Flo-Rida Adventures Part 5

Until it crashed into his face, I had never even heard of a stinkbug! Tristan was vigorously wiping his face with hand sanitizer after the bug hit and, indeed, the smell was rather pungent! Apparently, the bug emits odor through holes in its abdomen. One of the many adventures connected with our visit last month to Florida.

This is the final installment of our 2011 Flo-Rida Adventures series!

There’s no doubt about it, it’s a long drive! We divide it into two days and usually, spend one night on the road in a hotel. Unfortunately, we sometimes get dumpy rooms under respectable hotel chain names. On the way home, we ended up in a room at the Comfort Inn that was musty, damp and dingy with sudden, loud noises from the room next door.

One of the reasons we drive is so we can bring our two dogs, Moose and Spike. This close-up of Spike’s nose was shot on my camera by Susan, for the purposes of  –  I have no idea why she took this picture!

Every single morning, Susan is up early to give Moose her insulin shot. As a result, sunrises from our balcony in Cocoa Beach were a welcome distraction from the fatigue. It’s pre-dawn.

A new day means brand new coupon possibilities and a chance to share the 90+ heat with man’s best friend; wait, no, my mistake, this is Susan’s best friend!

One of the high points while driving was hearing Tristan sing the entire Flobots song, “Handlebars”. It’s pretty darn impressive, not to mention a great song!

I can’t deny I employed conflict avoidance strategies during the drive. Susan found the air conditioning in the car too cold, so, wrapped in a fleece blanket, she’d say, “I don’t know how you can sit in front of the air conditioning vent! Aren’t your knees cold?” Sitting behind the wheel in shorts, my wisest response was, consistently, a tight-lipped, “Hmmmm.” You have to stay on your toes so you can recognize those provocative comments meant to lead nowhere good!

Not being fans of the taste, Tristan and I found out the hard way that all Dominoes' pizza crusts across the United States are now stuffed with garlic! He did get to snack at Ron John’s, as his mother prepared to eat a pizza slice!

BTW, I do have authorization from the individual on the left to use this picture. For more Cocoa Beach adventures, see my August 22, 2010 blog, titled "Crazy for Cocoa Beach"! You can hardly wait for next year, huh?