3/12/2022 – 3/25/2022
I just realized that it’s been fifteen days since I posted last. Sorry about that. I guess there has been a few things that have happened since I last posted.
I went back to BrewHub, found the GM, and had him grab my battery for me. It got delivered to the production floor. That’s why they couldn’t find it. After that I found a restaurant/bar that has all-you-can eat specials everyday. On Saturday’s it was wings. I’d been craving wings for a while. I ended up eating 29 wings and two orders of fries. I was stuffed. After laying around for a while I went to get a haircut. I had had enough of it going over my ears. Finally, I went to work installing the new battery. It ended up being wider than my old ones, so I had to do some modifications to the shelf it was on. It didn’t end up the prettiest, but it gets the job done. It’s amazing how much lighter it is compared to lead acid batteries. If I would’ve been home and this happened, I would’ve built my own battery that was larger and cost less.
The next couple of days I visited a some breweries and didn’t really do much. I went to Front Page Brewing, Tampa Bay Brewing Company, and Magnanimous Brewing. I don’t remember if I talked about the Pub Pass that I got a while ago, but It’s totally worth it. A free beer at 25 breweries. Yes please.
On the 15th I explored downtown Tampa, at least parts of it. I had spent the night just North of downtown by Magnanimous Brewing so i could leave from there. I started by doing the river walk. That was pretty neat. I saw a bar dedicated to the 80’s and 90’s that I made a note of. I saw Amalie Arena, where the Tampa Bay Lightning play. Next, I went to Sparkman Warf. This has a bunch of little food vendors and a sitting/play area. Some of the vendors are in repurposed shipping containers.
At the end of the river walk I hopped on the tram to get to Ybor City. Ybor City is the really old, kind of rundown part of Tampa. It’s where the Cuban population set up at the beginning of the 1900’s. The main street is cute, but most of the city is warehouses and run down residential. I went to a couple more breweries that are on the tour, Tampa Bay Brewing Company (the other one) and Barriehouse Beer Co. TBBC was mostly the same as the other one, but Barriehouse had some good styles. I talked to a couple of middle aged guys and they told me a few places to go and what is in the surrounding area. I wanted to go to Copperhead Brewing, I even walked the extra mile out of my way to get there, and they were closed for a company event. That bummed me out.
I took the tram all the way to the far end of downtown near where I started and went to GenX Tavern to finish their happy hour. This was the 80’s/90’s bar. The cheeseburgers there are huge.
On St Patrick’s day I went back to downtown St Pete. It was fun, but was a bit of a disaster. On my way down to St. Pete I stopped at another two breweries on the tour, Southern Brewing and Winery and Bay Cannon Beer Company. The server at Southern was really funny.
I parked at the same general spot as I did for the grand prix. I made a note in my phone where I parked since it all looks the same in that area. I walked down to Central Ave and it was pretty busy. Once I got to the bar area, it got packed in a couple places.
I thought about doing one of the pub crawls, but decided against it. I went to a few bars and breweries and ended up at a bar to play pool. I ended up closing the place down and meeting a bunch of people. Here is where the disaster starts. I’m walking back to the van and my phone dies on the way. I get to the general area of where I parked, but everything looks the same and I can’t find it. I start walking, looking for a place to plug my phone in. I end up walking at least a mile in the wrong direction to find a store with an outside outlet. I’m sitting on the ground while my phone is charging and security walks up and starts giving me hell about being on the property. I get enough of a charge to see where I am and the direction I should go. I make my way back, wander around around for another half hour or hour until I finally find the van. I finally got to pass out at 6:30 AM.
On the 19th I took a drive down the coast all the way to St Pete beach at the Southern tip of the island. I went back up North all the way up to Dunedin, FL.
I spent the 20th walking around exploring Dunedin. It’s a cute little town with a great walking path, a bunch of shops, and parks. I found an ice cream shop that sold hand made shakes for $3.50. I scooped one of those up and walked to the pier. On my way back to the van I stopped at HOB Brewing Company to take a break before settling in for the night.
On the 21st I went to two more trail breweries, Dented Keg and Big Storm, the other one. The staff and patrons at both places were great to talk to.
On the 22nd I went to the game store that was recommended to me from Dented Keg. They had a Emperor class titan on display!!! After that I went frolfing and once again lost my driver. This time in the water. Both of the courses that I went to here are hard. They are really closed in and have a lot of water. After that I went to a disc golf store and bought another disc.
On the 23rd I wanted to cross the Sunshine Skyway Bridge down to Bradenton, FL. I wanted to take a pic of it first so I headed to Fort DeSoto park. This is one of the only spots to get a good pic of it. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t the best, but I made it work. I found out that there are tolls all the way out there and was $5 to get into the park. I ended up getting in for free since I was only going to be there for a few minutes.
The bridge has a great story and you should check out the wiki. It includes a collapse, suicides, and hauntings. It’s over four miles long. I think this is the third longest bridge that I’ve crossed, behind the Mackinac and Seven Mile. I could’ve gone over the longest outside of LA, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, but it would’ve been 17 miles out and 17 back since it goes back up to DE. I’ll have to hit the longest when I go through LA.
Once I got down to Bradenton I parked and walked the river walk and downtown. There isn’t much there. I covered most of downtown and only walked three miles. I did find Motorworks Brewing though and stopped in for a refreshment. This place is really nice. Fortunately it was dead and I got to hang out with the staff.
Today I explored Sarasota and Siesta Key. I walked the bayside of Sarasota and then back on Pineapple Ave. The bay was really pretty and there was tons of art on Pineapple Ave. The largest stand out was the amount of old people. That city is full of old people.
I was told to go to Siesta Key and I was close so I headed down to the beach for the afternoon. Siesta Key beach is the number 1 best beach in the country, according to the signage. It was very nice. The sand is super fine and the water was warm. The village was your typical beach town with lots of shops, bars, restaurants, and no parking. I luckily found a spot on a residential road and didn’t have to pay.
After the beach I was hot and tired from walking in the sun so I found Calusa Brewing on the way out of town. I stopped for a beer and then went to a park to chill for the rest of the day.
