DodgeViper01
Enthusiast
As many of you know, I travel to Florida quite frequently and it always ends up being an exciting trip. I have been fortunate enough to drive down a variety of cars making each trip different but this time I took the Viper. Yes, it is not the first time I was doing this but this time was different by far.
So the trip started on Sunday May 25th at 6am but we did not depart until 8am that day because my girlfriend held up plans unintentionally. Why you ask? Apparently she had an allergic reaction to some raspberries she had a day prior. I tried to contain myself but I could not help it because it was entertaining. See, every time we decide to go to Florida something happens to Dana. Last year she had a sis in Palm Beach while on vacation and that led to a horrible hospital experience in West Palm Beach, and the year before that she had a high temperature of some sort which kept her in the house for days. Finally after two hours we were able to get some antibiotics and get the trip on the road. It is now 8am. The Viper is gassed up and the odometer is reading 48,547 miles. We are ready to go.
We hit the NJ Turnpike and start cruising southbound. The highway is pretty empty so I assume that everyone is either where they have to be for the holiday weekend or people are just not driving because of the gas prices. Either way, I could care less because that means less traffic for me.
By the first gas stop we are in Fredericksburg, VA, I was a little confused. I ask my girlfriend, "doesn't it seem like we got a bit far on this tank of gas?" She says "yeah it does seem so." So we quickly fill up to figure out what the MPG was and to our surprise it was 20.8 MPG. I was shocked because I had been having this gas mileage problem and Chuck Tator had just about replaced everything. I guess everything he changed worked because now I was getting what I was supposed to in 6th gear. I quickly pick up the phone and call Chuck saying Thank you. He was perplexed because I caught him a little of guard with the message I left, but when he called me back he was happy just like me.
So I start driving again after the fill up thinking wow, I must have had some kind of "super" gas and this mileage thing will go back to my normal 9-12 MPG but after three more stops, I still averaged almost 21 MPG. Needless to say, I was happy as gas only cost just over $200 to get to Florida which is cheaper than two airline tickets and I get to have my car!!!!!
Gas Stop:
Well after a few days of Melbourne Beach, Florida and checking out the house, my girlfriend and I come to the conclusion that we need to do some shopping but want to visit our normal shops in South Beach. I quickly start to look on the computer for a place to stay. All our normal hotels (The Loews, The Shelborne, etc) are either booked or asking absurd pricing for the two nights we want to stay there so I start to look on hotel sites like Hotels.com, priceline.com soberentals.com and others of this nature. I find a four star hotel (The Palms) and the price is great, $125 a night for a standard 200 square foot room. My girlfriend was not around for the evening so I decided to save it on my laptop and show it to her the following morning and book it upon her approval.
We wake up the following morning and I show her the hotel. She is pleased and I go to book it but the price changes on the confirmation page. The price changed from $125 a night to $240 a night. Needless to say I was pissed. It was still not that bad but you know when you see something you want and then it is taken away from you, you are on a mission to find it again. Well I took it upon myself to complete this mission. I quickly shop around to much disappointment. Looks like the hotel raised their rates but luck strikes again on a Florida promotion site. $110 a night for the same room. Is this possible? I quickly go to book it and at the confirmation page, it states, there is a change in the rate. Again we are back up to the $240 a night. DAMN DAMN DAMN! Now I am furious and started searching again. Yes maybe I am cheap but heck I was on a mission. If I did not find anything, I could pay the $500 for the two nights but at least be happy that I tried searching and it was unsuccessful.
Well after about 15 minutes I end up on this site that does all the shopping for you. It looks at all the discount sites and gives you the rate from each. It askes you to choose the sites you want to compare and I ended up checking all of them. This German site called Hotels.de was one of the choices and I had never heard of it but heck, I was willing to try anything. I end up looking at all the sites and hotels.de ended up having the best rate possible. Now upon looking at this site I thought that this was not possible but heck I would book it anyway. I ended up looking at the room choices and just laughed. I am thinking to myself that there is no way I can get these rooms this cheap but with hesitation I book it. We start to drive down to Miami Beach (May 28th) and we are just saying to each other, we are going to be homeless when we get there and have to pay whatever the hotel tells us to pay but we both laugh and say it is worth the risk. We finally get to Miami and the hotel. I enter the lobby and I am impressed. Hotel seems top notch. We get to the checkin counter and they ask for my last name. I give it to them and then they say, Welcome Mr. Jean-Pierre & Ms. Liteplo. I was thinking, oh boy we are screwed. Then the woman states, all we need is your credit card for possible hotel expenses and you will be all set. I was like, WHAT?? She returns my card and says, "you will be in Room 604 which is one of our ocean front junior suites." I say thank you and walk up to the room. I open the door of the room and my jaw drops to the ground. I look at Dana and say, wow, the site actually worked.
