Last day in the sun

If you want a conversation starter with some of the locals, you could certainly do worse than wearing a Tampa Bay Rays shirt.

We were out beating around yesterday and I spotted a decent looking Rays shirt for half-price, only $25. So I figured, what the hell, the Jays are probably going to suck this year anyway (I'm not going to get suckered into getting excited just because they went 2-1 in Texas. They were in first place in the AL East at the end of May last year) and everyone seems very big on the Rays. Plus, we decided to go and catch a Rays game last night. Everyone else was going to go and catch the Lightening play the Senators, but I'm not the biggest hockey fan in the world. And I love a good baseball game.

We walked up to the box office, bought perfectly fine tickets for right field and had a grand old time. Plus, it was cowbell night at the stadium; everybody got one. My ears are still kind of ringing from thousands and thousands of the things ringing.

It was good fun...a bit slow starting off, but it was exciting at the end, with some controversy over a call, and the Rays had a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth, but came up just short. The fans aren't on par with the Yankees fans from the game I caught in 2008, but they were fun enough.

But yeah, anyway, I decided to wear the Rays shirt I bought again today and was stopped three times when out running around, asked about the game last night, their chances for this year and if there were in town this evening. So that was kind of fun. I neglected to mention I normally cheer for the Jays.

The other memorable thing from yesterday was eating at a place called The Golden Corral. Cathy's family raved about the place, because the food was good, plus it was an all you can eat buffet.

By the time we got there yesterday afternoon, it was a little after 1:30. Now, what we didn't know is that from 1:30-3:30 they offer a seniors discount on meals...it's about $5.50 for the buffet and a drink, which is pretty awesome. We were in line to get in - the youngest people by several decades - and when we reached the cash gave the woman the full meal price. She handed me back a whack of money. When I gave her a funny look, she smiled and said, "Honey, if you're going to have to fight through all of them to get at the food, you might as well pay the same price as them."

Which was both kind, pretty funny, and an awesome deal. We spent basically $11 between the two of us for all we could eat. Which was a lot as we didn't eat for the rest of the day.

Today wraps up our Florida adventures. We're off early tomorrow, get into Ottawa in the afternoon and then have to do a mad, last minute resupply at Costco. The weather was looking kind of crappy today, the first time this week. However, the sun has broken out, the temperature has warmed up and Cathy is saying we ought to hit the beach one last time. So I'm off. See you later...