselves.

Luckily, when in the south, we've got a few options we don't have back home. A decent, cheap breakfast (or lunch or dinner) can always be found nearby at the local Waffle House.

So that's what we did.

Afterwards, it was back to the hotel to rest up a bit and get ready to go to tonight's baseball game where the Braves would be hosting the San Francisco Giants at Sun Trust Park.

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Sun Trust Park is the newest stadium in Major League Baseball, now going through its second year of operation in 2018. It replaces Turner Field, which was build for the 1996 Olympics, is located in downtown Atlanta, and is now home of the Georgia State Panther football team.

The new stadium is located outside of Atlanta in Cobb County. There is no good public transit to the stadium...we will need to drive and try to find a place to park.

Leaving with what we thought would be a big cushion in time to get there, we find ourselves stuck in barely-moving traffic when we get close to the stadium. There are no police officers directing traffic and it's kind of a free for all when you're trying to get close.

After following signs for the lot that had the handicapped parking, I ended up beyond the stadium and realized either I missed the last sign for the lot or that it didn't exist. We ended up paying $25 to park in a KFC parking lot and walking about a half mile back to the stadium.

Outside, a couple of faux streets have been constructed with a few restaurants and bars to give is a sort of downtown, party feel...maybe the kind it must have really had back when the stadium really was in downtown.

We make it in, find our seats by the left field foul pole, and get ready to take in the game.

As it gets underway, I go to the french fry stand directly behind our seats to get Tim an order of garlic fries. An inning later, I'm still in line and Letty has come to see if I had problems.

"No, it's just how long I have to stand in line."

About ten minutes later, I get to the counter and order. Then, I get to stand off the side for another ten minutes before I finally get the fries.

After delivering the fries, I get back in line at another stand to get our hot dogs and beer.  After a total of three innings (1/3 of the game for those of you not familiar with baseball) of standing in line, I'm finally back in my seat.

I've only missed three home runs and the scoring of nine runs in total. Not to be too concerned, though...the home team would go lose to the Giants 9-4.

It was May 4th for this game, which meant that a Star Wars theme was overlaid on the festivities, with in between inning entertainment and a special fireworks show afterward.

The Force wasn't with us, though, as we left a bit underwhelmed and saw the fireworks from a distance as we hiked the half mile back to KFC to get our car.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018
All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2018
All Rights Reserved

Travel Days are Rarely Fun: Arrival in Atlanta

After the frustrations of leaving Los Angeles have faded, we arrive at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport. It's a real breeze compared to LAX.

As we will be traveling many miles where our only non-car options are plane or bus, we decide to rent a car. Picking up at the Enterprise counter at Atlanta is no problem at all and soon we're on our way to our hotel, the Hyatt Place in Dunwoody, a suburb a little north of Atlanta proper.

There's a traffic jam so it's not until around 9PM, we check in and notice a sort of restaurant/food bar at the other end of the lobby. After dumping our baggage in our room, we come back down to eat.

I order and the guy behind the counter says it'll take 25 to 30 minutes. With nothing better to do and not knowing the neighborhood, we decide to wait.

He's chatting up others at the bar, then goes to help the other employee on duty to check in a few arriving guests, and then before you know it, it's 20 minutes and we still haven't even gotten drinks.

I go over and ask if he forgot about us..."no, I didn't forget."

He goes over to the bar, pulls out a manual with instructions on how to mix our drinks. We finally get them. 10 minutes later, there's no sign of food. I ask him again..."it'll be out soon."

I grab a bag of chips off of the counter for Tim, who's getting pretty hungry at this point, and the guy goes back into the kitchen to make our food (probably using the company handbook to figure out how to make our order).

Around 50 minutes after ordering, our food finally comes out...a microwaved mini pizza for Tim, pulled pork sliders for Letty, and short rib tacos for me (pictured).

Letty's mad because the sliders have none of the cole slaw or pickles the menu described them with. Mine is not made correctly, either. Only Tim's pizza seems to be somewhat edible.