Now right before I left my house in Melbourne, I was looking on hotels.de to choose a room. They had three choices and I picked the ocean view suite, still thinking we would not get this room. Well we did at a rate of $70 a night plus valet parking $30/night. The kicker is that the room is a $899 a night room for the time we were there. On the door it says they charge up to $1100 a night for the room. I just laughed to myself and said, damn, I am good, over 90% off!!!!
Needless to say, that was a MAJOR highlight of the whole Florida trip.
So now that we saved a ton, we figure we will hit Lincoln Drive and Ocean Drive to do some shopping. We headed to dinner and then hit the stores and purchased some neat clothing.
Dinner Shot, Car Looks Good in Palm Beach:
I give the car back to the valet and head up to the room. I decided I wanted a late night snack so I call to have my car returned to front and they say no problem. As I get to the lobby and walk through the doors, I could tell something was wrong. I walk up to my car and the valet tells me that something happened to the car. I look eagerly and ask what is wrong. He states that the button for the e-brake handle broke.
I am thinking great, this is going to cost some money but I still had that midnight snack on my mind. So I tell him I will handle this when I return in a few minutes. I quickly run to the store and keep thinking that I am not paying to have the car fixed so I return to the hotel with snacks in hand and tell the front desk that I want to speak to someone. They bring out the head of security and he gets in the car and tries to fix it with no avail. He says, let me take you name and room number so I can complete the report and I will have the head of valet service contact you tomorrow. I say okay and we will talk tomorrow.
The following day comes along and I end up meeting with the guest relations representative after waiting for 15 minutes and she assures me that this will be taken care of. She says send her and estimate and they will cut a check ASAP. I needed an oil change that day so I was going to a dealer anyway. I get to the dealer and ask for a quote and to my surprise the repair is going to cost $500!!!
Damn, that is one expensive e-brake! I leave the dealer with estimate in hand and give it to the hotel. They say the representative is gone for the day but she will get to it tomorrow which just happens to be the day we are leaving. Now I am worried!
Checkout arrives (May 30th) and I end up meeting with a the head of valet service and he asks for a copy of the estimate and gives me his bosses phone number. He seemed genuine so my mind was a bit at ease with the situation but I was not 100% certain I would get paid. I ended up leaving the hotel that day and going back to Melbourne still uncertain but the following day I get a phone call from the head person in charge asking for my address as she would like to cut the check by the end of the day and get it in the mail next week. I was SHOCKED!!! I still have yet to get the check as it has only been a few days since mailing but I will keep you all updated in terms of that situation. Probably the best part of checkout was the drive home because we hit a milestone, 50,000 Miles!!!!!!!!!
Well our trip starts to wind down and we only have one more event to attend. My younger brother, who lives in Florida, tells me that a few people he knows are attending this Mustang Event (30 cars) and that I should attend. He has a highly modded Mustang and I figured why not. Yeah I will be the only Viper there but I could care less as I just like driving with other sports cars. So we decided to attend and take the trek to the meeting spot which is only 45 minutes from Melbourne in Orlando. Upon getting there, some very nice Mustangs were on display. Roush cars, Saleen cars, GT500s, and more. I was entertained. At the drivers meeting they tell us that this is going to be a nice drive to Tampa.
Now for all who do not know, Tampa is about 150 miles from Orlando so it is a nice drive if done right. Please tell me why they took BACK ROADS the WHOLE WAY?!?!?!?!
The damn drive took 3 hours to get to this stupid restaurant in a strip mall. Now I was thinking Tampa; water; wow, this place will be nice but no, on the hottest day so far (92 degrees), they decided to visit a strip mall! I think we all know how I reacted to this one; I left with the people I came with and ended up going somewhere else; Applebees.
So I drove 300 miles back and forth to go to Applebees?? Got to love it, but to be fair, that was some good food.
The Drive Home From Tampa Got Boring For My Girlfriend:
Before I knew it June 3rd was here and we had to leave to go back to Long Island. I think it is fair to assume that we were not excited but we had to do it.
We left on June 4th at 4am and anticipated an arrival time of 9pm in Long Island. Well little did we know Mother Nature was working against us and as soon as I entered Maryland, the storm of the year greeted us with down pouring rain, heavy winds, and a tornado warning. With only 300 miles left in our trip, we had to cruise at 50MPH+/- for about two or three hours and maybe made it only 50 or 75 miles. That downtime just added to our timeline and made us end up home at midnight! It was not the best ending to the trip, but I still look back and say, it was still one heck of a trip. We are now home and the car reads, 51,760 Miles!!! Talk about great times.
Now all the car needs is a car wash; BADLY!!!!
