  The night of August 5, 2004 my older sister (Aileen) and a friend (Wes) headed for a late night drive to TAMPA!!! We began a little slow as of course it always happens that way, stops for gas and food! The first four hours of the trip were pretty uneventful. Only a few sudden stops on the brakes. As the night wore on things began to get more interesting. Now to preface this a little bit I live in Alabama and we were on our way to Florida.
I have always believed it can't get any worse living with the Alabama Rednecks but OH it can!!! We met this crazy state trooper looking guy (aka rest stop security) and we asked what was the quickest way to Tampa. He said do not go the back way but stay on the main straight. Well of course we did not listen to him we went through the back road of Florida on our way to Tampa. At first the towns we passed through were OK but as the night wore on the crazies came out. I guess they were crazy or scary one of the two.
Things became interesting when we had to stop at midnight in this little town at the only gas station we had seen open in two hours. At first there were only a few people at the store. We could see these two rednecks in the store harrassing the clerk but nothing major. My sister was pumping gas and I went to the restroom. Wes was laid out in the back seat asleep. My sister had made it to the restroom before I had finished my business so I waited for her so we both exited the store together.
Well the next thing we knew about 20 people flew into the store getting all kinds of stuff and needless to say we were in the minority. Rednecks and the Brothers!! We were interested in obtaining a little bit of snacky foods for the remainder of the trip but we were a little afraid of the surroundings so we busted out and hit the road for the remainder of the trip! We made it to our hotel at 2 am central time 3 am eastern. The hotel said your room has been canceled. I almost lost it!!!!
But the guy at the desk found our room and we were off to bed!!! Thank the LORD! We slept in the next morning! Nothing really happened until that night. We were starving and the front desk clerk at our hotel suggested we go to this steak house. "Charlies" Pete told us the the prices were better than Ruth's Chris and the food was amazing.
HE LIED!!!!!!! The food was so Expensive!!!!!!! Needless to say I drank Water!! I was so cheap! The food was not that great. I would have rather gone to a chain restaurant and had drinks with my meal compared to the steak I had.
But I did order a piece of Chocolate cake and it was the size of my head!!! I snacked on it the whole trip!!! OH I forgot! I did get to go shopping and buy some discounted Lancome Cosmetics! I was thrilled! By the time we made it back to the hotel lots of our friends made it to the hotel.
Everyone gathered into our room Wes had brought Liquor to make drinks in our room. He ended up creating a new drink. We named it "Delicious. " How appropriate. Cran grap, Apple Vodka and Malibu Rum!! It was great!
At some point we went to sleep but I don't remember those details. The next morning we all met downstairs for breakfast and several people decided they wanted to go shopping with us. SO we all piled in my sisters car and made our way to the Expensive Mall. That is what we called it! I had my first trip to TIFFANY'S! I saw my engagement ring!
Though I am no where near that point in my life! We get back to the hotel and only have 45 mins for 3 people to shower and get ready! We were 15 mins late to the wedding. We had to walk in during the middle of the ceremony. WOOPS! So we only had to stay at the wedding for 15 mins.
HAHA!! We had a 2 hour break in between the wedding and reception so we headed back to the hotel for the pre party. WIth a trip that should have only taken 15 mins ended up taking 1 hour!!!! I thought I was never going to get out of the car. It started storming and we missed the last exit before we headed into St. Petersburg which is a 15 min drive over a huge bridge. It was crazy.
After the pre party we headed to the reception which was open BAR!!!! HOLLAAAA!!! We made it in time for the coktail hour which we used very well. I was so drunk by the time we made it into the reception that the room was spinning!!!!!!!! I have no idea how much we drank.. I am sure when Alli and Joe get their tape of the reception back they will Die of Laughter.
It was crazy fun. The FOOD Was fabulous. I don't even know what time we made it back to the hotel but I think it was around 9pm. We sobbered up enough by 11pm to start drinking again. My sister had gone to bed and we hit the bottle! We had so much fun that night.
When we woke up the next morning no one even knew where we had parked the car! We were boggled by the thought of where the car was. By that afternoon we were on our way home with nothing but the road to talk about. Oh yeah I forgot. On friday night I went to my first strip club but we did not go in. The cover was $20 and I am not paying that to see women.
IT was so funny. We drove up got out and left. HAHA!! Tampa is Hella Good! OUT DJ SLEEZe 
