I had a nice 4 day stretch which was a welcomed change of pace from the norm. On Thursday I woke up at 3:30 AM and drove to the airport for a 6:35 flight. I left my car in economy overnight parking and got super lucky getting a spot near the entrance. At 11 dollars a night this was preferred over taking taxis. Everything went smooth with the flight and I arrived in Orlando at 9:30. As I got in a cab at the airport I realized that the hotel I booked wasn’t very close to the convention center where I needed to be for the show. The place I was staying was called Mystic Dunes which was a 4 star hotel and I got a villa for 129 bucks which seemed like a steal. Unfortunately it cost me more money in taxis to and from the convention center that any savings was wiped out. I think this was a good display of my character though because I didn’t let this little speed bump deter me from having a good time. The show was good and I had a really great conversation with a vendor at the Capital Grille in Orlando which was worth the trip itself. After the show I spent the night at the resort which was more family oriented than anything but I still made it work.

On Friday I woke and I did something really stupid. I decided to make some coffee and have never used a coffee maker before in my life. I understood the filter and put some coffee beans in the filter and added water. Problem being was that I didn’t boil the water. To try to salvage the coffee I put the pot on the electric stove and that ended up burning the plastic off of the handle. Another bonehead move but not a big deal. My flight was at 5pm to Fort Lauderdale which didn’t give me a ton of time for anything other than the show. My overall impression of Orlando is that it was really spacious and nothing is close together. This leads to either a lot of taxis or making sure you have a car.

The flight to Lauderdale was about 45 minutes and the Rock picked me up from the airport. We went to his place and then got some Mexican food to eat. There was an unlimited drinks for 20 bucks at a local bar from 8-10pm and we decided to do that. I was drinking Grey Goose and Redbull, at least that’s what they said, and certainly got my money’s worth. At 10 we went to the W hotel where there was a swanky bar that served us these martinis for 14 dollars a piece. The bartender was a dime and we were working some game to see if we could show her an Eiffel tower. After we figured that we weren’t going to get anywhere we went to los olas which had a few more bars we hopped around to. We bought some nice cigars from a local joint and went back to the Blue Martini which is walking distance from his place. The Rock ordered some sort of Patron bomb which absolutely bombed the both of us. We went back to smoke the cigars and I was pretty much kaput. I couldn’t finish the cigar and it was making me nauseous. I think it was about 1 or 2 am but after that we called it a night.

I woke up at 9 the next morning, showered, and waited for the Rock to get up. He was still bombed from the night before but we decided to hit the Gulfstream which was a horse track. I brought 600 dollars to start the trip and was down to about 179 which included everything I did in Orlando. I spent about 100+ dollars the night before and was hoping that the 179 would last me the rest of the trip. At the Gulfstream we met up with a co-worker of the Rock’s and her husband was pretty knowledgeable about the horses. I went on an absolute tear under his tutelage and ended up winning somewhere in the 250 range hitting an exacta box one race and a trifecta (not boxed) in another. This was a crazy atmosphere and we really had a great time. After the track we went to Flannigan’s where I got some awesome ribs. This was at 5pm and it set my nutrition for the night. We called up a friend of ours from high school who lived near by and hung out with him for the rest of the evening. Even though we didn’t do anything all that exciting the conversation was really good and I enjoyed a relatively low key evening. My flight today was at 9:40 am which was a pain to get up for but I made it work. The flights once again were fine and I arrived back in Philly at 1pm which left plenty of time for a nap and some exercise. I ate a nice Dalessandro’s cheese steak for dinner and Ck4 and I watched the all star game to cap off a top notch 4 day weekend.

I know this isn’t my usual entry as I just documented everything I did without going into anything funny or specific but I want to save that for other posts and just keep this exactly what I did.