• The Road Warrior Report - December 30, 2015 - Orange Bowl Travelogue #3

      MIAMI, FL – No trip to South Florida is complete without getting into the swamp. We finally got into the swamp today, after an aborted attempt yesterday, with a high-speed airboat ride. The wife still wasn’t feeling well, so we went this one alone.

      After a nice lunch at a Pollo Tropical location on the way to the swamp, we went back to Coopertown Airboats. The place wasn’t nearly as packed as yesterday, and after about a 30-minute wait, we made it onto one of their big airboats for a trip into the Everglades.


      They promote these as “educational” excursions, and there is some of that. There is also some alligator spotting, etc. However, we enjoy the swamp boat tours because it’s really cool to be in an airboat that’s tooling out into the swamp at high speed. Simple as that – it’s super fun. Not like a regular boat at all, because you are basically just skimming along the top of the water, which is only a foot or two deep in most places.


      After that, as we were heading back to the hotel, we got a text from the wife indicating that the fire alarm at the hotel was going off. Normally, we are not too concerned about such things, false alarms being prevalent. However, when we arrived back at the hotel, the wife was standing outside, and there was a Miami-Dade fire engine under the portico in the front of the hotel. Uh-oh.

      As it turned out, there was an elevator problem that generated some smoke. This did not surprise us, as we observed days ago that the inspection certificates for the elevators in this hotel expired last July.


      Unfortunately, we are on the seventh (top) floor of the hotel, and the problem had, needless to say, shut down all elevator service. In fact, the wife had to hobble down seven flights in her walking boot and wasn’t particularly happy about it.

      Unfortunately, she did not save our Orange Bowl tickets from the potential fire, an oversight that we discussed with her. Sure, if there’s a fire at your door, don’t take anything, obviously. But she took her purse and some other stuff and left the game tickets in the room. Priorities, man.

      Anyway, she met us outside, and since the firemen (and the cops, who arrived while we were sitting in the parking lot) were still there and the elevators didn’t work, we figured we’d head to dinner. We drove over to Bayside, or Bayshore, or some such. It was near the Bay, anyway. We had a nice dinner at a place called Monty’s Raw Bar. It was Happy Hour, so the oysters on the half shell and stone crab claws were cheaper, which is to say, still not particularly cheap. Still, it was good, and they validated parking.

      Tomorrow’s Game Day, so tonight ended early. Gotta get rested up for a big day tomorrow. The wife isn’t going to the game, but my buddy from Houston who is arrived this afternoon. We’re headed to the stadium about 11 tomorrow morning to beat a lot of the traffic, hopefully.

      Next report post-game. Boomer Sooner and BEAT CLEMSON!!
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