Author Archives: Luke Bennett

I was hoping to save a place like Busch Gardens for the middle of summer when tourist season is in full stride, lines would be huge and muffin tops will be moist with sweat and exposed for all to see. Instead I chose the coldest day of the year to go to Busch Gardens. It just so happened to also be my birthday.

But there was a reason for the date that was chosen. The Goo Goo Dolls, arguably one of the best pop rock bands of the 90’s was playing a concert. It just also happened that Leslie had mentioned that the Goo Goo Dolls happened to be one of her favorite bands. Being horrible at giving Valentine’s Day gifts, I saw this the prime solution.

Unfortunately, the website didn’t tell me until after I purchased the VIP tickets that admission to the park was not included. Ok, no big deal, or so I thought. We are both Florida residents and they probably give good discounts at the door. I was wrong. To get into Busch Gardens it is $85 American Dollars. FOR ONE PERSON. Highway robbery. Never have I ever paid so much to gain admission to an amusement park. And today would not be that day either. Leslie came through in the clutch with her Active Duty Military Discount. Awesome.

I haven’t been to Busch Gardens since I was a little kid but the one thing I remember were the giraffes. So it was my obligation for this adventure to make sure that we saw the giraffes. To be honest, I was let down. You can only get so close to the giraffes unless you pay extra for one of the guided tours. So I was kind of saddened.

This inner-melancholy was quickly relieved when I found one of my other top favorite animals of the animal kingdom…The Flamingo.

One thing I did learn during this adventure was that each Busch Gardens has a particular them. The one in Tampa is Africa. This for some reason never clicked with me. I just always assumed that it was warm in Florida and therefore the Busch Gardens in Tampa had an African themed zoo. Who knew?

So in addition to the concert, this particular day was also a barbecue beer festival going on with unlimited beer sampling. What a great birthday! There’s one thing for certain with beer. Even on the coldest day in the Sunshine state, thousands of people will line up for unlimited beer. We were only able to snag two beers before it was time for the show.

I didn’t know my $30 VIP tickets were going to get us four rows back from the stage, but it very well could have been one of my life’s best purchases. The show was super phenomenal at such a close sight. I suppose The Goo Goo Dolls are past their prime and forced to only play shows at carnivals, state fairs and amusement parks but whatever, I’ll take it.

To close off one of my favorite birthday’s in my quarter century I was given an awesome gift. When thrown into the crowd, the wind guided the guitar pick perfectly four rows over the crowd and right into my hands. It was at this point I decided the day was a complete success!

There are apparently millions of Burmese Pythons overrunning southern Florida in both the Everglades and Big Cypress. Long story short, they are an nonnative predator to the Everglades and destroying the natural balance of things. So the state of Florida decided it was time to do something and opened up python hunting in the form of a competition.

All one needs to do to participate in the challenge is take an online quiz and pay $20. Then your python license is rushed in the mail to you and all you need to do is put on your ‘Murica t shirts and camo pants and your set.

Some of the guys from work and I decided to make this a weekend adventure. As we told other co-workers about our excursion we were warned of the Skunk Ape. I had never heard of the Skunk Ape before but Wikipedia quickly informed me that Skunk Ape is a hominid cryptid native to South Florida. In simple terms, Skunk Ape is the Big Foot of the Everglades.

Check out the snake skin on the wall.

Anyways, we needed to find a campground site somewhere along US-41. A few places we had in mind prior to starting the trip, but when we saw the campground next to the Official Skunk Ape Research Headquarters, we knew exactly where we were staying. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Research Headquarters, but it ended up being a gift shop.

Our group was gawking at the snakeskin on the wall and that’s when my pal Dave found the entrance in the back. As we went though the door in the back of the gift shop, I couldn’t help but to feel like we were about to go through a freak show at a carnival.

It ended up actually being a huge covered room with several species of South Florida. It was like getting a glimpse of the Everglades without actually doing any of the dirty work. But that’s not why we drove three hours south. We drove to see the nature. We drove to capture us a python bounty.

So we set up camp and tried to hit the wilderness a little bit before dusk. Google Maps led us off a side road to a small path we could barely see from the road. Seemed like good as any place to me since we were all Python Hunting noobs. Darkness quickly approached and we were pythonless. So we headed back to camp.

