Florida Trip

As some of you may be aware, on Friday, March 1 we begin our annual Florida spring break trip. We’ll be there for an entire week playing matches and generally avoiding Iowa weather. As a responsible adult I have, of course, already taken care of all the small travelling details such as checking-in for my flight and printing my boarding pass- this isn’t my first rodeo. While going to Florida is great and I’m sure it will be a great experience what I’m most excited about is knocking another state off my bucket list.

Let me explain, most of you know what a bucket list is, probably from watching the movie The Bucket List which I believe is about old people trying to kick the bucket or something. I know most people think of a bucket list as something you have when you’re old, but in my 6 yr old state-of-mind being a twenty something year-old is about two steps away from the grave so a bucket list is necessary. I’m  proud to say that I have already completed quite a few items from my list.

A few items already accomplished:

Visit 6^th street in Austin, Texas

Run a Tough Mudder

Throw up on an airplane

Eat at Torchy’s Tacos in Dallas, Austin, and Houston

Win at a casino

Lose at a casino

I know you’re probably thinking that after accomplishing all the things above, “What else is there to do?” Most people would lose all drive to live after doing all these things (especially throwing up on an airplane) but lucky for you I still have some things I want to accomplish. Since I knocked out a Tough Mudder which is a 12 mile obstacle course I figure the next logical step is to run a marathon, so that makes the list. I like tennis and coach tennis, so going to all 4 grandslams makes the list. I want to learn a foreign language, but sadly I don’t have a noble reason for that one; I just want to show off how smart I am. My longest, ongoing item on the bucket list is visiting all 50 states. Last year was a good one indeed; I added 7 new states to the list of those visited: Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, Utah, Kansas, Iowa, and Wyoming.

My current map of states visited

This year promises to be another big one with trips to Wisconsin and Michigan planned but first up is the trip to Florida.

In preparation for going to Florida I’ve been binging on Disney movies, injecting orange juice intravenously, and eating dinner at 4:30pm to blend in with the locals

And afterwards we'll go to the all night raves!

Like I said, this isn’t exactly my first go round at traveling, so I was prepared well ahead of time and started packing my bag a good hour before I needed to drop it off at the racquet center. This is obviously because I didn’t do laundry until two hours before in needed to drop my bag off.

People often look forward to different things when travelling. For our trip, so far I’ve heard a litany of answers such as going to the beach, playing outdoor tennis, staying at a nice hotel. But what I’m looking forward to most is pretty simple: just seeing the sun! You see, the last few weeks this is what I’ve been looking at all day.

Oh snow again...yay

Snow and winter is a little rough on a guy from Texas. It’s like eating Fun Dip. The first few mouthfuls of pure sugar are great but fast forward two hours and 1 case of Fun Dip later and you’re curled up in the fetal position on the floor questioning your life decisions and wishing it would all go away, “Help me baby Jesus!!”

If there is any sun to be had when we land (and with a name like the sunshine state there had better be), then I plan on soaking it all in for a solid 5 hours. Then I plan on curling up in the fetal position writhing in pain from a sunburn and once again question my life decisions and wish it would all go away. After this is accomplished then we can really begin the trip. I won’t be posting while I’m in Florida, but I’ll be back in two weeks, tan and with a full report.