I tell the guy about it and he explains they ran out of the missing ingredients. I told him that was unacceptable, you could have said something before you made us wait almost an hour for half-assed food.

To his credit, he struck the entire meal from our bill and we took Tim's pizza up to the room to share a little bit so we could all have a little something before going to bed.

Luckily, the room was nice and the bedding comfortable. We'll take up the rest of Atlanta starting tomorrow after we get a night's rest.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018
All Rights Reserved

Rewards Come to Those Who Wait: Cashing in our Points for a Post Retirement Vacation Blowout

We're not really hard-core points warriors (those who live to exploit every advantage to accumulate rewards points for traveling) but we're not ones to shy away from opportunities to collect points.

Over the years here at The World on Wheels, we've been known to cash in points for a free flight or a night in a hotel here and there but have not really made a great effort to accumulate a lot of points to cash in for a big vacation.

Until now...

The last couple of years worth of travel have involved a more concerted effort on our part to accumulate points for one of our biggest vacations yet...a multi-week blowout covering two southern states with a cruise to the Bahamas thrown into the middle just for the heck of it.

I retired from my job in March after 30 years of service (that's a picture from my retirement luncheon) and we had longed to take a long trip through the south once that happened. The original plan was to take a month, start off in Key West and slowly make our way through the southern states heading back home.

Over the years, pieces of that trip were whittled away with our adventures to Tennessee, Texas, and the Florida Keys. Plus, a month might be pushing it now, so we've cut the time down a little bit and narrowed the scope some...we'll be starting off in Atlanta and going south from there with the goal of seeing the last remaining unseen baseball stadiums in our quest to visit every Major League Baseball park.

Now, what about the points?  A few years ago, our traveling evolved so that Southwest Airlines turned out to be our preferred airline so all three of us signed up for their Rapid Rewards program. All of our trips started out with the question "Does Southwest fly there?" Many times they did (but not always) so we booked them as much as possible.

The last few years, we've flown on them to Baltimore, Nashville, Dallas, Houston, Fort Lauderdale, and more.  A couple of years later, we have enough to cash in a free flight for the three of us to Atlanta, so our first leg of airfare is basically free (it cost me an extra $16 for taxes and fees for the flight).

Our Hilton points were enough to get us five nights at a hotel in Miami, so those will be cashed in later on this trip. In the meantime, an old Hyatt rewards account that I'd forgotten about had enough points for a couple of nights so we'll be using that in Atlanta to stay at the Hyatt Place in the northern part of the city. In between, we'll have to pay out of pocket for a couple more nights at the Hyatt, the rental car, and a few more hotel nights between Atlanta and Miami.

Lastly, we use a Costco Citi Visa card for most of our purchases which has a very generous cash reward program. In the last year, we've built up enough rewards on that to pay for the cruise to the Bahamas.

Stay tuned...we're off to Atlanta for our mosty-free, big-blowout, post-retirement vacation!

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Year in Review 2018

This year was a huge year for me. In March, I ended my 30 year career at the United States Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. I made it...I'm retired! And nothing has diminished the joy of that word - retired - since that happy day.

Of course, not having to go to work every day, face the Los Angeles commute, get up early, etc., means there are big changes in life. Not having to work in L.A. anymore means we really don't have to live here anymore, either, so we're gearing up for our own Escape From L.A.

That means travel will be light for awhile while we accomplish this relocation. Our only travel for the next few months will be house hunting and moving trips up to the northern half of our state.

Still, we did do some traveling this year so lets recap some of the highs and lows...

Best Pizza - Tim and I are pizza fanatics and love a good pie. We've had some great deep dish pizzas at Chicago Fire in the Sacramento area and Rance's in Long Beach, California. Our local favorites Joey's Red Devil and Casa Bianca continue to produce top-notch pizzas but the best we had this year was the star pizza at Mister01 Pizza in the Brickell neighborhood of Miami.

A splendid, thin crust pie with pointed handles of crust filled with ricotta making it a tasty and easy way to pick up the pizza.

