Tag: florida

B203 – I LOVE THIS CITY

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today has been just a day of travel, I woke up this morning in 23 degrees weather at 6am and quickly packed up before leaving florida and catching a plane back to the crazy city that is New York. We are back at the hotel from last time, the Vue something its called near Queens Boro bridge, this hotel literally gives us such a good view of Manhattan, I think ive shown it before when I first got to New York, well anyway Im like two floors above my last room and dead on facing the city, so this time Ive got such a better view. Ill show you it tomorrow maybe.

Its now like mid night and Ive just edited my photos from today and now just thinking of anything to write and all I can think really is how nice Florida was and how happy I am to be back in New York, tomorrow is a pretty chilled out day I think, so my plan is to explore hunters point a bit more, thats basically opposite Manhatten on the queens side of the river. Normally when you head to a city you get drawn to the main tourist spots, but im just going to walk around Hunter point and then Maybe head into town, but the main mission for tomorrow is to take some cool photos of the city and the people that live here.

I would love to write about how I plan on getting up at 5 in the morning to go and take photos of the sun set over the river or people on their rush hour commute, but that would just be a big fat lie, I dont plan on doing anything like that. part of the whole three photos a day thing, is that sometimes its just a down day with no plans and those are the days were I have to get creative with my photos and tomorrow might be one of those days. Im trying not to think about it too much other wise, Ill end up doing something adventurous and not chilled out at all and thats not the point of tomorrow.

heres my photos from today. enjoy.

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– packing up the car at silly O’clock this morning, I already miss this SUV –

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– the last palm tree I saw in florida and look at that sun rise! –

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– back in New York where everyone is constantly moving at 1 million miles an hour –

B201 – CATFISH, SOUTHERN STYLE

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If anyone has driven from Tampa to Bartow, or even been to this little town somewhere in florida called Bartow, you will hear the local talk about Catfish Country as a place you need to go an eat it. you will hear them talk about how great the cat fish is and how its such a famous place to go and eat at. Ive never had Catfish before and today was really my first time, ( I had a cat fish Sandwhich the other day but I spilt most of it down my top and covered the whole thing in ketchup. So Im counting this as my first time, this is kind of my review of cat fish and the restaurant Cat fish country.

One thing I wont talk about is the service, America waiters and waitress are the best in the world, where ever you go you’ll get a good service and thats because they work for tips. so its unfair for me to talk about their service.  As someone whos a huge fan of the traditional cod and chips, this is a biased opinion. but when cod and chips isnt on the menu, would I go for Cat fish, probably not. but if I was in florida again, would I go for Cat fish and chips, probably. its got an OK taste and is a bit like cod in the texture, but no where near the same amount of favour.

but what you get at this place Catfish Country is the whole experience, if feels like a food restaurant in the south should feel, and has all the right things, a massive TV showing the sports highlights, unlimited ice tea and the perfect atmosphere, these places always feel like they’ve spent 50 years collecting things from passers by, including their number plates and other weird items and this place is no exception, its full of just about everything you can image from over the size bud light neon signs, to taxidermy, to things that look like they belong to on a boat. but all done in a real aesthetically pleasing way. its just all looks like it genuinely belongs there.

If you are ever driving down highway 98 towards Bartow definitely stop off and give this place a try, you cant miss it theres a massive sign that says “Catfish Country”.

Heres my photos from the meal, I’m sorry to the locals but nothing you cook will be able to beat fish and chips from Brighton Pier.

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– this place definatly looks 10 x better than any fish and chip shop in the UK –
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– I wasnt even aware there was a catfish festival –
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– It looks almost the same to standard fish and chips but they do give you this little corn do ball thing –
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– I really like the fact every table had a paper hand towel roll, that always means you going to be in for some good food –
 

 

 

B200 – THIS HAS BEEN A MASSIVE DAY!!! 200 DAYS CONTINUOUSLY!!!!!!

