Pulled out of Orlando after what was supposed to be a late start..well 10 am...drove about an hour West along a big freeway and arrived in Tampa. They are having the Republican Convention her for the next 3 days...they started a day late because of the hurricane. Driving through the downtown area there was a huge Police presence.. There was also a few protesters about protesting about God, Gays and Anti republicans so just the usual...We were looking for the Historical area and when we found it we came across more security, Black cars with heavy tint and people walking about packing heat..( I like the way that sounds..almost like I was a part of it :) ) Obviously someone of importance was either staying in that area... Ybor..
The news all week has been about this Convention, that was until Hurricane Isaac started to head towards Tampa ..Thankfully the Hurricane turned a bit and just left the area with winds and rain..Unfortunately New Orleans is in its path now and is a Ghost town tonight, as it is due to hit there tomorrow sometime. Hopefully all their levees and pumps work this time...On the TV they showed the Lake there was already overflowing !! We will wait and see what the morning brings.
Meanwhile back at dodge.... we drove onto St Petersburg, quite a nice city with not too many people about, They have a big Pier you can drive out on and we went out and had lunch there.. there were heaps of Pelicans waiting for a feed off the fishermen... While we were having lunch there were Dolphins having a play just off the Pier.
Finally arrived at St Petes Beach..the hotel we booked into was on a small Canal inlet, when we went to check in there was no office but a sign directing us across the Street to another Hotel ..So off we went and this Hotel was right on a magnificent beach, so we paid an extra 15 bucks a night and checked in here ...Its really like Old school but is in good nick...beside us on both sides there are high rise hotels. But this place is a real gem.   So we spent the afternoon watching the Kite Surfers and having a few drinks.. We actually cooked dinner at home here tonight, as we had a little kitchen, Peter did try to BBQ the meat but the Barbie was a lost cause so we used the small frypan in the unit.
 Jo & I did a trip to the grocery store after we checked in..We bought a 15 pack carton of Bud beers for $13.99 and a bottle of Koonunga Hill Shiraz for $9 and a Monkey Bay Sav Blanc $8 I dont think we can buy the grog for anything like that !!
A classic last night at dinner at Joes Crab House Jo & I paid $8 for a glass of the Crappest Chardonay while Peter had a Glass of Bud as big as a bucket and paid $2.30 and at lunch today Jo pain $2 for a stubbie of Bud Light and my bucket of coke was $2.85 ?? Struggling to work it all out. Enough to make a person drink beer !!
Anyway we are looking forward to hanging out here for the next 3 days and just chilling........