The next morning we were awakened by the sounds of every creature nature has to offer at the crack of dawn. It was time. There was a path behind the campground that led to endless miles of nothing. It was beautiful. It actually resembled everything I have ever imagined Africa to look like. We ventured this way for an hour or so but the only wildlife we noticed were deer. Yes, deer in the state of Florida actually do exist.

So we headed back to the campground and went off in a different direction, north actually. That’s where we found land that resembled what you would envision the Everglades to actually look like. This is where I saw the biggest Doe I have ever seen in my life. But alas, no pythons.

We went back to the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters and that’s when we threw our stubbornness to the side and asked the locals where to head. They suggested a path behind the Post Office had yielded the best results. The path didn’t bring us any closer to the bag limit of pythons but I did notice that Post Office was the Country’s Smallest Post Office, literally.

One of the best parts about living in the Sunshine state are the professional sports teams. Before moving to Florida all I had were the Reds and the Bengals and I wasn’t about to root for a team from Ohio.

Since I’ve lived down here I have anxiously been awaiting hockey’s opening night. Some of you may have heard about the lockout which only increased the amount of time I had to wait for this night. And then finally the lockout came to an end. And January 19th was set as the date. And then the schedule was released. And the Washington Capitals were set as our first victim.

I knew I would be attending this game so I bought tickets the day they went on sale without hesitation. My transaction went through five minutes after they went on sale. The seats were nosebleeds but the game was a sold out slobberknocker. We ended up winning 6-3.

The best part about the Tampa Bay Lightning are the tesla coils built into the arena. Every time the Lightning put the puck in the net, the coils shoot off bolts through the arena. It truly is something special. Especially when you get to see it six times in one night.

I had heard about this place. Read about this place. Even had memories of a fort that I visited in my younger years that I was hoping this place might be. So when my roommate’s family visited us for Christmas and asked me what we could do for fun, Fort De Soto Park was my solution.

Simple, it was a park, it has beach and it has historical information. Better yet, it is in Pinellas County, so it would be a quick commute.

I was really confident this place was the fort that I had visited as a child, but I was wrong. This ended up being a new experience for me. Somewhat lackluster to be honest. There’s not much to this place. Not to be a naysayer, but you can see everything there is to see in less than 15 minutes.

I think my roommate was getting bored as he started to break simple courtesy rules. Maybe that, or maybe he’s just an all around bad-ass. More likely the former.

It could also be that we chose of of the coldest days of the year to check out this park. Whatever the case, I don’t want to write the place off. Just don’t expect to do a whole-helluva-lot when you visit. It was fun nonetheless and I am glad that I got to spend time with my roommate’s family.

Next to the building I work in is a minor league soccer stadium. The stadium belongs to the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Since learning this it has been a goal of mine to make it to a home game at this stadium. Then I learned the devastating news that the last home game of the season was the Saturday after I set out on my elk hunting trip in Colorado. Sigh.

When I returned I learned the news that the Rowdies had made the playoffs and the final four game would be hosted at the field. The news made shot a load of serotonin through my body like that of a jovial baby. So on Saturday my roommate Shad and I knew what our plans were.

We were shocked when we got to the stadium early to buy tickets the level of support that was tailgating in the parking lot. It was nice to see row after row of fans from Saint Petersburg getting behind something together. We knew it was going to be a great night.

The stadium is downtown and since downtown is full of nothing but pubs and bars, they were all packed with rowdy soccer fans(no pun intended). This was great since I was meeting a group of fellow coworkers for some outside work related activities. It allowed us to get some dinner and socialize about something besides work for once.

Since the NASL is built on an aggregate tournament style of play, it was only necessary for the Rowdies to get a tie to advance to finals. Unfortunately, the Rowdies fell to an early 0-2 score but that would not hold them back. After a few well set plays and a PK, the Rowdies were back in the game and the stadium of 7000 erupted!

The Rowdies finished the game with a strong fought 3-3 tie and made it to the finals. The championship crowning game will be held at the same stadium in two weeks and I am ready to support my Tampa Bay Rowdies to their first NASL championship.