20 Sep 2022 - Tuesday

Tampa Washout

I noticed yesterday that we received a refund for the original Donuts boat trip. Assuming their craft can be fixed in time, we'll probably rebook again.

So today we decided to travel north up to Tampa and have a look around there. Weather was good and we set off around 11am and it wasn't long before we reached the Skybridge. They are still doing maintenance on the bridge, including an odd 'crane over the edge' operation.

The whole trip was just over a hour. We parked up in the Convention Centre there, it's on the waterfront in Tampa. This was quite close to the water taxi we'd wanted to ride. The idea was that it's a cheapish method of getting about the city. The tickets were $25 each, but could be used multiple times during the day.

We set off and found the taxi quickly and jumped aboard. Soon, we left the dock and headed upstream past the University and who had their rowing crews out on the river too.

One of the images above shows a dolphin that was swimming about in the brackish water of the river.

We also noticed that the sky was coming over very dark.

Indeed, at about the time we reached the farthest stop of the trip, we had an almighty thunderclap overhead and the heavens opened.

The craft returned straight to the dock and we sat there hoping the storm would pass over quickly. We were waiting about a hour...

Finally, we saw a drop in the weather enough to make a break for it and get onto the dock and try to return to the Conference Centre without drowning. Linda, using my hat for protection, was not amused.

We entered the conference centre, looking for a way down to the car park below. The place was almost deserted save for one security guard who directed us to the other entrance which was right next to the car park.

Traffic was busy in the area, no doubt due to the numerous accidents which had taken place in the heavy downpour. The i275 had two accidents that we saw, plus a couple of stopped vehicles on the roadside. Still, as we travelled, we were accompanied by a rainbow.

Still, the meal was very nice in the Fridays.

The trip back to the apartment was in the dark, the first time we'd ever driven over the Skyway Bridge in the dark. An unsettling experience!

We were back in the apartment by 10pm.