12/26/2025
Merry Christmas everyone!!!!
On the 22nd I was finally fed up with Walmart support. I looked under the van and the oil drain plug was barely worn down. I got a new one for $7 and found a shop that had a groupon for an oil change. I got the oil changed and had them put the new bolt in. They didn’t say anything about it. Nuts to Walmart. I haven’t heard back from their support yet and I don’t think that I will.
Now that I’m not worried about my oil anymore I got out of Orlando. I wanted to get a pic of Bob Ross’s grave before I left and then I stopped in Windermere, FL to hit up a brewery on my way out. They didn’t open for an hour after I got there so I took a walk around the little downtown and hung out until they opened. Windermere Brewing Company is a super cute brewery. They didn’t have anything spectacular, but I sat on the porch and enjoyed it.
I wanted to get to the Tampa area and made it to Dade City, FL. I went to The ABL. They are a brewery and reading lounge. They were doing trivia night and I had a BOGO so I figured why not. I did awful at Christmas trivia. I was thoroughly in last place. The beer was good though.
Yesterday I skipped Tampa all together and went straight to St. Petersburg, FL. I got a place booked on Harvest Hosts to park at for the night. I took a couple walk-abouts too. I walked all the way down to the pier first. I love downtown St. Pete with all the shops, bars, and restaurants. I wanted to check it out at night to see the lights, so I walked back tot he van to hang out for a couple hours.
I went back out after dark and walked to downtown. i stopped at a bar to get a cheap beer and play some darts. I left my phone on the table as I played. I went to the bathroom and when I came back it was gone. I got very concerned and asked the people around me to no avail. I rushed back to the van to try and track my phone. Google couldn’t track it and I remote locked it.
This morning I got up and went to the gym so I could connect to their internet and check on my phone. I still couldn’t connect to it and resigned myself to getting a new one. My last chance was checking back at the bar, but they didn’t open until four. After lunch I went back to the bar and they had found my phone and the bartender even emailed my that they had it. Of course Google had to troll me one last time and sent that email to my spam folder. I was so relieved that I got it back.