2/22/2022 – 2/26/2022
I’m changing my format so I’m not posting individual days in the past anymore. I think it will be easier on you guys to be able to read one post instead of a bunch.
On Tuesday I went to Clearwater beach to start the day. I went to the beach to enjoy the beautiful sand and weather. I laid out for about an hour and a half. I only had two hour parking so I had to go reposition before walking the beachside. Clearwater beach is probably the best beach in the Tampa area.
After the beach I went to downtown St Petersburg to see if there was anything there. I didn’t know I’d be spending a week here. I found a spot downtown and started walking. Central Ave. is where everything is in St. Petersburg. I went to the Tampa Bay Rays stadium first. After that I was going to go down to the waterfront then back to the van. I found a bar, Bar@548, about half way and stopped for a drink. I was just going to stay for one, then they told me that it was 2-4-1’s on all draft beers. While I was there I decided to go to the St Petersburg Grand Prix on Friday. It was only $35 for the day so why not? I ended up staying there all night. I met some awesome people. The girl was from Europe and travelling the US for a while.
On Wednesday I was so hungover I stayed in the van all day watching TV.
Thursday I did an actual walkabout of St Pete. I checked out the parks on the bay, St Pete Pier, saw the Miata’s practicing for the next day’s race. I went to an amazing grilled cheese place for lunch, Fo’Cheezy Twisted Meltz. My sandwich was good, but the BBQ sauce was too much for me. After lunch I walked down Central to Pinellas Ale Works Brewing. I found a discount card that gives me a free beer at 25 different venues around Tampa. This company does this for several cities. If you live in a bigger city check out Pub Pass. The staff at Pinellas was really fun and we played “guess the year that song came out” for a couple hours.
I headed back towards the water and went to Grand Central Brewhouse next. They had a live band outside and a second floor facing the street. I would definitely hang out here.
After Grand Central I walked by a bar that had a mini golf course, such a good concept. I kept walking toward the water and there was so much cool art.
The next stop I made was at Avid Brewing Company. I talked to an Irishman with a cute puppy here for about a hour. I found out, not surprisingly that St. Pete is expensive to live in. The urinal here was the best. The top was a sink to wash your hands and the used water cleaned the urinal, genius.
Friday was race day!!!!. I’m so glad I went. It was so much fun. It started with GT America qualifiers. This is supercars like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes, Toyota Supra’s, a Porsche, a Corvette, BMW, and Audi’s. I listened to the qualifiers from the van. I could here them from a mile away. I headed over so I could see the Indy Pro 2000 first race. These are the middle tier of Indy racing. It goes USF200, Indy Pro 2000, Indy Lights, then Indycar. This race went off without any issues. Next was the USF2000 race. There was a big crash in this race that split a car in half. Indy Lights was next and was uneventful besides them being really fast. The most exciting race of the day was next, GT America. On turn one of the first lap a Lambo pushed an Audi into the wall. A while later I saw an Audi spin out in front of me. There was some bumping and damage the rest of the race too. Next was actual Indycar racing. I hung out at turn one to see if there would be anymore crashes. Fortunately/unfortunately there weren’t. These guys were pros. This is also where I got super sunburned. I headed back to the van since I hadn’t eaten or had anything to drink in 6 hours. I was so dehydrated.
After rehydrating, making supper, and showering, I went to Dissent Craft Brewing Company and Big Storm Brewing Co. to end the day.
Today I nursed my sunburn for most of the day. I slept until 2 and hung out in the van until 6. No sun for Cody today. After a shower I went to a couple more breweries and got my Amazon package. I started at Grindhouse Brew Lab. This place was cool because they show movies every night. Southern Lights Brewing Company was recommended to me next. I closed out the night at 81Bay Brewing Company.
As I was looking for a place to park for the night I saw a bunch of nice cars in a Walmart parking lot. I checked it out and found myself in the middle of the underground racing scene of Tampa. I was in a Fast and Furious movie!! Overall it was actually pretty boring. A lot of people standing around mostly.