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this is my 200th blog post, 200. thats how many days Ive done this in a row without a day off, thats at least 600 edited photos (some days I post more if its been a good day) and that with an average of 350 words per day thats a total of 70,000 words!! how many words is a distinction again, I cant remember? but I think its fair to say even though Ive written roughly 70,000 words, those people with a degree are still probably smarter than me.

When I first started this blog post challenge I was always thinking what I would do when I got to the 200 post mark, and for ages I thought I would have a cake and launch some fire works out of it or something, I definitely didn’t think I would be working in America and writing this post in Florida, I only really remembered that it was the 200 mark, yesterday when I saw it was B199.

Now this is a bit of a double celebration, because since I injured my leg 164 days ago, running a half marathon where completely screwed the tendon that connects my quad to my hip and basically had to learn how to use that leg again, I’ve been on a diet of burgers, pizza and beer. Well today was the end to that era and because I got up early and ran 5 miles before work. My time 45:13, which is an OK time but as Amy says its not about the timings at the moment, its just about getting back to how I was but Im pretty happy with the time and comparing it to my fastest 5 miles, Ive only got to shave like 2 minutes per mile off my time, which is completely do able.

The way I celebrated my success at reaching 200 post and running 5 miles was by doing the best thing anyone can ever do after running in 23 degree heat and thats by jumping in a cold pool straight after, our hotel has a pool and well, theres nothing like that feeling, made better by the fact I ran in some old trainers where my toe pokes out the end. so taking them off by the pool was probably the highlight, my feet where dead, but in a good way, they deserved every second of pool time.

Im now eager to get back out running but know that I need to take it slow, but I think if I set myself a goal of running 10 miles a week for the next month or so and then see how I feel after that, plus a few physo sessions in between, I should be OK.

Anyway heres some photos from my run today! todays been a good day, because it feels like I have completed two massive personal goals Ive had for a long time! and in a pretty cool part of the world!

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– Left: my person best – right: my time today, ok for a first proper distance run since my injury –
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– this photo was taken from inside the pool because I can and it felt right, those £45 trainers have done me well and still have a few miles left in them –
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– nothing beats the early morning sun –
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– run past this, seeing old classic american cars in this state always makes me want to buy one and restore it – 

B199 – CROC HUNTING DIDN’T GO SO WELL

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This morning I woke up with one plan and one plan only, to see a wild Alligator. that was my only mission, after speaking with the girl on at hotel reception she told me that I was definitely going to see one and that they are everywhere round here. even in the lake opposite our car park.  So that became my first place I looked, I wasn’t really too sure how close I could get to the water, but that didn’t stop me, Ive always wanted to see one and now Ive got that chance. turns out I didn’t see one in that lake, so back to google.

After spending some time on the internet googling “croc places near me”. literally thats what I googled. turns out that theres a a fair few lakes / swamps around but what I was expecting was some kind of beach on a lake, where you could walk around and take photos of alligators and everyone happy, that wasn’t what happened, its actually a lot hard than that.  We literally drove 10 miles out into the swamp land place, where they have these crazy birds which look like eagles mixed with Vultures mixed with black birds, that eat road kill and anything else they can find. these birds are literally like the size of a small dog and scare the hell out of me. I have no idea what they are called, but if anyone reading this does, please please let me know.

We now had to come up with a plan C, which involved parking the car and walking across a trail to see what we could find. about a mile down the the road from the scary birds we found this car park which was kind of close to a lake and thought that was our chance. but after walking around for like an hour, we didn’t see anything. literally nothing apart from this small blue lizard thing. So it was back to the hotel, for an afternoon sleep, not every day is like this, normally we are working and don’t have a chance to head back to the hotel when we want, so this was actually pretty nice.

