South Florida '08

This is one of those trips that I would have rather avoided, but what can you do... here's what happened. I have been trying to get my lazy friend to come with me to do some traveling. But since the time he was fat (he's lost 180+lbs since) about the only activity he enjoyed doing was visiting his summer home upstate New York and doing nothing there.

Well, after showing him some pictures from my Wisconsin SRT Track Experience at Road America he was convinced it is something he'd like to do. Great! Ideally, I wanted to hit up Laguna Seca in California and their famed Cork Screw turn, but we had literally just missed it by less than a week or two. Go figure. Of course the next best thing to California, at least in my book, is Florida.

Specifically Southern Florida, and when I found out that the Homestead-Miami SRT Track Experience was in town mid May, I quickly researched the opportunity and booked us on some super sweet airfare deals flying from Newburgh, NY to West Palm Beach for a mere $69 each way taxes included plus 50 bonus True Blue miles towards a future free trip. That was a no brainer.


In addition to the SRT Track Experience I convinced my friend that the original Margaritaville in Key West is a must! Considering he's a huge country fan, and has Alan Jackson's Margaritaville as his ringtone on the phone, that sealed the deal.


In terms of car rental I didn't go with Enterprise as I usually do in Florida, Hertz was actually cheaper and I decided to give them a shot. Using my AAA discount I decided to book a Mazda 6 thinking that based on Hertz reputation and large size I might actually get it, boy was I wrong. The West Palm Hertz was horrendous, from the customer service agent in the terminal to the supervisor at the rental facility a short shuttle bus ride away. I did not get the damn Mazda, instead they put me in an old Corolla S... it wasn't too bad but it did have over 20k miles and a check engine light on so I refused to take it. The car I ended up with was a Hyndai Sonata, and while I didn't like it the poor thing got amazing gas mileage, something to the tune of 460 on a tank and it wasn't even empty when I went to Miami International to exchange it for a Mazda 6... but drove out with a Ford Explorer, that was a pig on gas mileage. We also stopped at the Key West International Hertz, but that one was terrible too in customer service, we were asked to come back later in the day as they didn't have any cars yet... What?


Regardless, the SRT track experience was outstanding. We both got to race the new Viper, the Caliber, the Jeep, and every other car on the lot. I almost spun the Viper Convertible and ran over a cone on the track at about 100mph that went flying who knows where, but other than that it was a blast. I cannot wait for the video to arrive.



Immediately after the track day we headed to El Rancho in Key West where we spend the night. My friend got real drunk and for the rest of the night only embarrased me with his behavior. Margaritaville wasn't anything nearly what he expected and on that note we simply headed for Miami Beach, South Beach the following Morning.

Upon arriving at MIA airport to switch cars at Hertz it started pouring. We made the switch, went to the beach and it rained some more. But we stupidly enough stayed in the water anyway, lol That was actually fun.


The first and third nights we spend at Choice hotels. Econo Lodge in Florida City not too far from the track that charged us an extra person fee even though I could have swore I did put in 2 people occupancy. In South Beach it was Roadway Inn that we decided to stay in because I used my points from Choice Rewards credit card I have. The parking was great right under the building but $23 bux they charged us for it wasn't cool. My buddy got hurt so we didn't get to do much sightseeing in Miami as I expected, however I did check out Espaniola for the first time, and went near the Lincoln Road mall, but again we didn't do much walking. Well, I did actually. It has become tradition for me to walk up and down the entire length of South Beach and enjoy the views and exercise.


Leaving we nearly ran out of time mailing stuff from a local post office. But I was able to avoid much traffic and even made a detour in Deerfield Beach to grab some food. I wanted alligator tails but the place: Crabby Jacks no longer sold them so we settled for some Mahi Mahi and were on our way. Made the flight with minutes to spare and I woved never to travel with my friend again!


I hope I have more fun with my sister in Saint Martin/Sint Maarten next month.....