So the trip started on Sunday May 25th at 6am but we did not depart until 8am that day because my girlfriend held up plans unintentionally. Why you ask? Apparently she had an allergic reaction to some raspberries she had a day prior. I tried to contain myself but I could not help it because it was entertaining. See, every time we decide to go to Florida something happens to Dana. Last year she had a sis in Palm Beach while on vacation and that led to a horrible hospital experience in West Palm Beach, and the year before that she had a high temperature of some sort which kept her in the house for days. Finally after two hours we were able to get some antibiotics and get the trip on the road. It is now 8am. The Viper is gassed up and the odometer is reading 48,547 miles. We are ready to go.
We hit the NJ Turnpike and start cruising southbound. The highway is pretty empty so I assume that everyone is either where they have to be for the holiday weekend or people are just not driving because of the gas prices. Either way, I could care less because that means less traffic for me.
By the first gas stop we are in Fredericksburg, VA, I was a little confused. I ask my girlfriend, "doesn't it seem like we got a bit far on this tank of gas?" She says "yeah it does seem so." So we quickly fill up to figure out what the MPG was and to our surprise it was 20.8 MPG. I was shocked because I had been having this gas mileage problem and Chuck Tator had just about replaced everything. I guess everything he changed worked because now I was getting what I was supposed to in 6th gear. I quickly pick up the phone and call Chuck saying Thank you. He was perplexed because I caught him a little of guard with the message I left, but when he called me back he was happy just like me.
So I start driving again after the fill up thinking wow, I must have had some kind of "super" gas and this mileage thing will go back to my normal 9-12 MPG but after three more stops, I still averaged almost 21 MPG. Needless to say, I was happy as gas only cost just over $200 to get to Florida which is cheaper than two airline tickets and I get to have my car!!!!!
Gas Stop:
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Well after a few days of Melbourne Beach, Florida and checking out the house, my girlfriend and I come to the conclusion that we need to do some shopping but want to visit our normal shops in South Beach. I quickly start to look on the computer for a place to stay. All our normal hotels (The Loews, The Shelborne, etc) are either booked or asking absurd pricing for the two nights we want to stay there so I start to look on hotel sites like Hotels.com, priceline.com soberentals.com and others of this nature. I find a four star hotel (The Palms) and the price is great, $125 a night for a standard 200 square foot room. My girlfriend was not around for the evening so I decided to save it on my laptop and show it to her the following morning and book it upon her approval.
We wake up the following morning and I show her the hotel. She is pleased and I go to book it but the price changes on the confirmation page. The price changed from $125 a night to $240 a night. Needless to say I was pissed. It was still not that bad but you know when you see something you want and then it is taken away from you, you are on a mission to find it again. Well I took it upon myself to complete this mission. I quickly shop around to much disappointment. Looks like the hotel raised their rates but luck strikes again on a Florida promotion site. $110 a night for the same room. Is this possible? I quickly go to book it and at the confirmation page, it states, there is a change in the rate. Again we are back up to the $240 a night. DAMN DAMN DAMN!
Now I am furious and started searching again. Yes maybe I am cheap but heck I was on a mission. If I did not find anything, I could pay the $500 for the two nights but at least be happy that I tried searching and it was unsuccessful. Well after about 15 minutes I end up on this site that does all the shopping for you. It looks at all the discount sites and gives you the rate from each. It askes you to choose the sites you want to compare and I ended up checking all of them. This German site called Hotels.de was one of the choices and I had never heard of it but heck, I was willing to try anything. I end up looking at all the sites and hotels.de ended up having the best rate possible. Now upon looking at this site I thought that this was not possible but heck I would book it anyway. I ended up looking at the room choices and just laughed. I am thinking to myself that there is no way I can get these rooms this cheap but with hesitation I book it. We start to drive down to Miami Beach (May 28th) and we are just saying to each other, we are going to be homeless when we get there and have to pay whatever the hotel tells us to pay but we both laugh and say it is worth the risk. We finally get to Miami and the hotel. I enter the lobby and I am impressed. Hotel seems top notch. We get to the checkin counter and they ask for my last name. I give it to them and then they say, Welcome Mr. Jean-Pierre & Ms. Liteplo. I was thinking, oh boy we are screwed. Then the woman states, all we need is your credit card for possible hotel expenses and you will be all set. I was like, WHAT?? She returns my card and says, "you will be in Room 604 which is one of our ocean front junior suites." I say thank you and walk up to the room. I open the door of the room and my jaw drops to the ground. I look at Dana and say, wow, the site actually worked.
