Tallahassee: Gators, Po' Boys, FSU and the Dance Band on the Titanic

   Although we had been to Florida a lot, we had never been to Tallahassee.  Our son is now a graduate student in Religion, Ethics & Philosophy at Florida State University.  Our daughter-in-law is teaching in the French Department at FSU while completing her PhD Dissertation in French Literature at Emory University.   They moved from Atlanta to Tallahassee in early August.  We were anxious to check out their new surroundings and explore Tallahassee.
  We arrived late on Friday, Sept. 2 (http://tomcarrico.blogspot.com/2011/09/its-long-long-way-to-tallahassee.html).  We went to their new apartment in the Southwood area and were amazed at how organized, unpacked and settled in they already are!  We drove about 45 minutes to the south to Wakulla Springs(http://www.floridastateparks.org/wakullasprings/).  This is a river which is fed by a large underground spring which is part of a 300 mile under gound cistern system of caves.  There is an interesting lodge there and a public park with a beach.  We took a boat tour of the river and saw quite an abundant wildlife population, including gators, manatees, birds, spiders and fish.

   We ate at a wonderful Greek/Lebanese restaurant where we tried a bit of everything, including four different types of baklava!  After dinner we pillaged the local Borders Bookstore which is closing and everything was 70-80% off.

   Sunday we dodged rain showers from Tropical Storm Lee all day.  Tommy and Abbey gave us a great tour of the FSU campus (we avoided the campus on Saturday because there was a home football game).  We ate at Po' Boy's, a Cajun, New Orleans style restaurant (http://poboys.com/).  We toured the Mary Brogan Museum of Art (http://www.thebrogan.org/) where we saw a traveling  artifact exhibit from the Titanic.  We were each given a ticket with a passenger name and at the end of the exhibit we could look up and see if we survived.  Ellen was the only one of the four of us that survived.  I, however, was the leader of the dance band!  So, I died but apparently was a great musician.

  We went to the IMAX theater and saw a terrific movie on the Galapagos Islands.
  We finished the evening at a Tallahassee landmark: Momo's Pizza (http://momospizza.com/) where their motto is "Slices as big as your head" which is, in fact, true.
   Monday we visited a bit more, said our good-bye's and will depart for Lynchburg this afternoon.
  We had a great visit with our kids and are glad to see them so happily settled in their new home.  We learned a bit about Tallahassee, which is much different from other places we have been in Florida (a possible retirement destination?).

It's a Long, Long Way to Tallahassee

  We planned this trip to Tallahassee about six weeks ago to see our son and daughter-in-law's new home.  We were surprised at the great flight connections from Lynchburg through Charlotte on USAir.  Leave Lynchburg at 2, arrive in Florida by 7.  Not bad.  We'd probably get there in time for a late dinner.

  The flight from Lynchburg was uneventful - it even left on time.  We arrived in Charlotte with a planned two hour layover.  We found our gate and then went and had some delicious fish and chips (note sarcasm) and returned to our gate.  We apprehensively watched the clouds roll in as the clock approached our boarding time. We boarded the plane quickly and the plane moved out on to the tarmac.   The plane stopped and we realized that the wind had picked up and was gently rocking the plane.  The pilot came on and announced: "We're going to pull over for a few minutes and let this weather blow through.  It's a small storm and we should be moving again in a few minutes."  Okay, not so bad.  Then the pilot came back on and said to conserve fuel they were going to shut down the engines.  Hmmm.   As the engines shut down we heard a loud "Clunk".  Funny sound for engines to make.  After a few minutes, some emergency vehicles approached our plane:

   The pilot then announced that a truck had struck our airplane!  They were going to have to take the plane back to the gate and assess the damage.  Swell.  He then came out of the cockpit, opened the plane door (isn't that illegal?) and looked towards the wing.  He retreated to the cockpit and announced "A truck has hit the wing and the damage is significant.  We will have to evacuate the plane since we can't move it."  Super fantastic.  The "small weather event" then turned into a full fledged rockin'-sockin' thunderstorm and they couldn't evacuate the plane for safety reasons.  The steward, a gregarious fellow, told us there was so much Rebar in the tarmac that lightning strikes on the tarmac are problematic.  Even better!!
   They finally let us off the plane:

  Here's what actually happened:  An unsecured luggage cart was blown down the tarmac by the wind and it struck our plane where the left wing attaches to the fuselage of the plane.  I need my second son, the statistician, to figure out the odds of that happening.

   They returned us to the terminal by bus, found another plane and we finally departed Charlotte at about 10 PM.  We arrived safely but exhausted, found our Springhill Suites and collapsed.  This morning we were telling the story at the breakfast area in the hotel and people came over, shaking their heads and asking "What did you say happened?"

    So there you have it, the story of The Rogue Luggage Cart.  Stay tuned for more adventures from Tallahassee