Day One – Arrival Day. “Clean Up, Clean Up, Everybody Clean Up”.

Yes, from the title, you can already tell this is going to be interesting, so let’s get started. Anxious to get to Florida, the Sweatt’s (Lynne, Matt and Savannah) grabbed lunch from the drive-through at Taco Bell in Phoenix City, Alabama, while Dennis and I scarfed down a quick Chick-Filet lunch before leaving Lithia Springs. Dennis and I rolled into Dothan, Alabama just in time for four o clock traffic (central time zone) and our ETA of 5:25 p.m. suddenly changed.  By the time we made it to Panama City (not the beach), we were now in six o clock traffic and of course getting stopped by every traffic light.

The tone on my iPhone rang indicating I had a text and the evening was about to get interesting.  Lynne and Matt had arrived, successfully opening the gate with the code we were given, and retrieving the key from the lock box for the unit, my text read something like, “The condo has not been cleaned and it is filthy, can you call Mark and let him know?”    I called Lynne and we discussed the situation and she took pictures of the state of the condo while she waited on me to reach Mark.  After phone calls and text back and forth, he apologized and said this had happened to him before, but he would get someone out to clean it for us. By the time, Dennis and I arrived and unpacked, we were still getting “I’m working on it and I’m so sorry”, from Mark and the rental management company for his condo.  I told Mark we were going to dinner and if we needed to clean it, we could, but we expected a refund of cleaning fees and more for our trouble and time. He promised he would honor that or find someone to clean it before we got back in.  Obviously, we did not unpack everything, and would wait until the maid had finished cleaning to move in for the next four nights.

Frustrated and tired was an understatement at this point, but we were in Florida, at the beach, and headed to a restaurant where someone could wait on us and bring us yummy food; so it wasn’t all bad.  If we could just get the maid situation worked out, all would be good. Captain Jack’s Seafood buffet sounded good to us and was very close by on Thomas Drive, until… we drove through the parking lot and into the overflow lot and no spaces anywhere. Ok – this is not happening, next choice – one of Matt’s favorite’s “Angelo’s” and we knew they had plenty of parking.  When we arrived, we did find a parking space – at the back of the lot! This place serves consistently good food and moves crowds fast, we stayed J 

Dennis and I split – N.Y. Strip / Baked Potato and Salad

Savannah – Chicken and Fries

Lynne – Shrimp

Matt – Hamburger Steak

My steak was a little too rare for me and very thick, and Matt’s hamburger steak was a bit over-done so we ended up swapping some and everyone was happy. In the middle of dinner, Mark called and a maid service was on the way to clean the condo.  Yay, finally!!  After dinner and feeling very full, we stopped by Walmart to stock the kitchen for breakfast, lunch and snacks. We planned on eating out every night – this is Florida after all; eating seafood is mandatory, right?

Lynne and I shopped while Matt and Dennis stayed with Savannah in the car.  We tried to hurry with our not-so-long list, but this Wal-mart was layed out differently than ours at home and the shelves and freezers looked like a hurricane was forecasted. This is absolutely the worst Wal-mart either of us have shopped in.  2 cartons of Blueberries in the store – 1 bad, 1 good; no Kitchen trash bags (unless we wanted to by a box of 80); Strawberries – eeew, No way, yuck (mold, wrinkled) and the ice-cream freezer was bare.   We got essentials, enough to make do, and finally checked out.  All three in the car swore we took forever in the store – Lynne and I thought we were quick, considering what we had to work with.  That’s ok –next time they can tackle the mess.  Which is exactly what happened, Dennis ended up going for short grocery runs to the nearby Publix for the next few days.  On the other hand, anytime the five of us were in the car at night, out for dinner, when we would pass the Walmart, Matt would say, I don’t care where we need to stop, but it’s not going be Walmart”!!

Excited to enter a clean condo, we walked in, unloaded the groceries and disappointment hit. The bathroom had been cleaned, so that was good, and the sheets and two towels (yes, this place sleeps five) were in the dryer – still wet.  Savannah’s feet were a little black, so we realized the floor needed mopping.  Lynne and I had bought some Clorox spray cleaner, so she mopped the floors throughout the condo, and I sprayed everything with Lysol, thoroughly.  After several timed rounds in the dryer, the very thin sheets and towels were still not dry – ugh, this is not fun at 11:00 p.m. at night (central – so to our Georgia bodies it is midnight). 

We decided we could sleep on the beach towels we had brought and cover up with the blankets we had in the car, not ideal, but we are tired.  Time to pull out the sofa-bed for Dennis and I and treat with Lysol…. Hmmm, really – the mattress is about 2 inches thick and slants down at the head into the bottom of the couch back – this is not going to work –clearly! We Lysol’d but quickly decided that I would just sleep on the couch by myself, as a couch – not a sofabed and put it back together.  Savannah would sleep on the love-seat, and Dennis took the wall bed, that was actually in good shape (super-twin size).  Now that we had the living room sleeping arrangements figured out, Matt and Lynne took the small bedroom, the floor was clean, hopefully linens would be dry in the morning, we called it a night.  Surely things would look better in the morning.  Night.