Now right before I left my house in Melbourne, I was looking on hotels.de to choose a room. They had three choices and I picked the ocean view suite, still thinking we would not get this room. Well we did at a rate of $70 a night plus valet parking $30/night. The kicker is that the room is a $899 a night room for the time we were there. On the door it says they charge up to $1100 a night for the room. I just laughed to myself and said, damn, I am good, over 90% off!!!!
Needless to say, that was a MAJOR highlight of the whole Florida trip.So now that we saved a ton, we figure we will hit Lincoln Drive and Ocean Drive to do some shopping. We headed to dinner and then hit the stores and purchased some neat clothing.
Dinner Shot, Car Looks Good in Palm Beach:
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I give the car back to the valet and head up to the room. I decided I wanted a late night snack so I call to have my car returned to front and they say no problem. As I get to the lobby and walk through the doors, I could tell something was wrong. I walk up to my car and the valet tells me that something happened to the car. I look eagerly and ask what is wrong. He states that the button for the e-brake handle broke.
You must be registered for see images
I am thinking great, this is going to cost some money but I still had that midnight snack on my mind. So I tell him I will handle this when I return in a few minutes. I quickly run to the store and keep thinking that I am not paying to have the car fixed so I return to the hotel with snacks in hand and tell the front desk that I want to speak to someone. They bring out the head of security and he gets in the car and tries to fix it with no avail. He says, let me take you name and room number so I can complete the report and I will have the head of valet service contact you tomorrow. I say okay and we will talk tomorrow.
The following day comes along and I end up meeting with the guest relations representative after waiting for 15 minutes and she assures me that this will be taken care of. She says send her and estimate and they will cut a check ASAP. I needed an oil change that day so I was going to a dealer anyway. I get to the dealer and ask for a quote and to my surprise the repair is going to cost $500!!!
Damn, that is one expensive e-brake! I leave the dealer with estimate in hand and give it to the hotel. They say the representative is gone for the day but she will get to it tomorrow which just happens to be the day we are leaving. Now I am worried!Checkout arrives (May 30th) and I end up meeting with a the head of valet service and he asks for a copy of the estimate and gives me his bosses phone number. He seemed genuine so my mind was a bit at ease with the situation but I was not 100% certain I would get paid. I ended up leaving the hotel that day and going back to Melbourne still uncertain but the following day I get a phone call from the head person in charge asking for my address as she would like to cut the check by the end of the day and get it in the mail next week. I was SHOCKED!!! I still have yet to get the check as it has only been a few days since mailing but I will keep you all updated in terms of that situation. Probably the best part of checkout was the drive home because we hit a milestone, 50,000 Miles!!!!!!!!!
You must be registered for see images
Well our trip starts to wind down and we only have one more event to attend. My younger brother, who lives in Florida, tells me that a few people he knows are attending this Mustang Event (30 cars) and that I should attend. He has a highly modded Mustang and I figured why not. Yeah I will be the only Viper there but I could care less as I just like driving with other sports cars. So we decided to attend and take the trek to the meeting spot which is only 45 minutes from Melbourne in Orlando. Upon getting there, some very nice Mustangs were on display. Roush cars, Saleen cars, GT500s, and more. I was entertained. At the drivers meeting they tell us that this is going to be a nice drive to Tampa.
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
Now for all who do not know, Tampa is about 150 miles from Orlando so it is a nice drive if done right. Please tell me why they took BACK ROADS the WHOLE WAY?!?!?!?!
You must be registered for see images
The damn drive took 3 hours to get to this stupid restaurant in a strip mall. Now I was thinking Tampa; water; wow, this place will be nice but no, on the hottest day so far (92 degrees), they decided to visit a strip mall! I think we all know how I reacted to this one; I left with the people I came with and ended up going somewhere else; Applebees.
So I drove 300 miles back and forth to go to Applebees?? Got to love it, but to be fair, that was some good food.
The Drive Home From Tampa Got Boring For My Girlfriend:
You must be registered for see images
Before I knew it June 3rd was here and we had to leave to go back to Long Island. I think it is fair to assume that we were not excited but we had to do it.
We left on June 4th at 4am and anticipated an arrival time of 9pm in Long Island. Well little did we know Mother Nature was working against us and as soon as I entered Maryland, the storm of the year greeted us with down pouring rain, heavy winds, and a tornado warning. With only 300 miles left in our trip, we had to cruise at 50MPH+/- for about two or three hours and maybe made it only 50 or 75 miles. That downtime just added to our timeline and made us end up home at midnight! It was not the best ending to the trip, but I still look back and say, it was still one heck of a trip. We are now home and the car reads, 51,760 Miles!!! Talk about great times. Now all the car needs is a car wash; BADLY!!!!
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
Looks like fun! Looking foreward to taking a trip from South Carolina to Northern Michigan for the National Cherry Festival the first week of July. First long trip over 300 miles.
