UMTravels

8:30am staff meeting — yes, me, in an early morning staff meeting. Shocking.

This week I’ll be reporting from a work/play trip to Sunny Florida (or at least I’m hoping for sunny) logging some billable hours for Shirts of Bamboo.

After Dan’s doctor’s appointment we are off to Daytona Beach — too bad it isn’t spring break with all the half naked guys running around. Well, not exactly after the doctor — there is picking up the rental car and getting lunch in with Lisa before we hit the road.

Check-in is at 4pm at the lovely (hopefully) WorldMark Ocean Walk. It’s a two-bedroom penthouse — which hopefully means sometime more (like a private hot tub) than waffle weave robes. WorldMark really needs to fix their descriptions if it doesn’t. Example: WorldMark Oceanside (the other ocean — north of San Diego) is an example of a “Penthouse” not including a private hot tub — should be renamed Deluxe instead.

Current plan is to check-in, see what they consider a full kitchen, and then do shopping for two days of dinners and breakfasts. It’s also turned into a business trip since Dan will be meeting with a store owner (seven locations) about carrying some bamboo items from our wholesale line.

Stay tuned for updates, unless I’m having too much fun.

MID-DRIVE UPDATE

Nothing like two geeks on holiday. We are finally making some time after having to repeated stop to get the toys in the rental car working. No Toyota Camry as promised, but instead we have a Ford Fusion with 3800 miles on it — the the Microsoft/Ford Sync system — hence the technology delays.

It was easy enough to get the computer plugged in and hooked up to the system so that we can listen to KPLU (Seattle Jazz Station) and still get directions from Microsoft Streets and Trips via GPS. It was getting the bluetooth on my phone to work — never did, but Dan’s newer bluetooth phone does work, and it downloaded his address book and everything. It’s actually better that his phone work than mine since he gets more calls than I do.

Next stop, Daytona Beach.

******** STOP THE PRESSES ********

Special Update for Helene: Lunch with Dan and Lisa at Pho 97 — a lovely Vietnamese restaurant on 34th in St. Pete. Great fresh rolls which both Lisa and I had — and I had a pork sandwich as well (my portion of the bill…. $5). Nice lunch before being dropped at Hertz.

AND NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM

Off to the market and the liquor store. Publix is a couple of miles north of us. Dinner is both shrimp and lamb with salad, bread, and asparagus…. on the worst collection of cookware that I have ever seen in a WorldMark resort. It’s so bad it is worthy of MORE than the call for a supervisor (still hasn’t shown up), a failing comment card, and many comments on the WorldMark Traveler’s Forum as to “what to expect”.

And here is a shot of Dan and I from last night. I’ll give the link to the rest of the photos when I get them uploaded.