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Dylan and his cousin, Ryan dock side in Cozumel
Lots to blog about the cruise. Running on the road/cruise ship, driving 10+ hours, food, ports of call, gambling, snorkeling, pictures, rum, pirates, cigars.............

We left for Tampa at 1:30 am on Sunday morning. According to Mapquest, 682 miles in 10 hours. We drove the van and Paula's sister followed in their car. Starting early in the morning is my preferred way to travel long distance with the kids. Hopefully you're able to get lots of miles and time down the road before the kids wake up and start the how "long till we get there", "I've got to pee", or "I'm hungry". We only made three stops on the way down and were able to combine them into bathroom breaks, food breaks and gas fill-ups. Trip down went very well. We arrived in Tampa around 2:00 pm. (Darrell stayed home, he had class)

Trip home seemed to take forever. We got off the ship around 8:30 am, Saturday morning (yesterday) jumped in the car and started driving. Made it home just before 8:00 pm. That was a long day on the road.

What are the odds of Paula and her sister booking the same hotel I stayed in on one of my 2 trips to Tampa, over 7+ years ago? They were remodeling some of the upper floors. We were able to see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers stadium from our room. The picture I took of Paula and Dylan on the balcony, you can't really see the stadium. Boys were able to swim in the pool after we got back from a trip to the dock to see where everything was for our departure the next day.


Bryan and Dylan in the atrium of the hotel in Tampa
Got one treadmill run in on Monday morning a week ago. I hate the treadmill. But, didn't really feel good about trying to run outside from the hotel. One good thing about the treadmill is dialing into the pace you want to run. That's about the only good thing. Time stands still on the treadmill. I did 6 miles, one mile at a incline and another mile at faster pace and the rest just plodding along. This treadmill had fans, which helped a little bit. It's still hot and the sweat just slings everywhere.

This morning was my first run on the road since last Saturday. Started at 8 am, way later than usual. Usually done with my long runs by that time, because of the heat. Scheduled for a twenty miler. It was 60 degrees when I started but right at 80 degrees when I finished. Got my 20 miles, but with a 2 mile warmdown walk home. Hell it wasn't warm, it was downright hot. I was breathing just as hard walking as the miles I slogged from 16 to 18. The early miles were great, real marathon pace to monkey pace and felt great. Guess the cut back in runs/distance from the cruise with the lack of pre run hydration kicked by butt.


Best picture of the cruise was of Paula's sister family at sunrise