As for hotels, there were none that were truly spectacular this year but the Homewood Suites we stayed at in St. Petersburg, Florida was a solid hotel. In fact, the Homewood Suites brand (part of Hilton) has been pretty reliable for us in general. The Doubletree Suites we stayed at in Rancho Cordova...just east of Sacramento...is another solid hotel where we scored a two story loft on one stay and a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, sprawling suite on another.

Air travel was light this year, with only two airlines flown. Those were Southwest and American Airlines. While Southwest continues to provide superior service, American is still slowly descending from its once lofty place on our list. I can still see glimpses of the old airline in there somewhere but it's a shame. It used to be our favorite way to fly.

Tim took his first cruise this year, a four day Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas from Miami. And...it was really kind of miserable. Another shame, we were really looking forward to that.

This was also the year that we completed our greatest travel quest...to see every stadium in Major League Baseball. We wrapped it up with visits to the Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays, and the Miami Marlins. Funny that we had no great expectations of the Rays stadium in St. Petersburg but that was an outstanding place to watch a game. Atlanta and Miami? Among the worst baseball experiences we've ever had.

Fall took us to three California destinations. Catalina Island, Santa Barbara, and another trip to the state's Motherlode region.

It's well known that we like the Gold Country enough to move there.

Santa Barbara had some highs...like the Boz Scaggs concert and dinner at Presto Pasta...and lows like a blocked wheelchair ramp at a restaurant we were looking forward to going to.

Catalina...where I proposed to my wife over 35 years ago and have not been to since...is relatively unchanged. It's a lot more expensive than it used to be but is still a quaint little slice of old-time California beach town.

And that's pretty much been our kind of light travel year. We'll pick this up again next year after we've moved. Thank you for your support of The World on Wheels.

Happy New Year!

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

FIELDS OF DREAMS: Sun Trust Park, Atlanta, Georgia

As of this writing, this is the newest stadium in baseball. Replacing the still useful Turner Field in downtown Atlanta, Sun Trust Park brings the Braves to the suburbs in nearby Cobb County. Opened in 2017, the stadium is also the anchor to a new shopping and entertainment center called The Battery Atlanta.

The Braves used to be called America's Team and were the most popular team in baseball for awhile due to former owner Ted Turner's massive broadcasting reach. Braves games were show nationwide on his Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) and the team had fans nationwide. During the 1990's, the team won five National League pennants and one World Series. Here are the stats:

Opened: 2017

Surface: Seashore Paspalum, Platinum TE

Construction cost: $622 million

Capacity: 41,804

Field dimensions: Left field - 335 ft; Left center - 385 ft; center field - 400 ft; right center - 375 ft; right field - 325 ft.

Home team: Atlanta Braves (National League - MLB) 2017 - present

Events attended: 1 game

Good access all around the entire stadium. Wheechair seating is plentiful all around the seating bowl. Most accessible seats have an overhang from the deck above blocking the view of the scoreboard. Video monitors are mounted to compensate.

Ticketing is easy, just go to Braves.com to click on wheelchair accessible seating.  We had no problem getting seats for the wheelchair and two companions.  Dynamic pricing means there are no set ticket prices but our seats by the left field foul pole were around $50. 

Public transit is almost non-existent to this park, there is not enough parking (we had to park a half mile away, pay $25, and hike to the stadium), and traffic is intense with no one directing traffic that we could see.

There are a few lodging choices are available near the stadium such as Marriott, Hilton, and Omni hotels.

Food choices are the normal ballpark fare. We did enjoy the hot dogs but the popcorn was too salty. They could have had a better beer selection. Our chip-enabled credit card would not work at their snack bars, which required you to slide them through the magnetic strip reader.

The concourse is open and monitors at the food stands allow you to follow the game. This is essential because it took me the first three innings to stand in line and get our food...the staff was nowhere near prepared to handle the record setting crowd that showed up the night we were there (41,807) 

In general, we were very disappointed in the fan experience at MLB's newest stadium.

Copyright 2018 - Darryl Musick

All Rights Reserved