Bicycle Tour of Florida, Part 4
Tampa and the Skatepark of Tampa drained me of a whole lot of my funds. But the open road called me. So I left for Orlando with not a lot of money left in my bank account.
Bad idea. But that was the least of my worries.
The day I left from Tampa I knew I wouldn’t make it to Orlando in one day. I left at like 1:00 and so I knew I’d be camping somewhere. Only that somewhere ended up being a reserve with a FLORIDA PANTHER that came into my camp and GROWLED AT ME.
There is nothing as scary as an F-ing panther growling at you. When you’re in the middle of the woods, alone, and it’s late at night. I heard the growl, got out, turned on my headlamp, saw eyes, and freaked. I packed up my stuff and left my camp.
Made it a few miles down the road in the dark, and decided to just camp on the side of the road. Seriously looked like a homeless dude. But whatever, it’s better than being eaten alive by a damn panther.
The next day I woke up, realised I set up camp in a spot where everyone who drove by could see me, but didn’t give have a shit, because I was alive, and on my way out of the woods and into civilization.
And what civilization it was. Orlando has got to be one of the most expensive places to live, ever. It costs $12 to skate for two damn hours there! And it takes a million hours to get anywhere because of traffic. Not where I’d want to live.
But the people were awesome, as always. I stayed with my friends from Naples, and they ended up putting me up for a while. As in a week. I wanted to skate a contest in Orlando, but it just didn’t end up happening. I ended up having to leave with them to go to another friend’s 21st birthday. Not that bad, really.
So I stayed in Orlando and skated a few different parks. The Van’s Park, which was overpriced and huge and poorly built. But fun. The Orlando parks built by Team Paine rocked, great flow and just so much speed. Not as good as the St. Augustine park, but good nonetheless.
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