Tarpon Springs Fla: Think Sponges & Greek!!

Boarding My Standby Flight

Good morning it is April 1 April Fools' Day and the first person I fooled was myself. I thought I had an 830 AM flight. I got up 4:30 am this morning. I took care of some business that I didn't get done last night since I just crashed. I did the following:

The Standby Flight

Finished my blog post about Easter Sunday, printed out hotel receipt and boarding pass, made coffee, wrote out 2 checks, emailed photos and left at 730 this morning. I had an 8:30 flight and got though security quickly by telling them that I had my flight was on the list and then Guess what??
My flight WAS at 8:30 PM!!! I paid $75 to move it up to Flight #769 leaving Philly at 3:49.

Dimtri's on the Water

I decided to go on Standby for a 9:55 AM flight. I waited an hour to go on this flight. They said that my original flight WAS at 8:30pm. I swear my flight was in the AM
It was not looking good cause there was a boatload of people.I then got the good news, I GOT ON STANDBY!!
Flight #1295 leaving Philly at 9:55!!

Smile with Sponges!

After getting that wonderful standby flight to Tampa I found out the Ned and Linda just had already driven out to the Tampa airport. If I hadn't caught that standby flight they would have been waiting very long time so it all worked out very well awe went to the town of Tarpon Springs Fla. This town is home to

Some Big Sponges Eh?!

many Greeks. who settled here in the last 1800's to harvest sponges.  Tarpon Springs had a huge  sponge industry. I was in awe of all the sponges and sponge history. I leaned that a Luffa Sponges are NOT  sponges!  It is a vegetable like a cucumber! Wow! That is pretty cool my friends. This town sponge wonderland! I think the photos will convince you. I know I was convinced. Besides the sponge tour and movie about sponge industry that was recorded in 1953, we went to a

delicious Greek restaurant called Dimtri's on the Water. we had really good  true Greek food I had octopus and it was pretty good. The Gyro was excellent. They did not skimp on the lamb that is for sure.It came with a side of some chicken rice lemon soup all for 8 bucks. It was on the water and today was a nice mellow 77 degrees out. That beats 47 degrees on an April Fools Day :)

Sponge Diver and Sponges

We drove about an hour and 20 minutes south to Sarasota where my friends have a winter place. Ned and I floated in the pool with a whirlpool. It was pretty chill!

Tampa to Philly: Bus

Good Saturday to you  all. Its now 7pm. I am getting ready for my trip to Tampa that starts Monday. I am planning how and when I will get back to Philadelphia next week at this time. I sent an email to my friend Linda and Ned and a copy of this to myself. I have made font changes to make the schedules easier to read and understand

I fly out to Tampa Monday April 1st at 8am. As for returning back to Philly, since I can not drive due
to the Commonwealth taking 17 calender days to process the ending of my 60 day suspension, we can not drive non-stop to Millville NJ. (I would take the NJ Transit back to Philly)

Greyhound schedule is below:

As you see below. Going from Tampa to Philly gets me back by Sunday with enough time to rest and decompress before I go to back to work on Monday April 8th.

Assuming we can Arrive at Rocky Mount by 7pm on Saturday. This bus will arrive in Philly
around 8 am Monday morning.

Tampa to Philly

7:45 AM
Sat, 04/06 11:00 AM
Sun, 04/07 1D, 3H, 15M
1 $99.00 
 
(START) - TAMPA, FL 07:45 AM  
LAKELAND, FL 08:30 AM  
ORLANDO, FL   10:15 AM 
JACKSONVILLE, FL 12:45 PM 2PM 1:15 Layover 
SAVANNAH, GA  4:45 PM  
FAYETTEVILLE, NC 08:45 PM 10:00 PM 1:15 Layover 
RALEIGH, NC   11:30 PM  
RICHMOND, VA 03:00 AM (TRANSFER)  
(TRANSFER) - RICHMOND, VA 04:15 AM 
WASHINGTON, DC  06:35 AM 
SILVER SPRING, MD 07:05 AM  
BALTIMORE DOWNTOWN, MD   08:10 AM 
UNIV OF DE , 09:20 AM 
WILMINGTON, DE 10:00 AM  
(END) - PHILADELPHIA, PA 11:00 AM (END)

Rocky Mt. NC to Philadelphia

07:55 PM
Sun, 04/07 07:55 AM
Mon, 04/08 12H, 0M   $49.00  

Location  
(START) - ROCKY MOUNT, NC 07:55 PM  
AHOSKIE, NC 09:20 PM  
XXXNO SERVICE SUFFOL, VA 10:10 PM
NORFOLK, VA 10:40 PM (TRANSFER)  
(TRANSFER) - NORFOLK, VA 11:00 PM  
EXMORE, VA 12:15 AM 12:15 AM  
OAK HALL, VA 01:05 AM 01:05 AM  
UNIV OF MD EASTERN S, MD 01:45 AM    
SALISBURY, MD 02:05 AM 02:05 AM  
RS BRIDGEVIL ROYAL F, DE 02:50 AM  
DOVER, DE 03:50 AM  
WILMINGTON, DE 04:50 AM (TRANSFER)  
(TRANSFER) - WILMINGTON, DE 06:45 AM  
(END) - PHILADELPHIA, PA 07:55 AM (END)