Post #116525 by pablus on Sat, Sep 25, 2004 6:51 PM

Stuff about the great event later.

Right now at the Mai Kai, the hardcores - the supermen and women of TC - are enjoying the incredible atmosphere of the world's foremost Tiki Palace.

I am not one of them.

With Rusty Key, Ona Koka and myself all being family men - in a suspect car and a projected track right over our little village here in Tampa - there were too many chances for major problems to stay. We weren't afraid of being there... we were afraid of not making it back here in time for the ohana we live with. (No really, even though King Kukulele was calling me chicken and clucking at me in the courtyard this morning. And it hurt me. A pain I'll never recover from.)

I'm bummed like crazy but there was not another viable choice. sighhhh.

Our original plan was to leave after the festivities at the Mai Kai and drive to Tampa.

Glad we didn't wait - seems we would have been stranded in the hurricane on the road. As we approached "Alligator Alley" - an uninhabited road through the Everglades - we all smelled burning rubber.

A frozen compressor was eating the belt we had just replaced in the Bahia Cabana parking lot the day before.

We took the last exit before the alley. There were no service stations open so we just pulled into a parking lot to check out our options. 5 minutes of grumbling and I turn around to see a PepBoys being boarded up but with several bays open.

So $350.00 worth of new compressor later, we were on the road.

whew.

I'm sad not to be there... but I'm glad to have battened down the hatches here at home and the office for what we're going to get tonight and tomorrow morning.

I still envy them though.
The few - the faithful.