Ive been on the internet trying to figure out my best chances of seeing a croc round here, Im pretty sure my best chance is going to be at a lake 18 miles away, where an alligator has just tried to grab a dog,  but i’m really not sure if I can make it over there before we leave on Monday. Might have to be either a really early morning thing or late at night, both really scare me because when its dark and they like to hunt then. if I can free up some time I will, but who knows. for now the mission is on hold, to be resumed.

here’s my pictures from today, if your ever in Bartow check out the antique stores they’re pretty cool and have given me loads of idea for my flat.

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– what are these birds, they look like something from a horror movie –
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– on our hunt to see an alligator earlier –
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– Im not a massive antique buff but just looking round these places it pretty fun –

 

 

B198 – I FEEL LIKE A TRUE AMERICAN

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So just got to our hotel in Tampa, Florida and the journey feels like its gone on forever, first we didnt have a pilot of the plane, no idea how that happens but it did. Im not going to moan about it thought, because now we are in Tampa and the car hire company have given us the one things I’ve always wanted. a proper american SUV, this thing is a beast. they have given us a GMC Yukon SLT, this thing is like a $60k monster. No idea why they looked at me and thought it would fine, but they did and Im happy about it.

Overall it feels quite good to be back in the south, I know Flordia is quite touristy but it doesn’t feel like that where we are, it feels like a cool part of the world, even though Ive only seen it in the dark. Tomorrow we have a day off, so im looking forward to explore this place, at the moment my main goal is to see a crocodile, like a proper wild one on the side of a river bank, but not sure if that will happen. the chances are ill just chill all day and try to burn of that ridiculous amount BBQ food I just eaten.

This is now like my sixth america state in the past 5 weeks and I really feel like I’m starting to understand a bit more about this place, it almost feels like I’ve completed america if that makes sense. every time I go to a new country I always want to feel some kind of connection to that place, and get the lingo along with the way of life. Im not sure if 5 or 6 weeks is enough time to feel like that, but with america I kind of feel like I’m starting to get the hang of the crazy country.

As today was just really like a travel day not many photos were taken but I did try and get out after dinner and do like a mini photo shoot with the SUV. and to be honest I think thee photo look pretty cool.

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– Would this SUV even fit on UK roads? –
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– I would love to drive round London in this –
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– flying to Newark airport to Tampa, literally spent the whole time just looking out the window, apart from when I was sleeping-  (only good thing about sitting at the back of the plane is that you can take good pictures) –

B158 – Im in a STATE OF EMERGENCY / Hurricane Irma!!

joshfspear5 Comments

So good news is I’ve landed in the USA, bad news is I’ve landed in North Carolina, where they are currently in a state of Emergency for Hurricane Irma. Everywhere has sold out of water and the military are on stand by. Its re assuring to know that the hotel I’m staying in also doesn’t have any bottled water. We are just following the Hurricane at the moment and waiting to see what it does with Florida, if it travels north up the coast, it could be an issue with us or does it travel in land, either way its looking like our flight out of Raleigh on Monday is going to be delayed as that’s when they are excepting the weather to hit us. The waitress in the bar next door said they are expecting to get hit with possibly a category 3 Hurricane, I have no idea what that means but im sure its nothing compared to a category 5.

The worst thing about this whole saga, is that when there’s a state of Emergency, the sale of alcohol is stopped. Meaning I cant even have a beer and ignore this whole situation.

For now the plan is to stock up on water, food and anything else and then carry on as normal till we have more news and then depending on how it goes drive somewhere safer or try and get on a flight. What ever happens, I will try and capture as many photos as I can. Im sure the whole thing will be fine, over the next few days we will have a better idea of what is happening and worst case I just end up getting my socks a bit wet.

In other news I met a nice guy called reverend Jones from South Carolina, he was up this way to preach and sing at a funeral and was staying at the same hotel as him. I managed to grab a photo of Reverend Jones, what a guy he was. Top man.

Heres my photos from today, started off in Toronto Canada now in Goldsboro, North Carolina.

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– Reverend Jones, South Carolina, USA –
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– flying into a state of emergency –
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– Toronto yesterday morning –