Day 6

Clearwater, FLA -- 

Hello! 

We are finally caught up, hooray! This morning we woke up around 11am. Jesse had woken up at 4:30am and was long gone at the field for practice. I headed to the pool by myself, as Mess, Fink, and Nick were slightly slower getting moving. Around noon Mess showed up and we laid by the pool and read for a bit. Then Fink and Nick joined us and we debated attending the 1 o'clock Phillies vs. Blue Jays spring training game...we decided it was a go.

We hopped in the car and headed to the field. There, we scalped tickets- 4 standing-room-only for $50. Not bad. Unfortunately, we then proceeded to run into a woman looking to get rid of extra tickets for only $5 each. But we can't dwell on the past, can we? The weather was gorgeous, about 85 and sunny, not a cloud in the sky-- plenty of opportunity for sunburn. Which we all got, minus Nick. 

Pitcher Vance Worley started off the game, allowing four hits and striking out three in four scoreless innings. The game ended up going into a tenth inning, ending in a 4-3 Philadelphia victory (cheers!).   To top off the beautiful weather and the victory we met up with my friend Danny from high school. He proceeded to endow upon us his Phillies "guest card," which gave us the ability to purchase any food or beverage from the stadium... 100% free (!!!).  After being assured multiple times by Danny that there was no actual money of his or anyone elses on the card but that is was actually FREE, we proceeded to help ourselves to what we calculated was about $175.00 worth of free food and drink. So a big thanks to Dan and Larry Ceisler who, not only were the cherry on top of the ballpark experience, but also funded our dinner from the Boston Market stand in the stadium that we took home and saved for later. Doesn't get much better than that.

Sufficiently sunburnt and extraordinarily full, we headed to Albertsons grocery to pick up a liter of Dr. Chill, the road trip price-friendly version of Dr. Pepper. We then headed back to the Grand Venezia and met up with Jesse who joined us at the pool for a few more games of Taps (Mess finally won one). 

After a quick hottub sesh we all made our way back to the apartment, where we showered, except for Mess who, as we know, hasn't been on his hygene game thus far. The five of us ate our Boston Market around the dining room table (some seriously awesome mac-and-cheese) and then played Bananagrams together until Jesse was ready for bed. I sadly said goodbye, and we all thanked him for the great visit and wonderfully comfortable sleeping arrangement.

We now currently sit in the apartment living room watching Community, tired, sunned, and ready for a long day of driving tomorrow. After a slight turn of events, we are currently unsure as to where we will be staying tomorrow. So, we will see where the road takes us tomorrow... As Mr. Messerly told us -- "It is always better to travel than arrive" and "The journey is better than the destination". 

We shall indeed be living by these words tomorrow. Adventures await. 

Good night all. <3 Rizzo