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Month: May 2013
Fort Myers
5/17/13 – 5/18/13 Miles MPG Average Speed 458 44 49 Driving listening:
5/17/13 – 5/18/13 Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings Crowne Plaza Fort Myers (3.5 star) $68.81
($58 bid)$104.16
($93 base rate)$35.35 34% Friday
I drove down early Friday and was on the Sanibel causeway by noon to do some kayaking (details on my kayaking blog).
After kayaking I was very hungry. Runkeeper said I burned 1100 calories on that paddle, but Runkeeper can’t take into account the wind and currents. I’m thinking the mile and a half from the point to the causeway into strong winds and out-going tide counts as 3x. So I felt entirely justified in having a big dinner.
Lee Roy Selmon’s is a southwest Florida chain, and I prefer to avoid chains when traveling, but it had a big advantage when it came up in the Urbanspoon app’s random selector: It was really, really close to my hotel. After 8-miles of paddling and the discovery
that my sunscreen was defective, I was not in the mood to drive far. I wanted pretty good food, close by, and a lot of it. The second advantage was that it was Happy Hour.
The server brought me some BBQ rolls to start. These are warm, tasty, yeast rolls covered in butter, garlic, and BBQ sauce.
These were really good and I followed them with soft pretzels and cheese sauce with bacon ($3 for Happy Hour).
Good pretzels covered in coarse, crunchy salt. The cheese sauce was a little thin, but good. And for the entrée, I had their pulled pork with sides of baked beans and maple-bacon creamed corn.
The beans were really good, sweet with a hint of molasses, but they also had green peppers, which I’m not fond of. The creamed corn was good, but a little too sweet – which is an unusual thing for me to say. It’s normally served with the fried chicken and waffles, so that may be why – I think the maple syrup is overused, making it too sweet and thin, but it could go well with the fried chicken and waffles.
The pork itself was excellent and the sauce was a good compliment – sweet and sticky, without being overpowering. It was well-trimmed, with very little fat.
For dessert, I got the bread pudding with praline sauce and ice cream to-go and ate it back at the hotel.
So after an eight-hour paddle that afternoon, I was discovering that 1) I was out of shape and starting to hurt, and, B) my sunscreen had expired and I was the proud owner of a nasty, if oddly shaped, sunburn. So I stopped by the front desk sundry shop to get some pain killers … only to find that they were out of stock until Monday. Well, not entirely out of stock.
The three girls working the front desk assured me it would be effective and have no ill-effects.
Sanibel Island
I was in Fort Myers for the weekend, so brought my kayak with me to get in some paddling time around Sanibel. I left home early Friday morning and arrived at the Sanibel Causeway around 12:00.
From the causeway, I could see Fort Myers Beach in the distance, as well as the Sanibel lighthouse on the southern tip of the island.
I paddled toward the nearest channel marker to have the last time in the channel as possible. The bayside was flat calm with no wind or waves, at least until boats started coming through the channel.
Rounded the point to paddle the Gulf side.
A pod of dolphins passed between me and the beach.
A little while after the dolphins a huge loggerhead sea turtle surfaced about twenty feet from me – no picture because he got his breath and went back under before I could turn the camera on.
I took a break on the beach on the way out and on the return.
The calm water of the bay was gone when I rounded the point, the wind had picked up and the tide was going out, so it was over a mile into the wind against the current.
Once off the water, I discovered two things:
First, the front hatch of my boat has a leak, so I was shipping water when waves broke over the bow. I drained quite a bit before loading up, but still had saltwater hitting my windshield in every decelerating, right-turn for two days.
Second, my sunscreen was less than effective.
Ow.
A quick trip to Tampa
5/6/2013-5/7/2013 Miles MPG Average Speed 233 47.8 43 Driving listening:
This was a business trip just for one night, but it adds to the stats, so here it is. On the way to the hotel I stopped at the Seminole Hard Rock to make a donation to the tribe. I have a lot of ancestral guilt about how the Native Americans were treated — despite, I think, most of my ancestors not arriving here until the 20th century – so I consider the money I left there to be a charitable contribution.
Yeah … you know, I wonder if I can write it off on taxes …
5/6/2013-5/7/2013 Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings Wyndham Westshore (3.5 star) $76.29
($61 bid)$151.37
($135.15 base rate)$75.08 50% The hotel itself was a little dated, but had some nice touches. Like dueling M&M dispensers at the front desk (plain on one end and peanut on the other) and a rack of hardcover bestsellers for loan to guests.
Free candy and books goes a long way.
Unfortunately the room was subpar. The bed was memory foam and I think it was remembering a 400-pound previous guest. Deep divots on either side had me trying to sleep in the middle and waking up periodically.
There was also a serious lack of hot water. Took a long time for the shower to heat up and then only at its highest setting – which continued to heat throughout the shower, so had to be continuously adjusted . Frustrating, but only for one night.
I only had time for one real meal this trip and made it at Jimbo’s Pit BBQ. I got the combo platter with sliced beef and pork ($10) and a sweet tea (very good).
The pork was a little fatty for my taste, but the beef was lean and tasty. The bottom of my beef pile had been cut from the end of the meat, so it was a little dry, but I like that. The hush puppies were a little undercooked and doughy in the middle. But the beans were delicious – homemade and thick. I like baked beans, but in moderation — I’m not normally one to eat them by the heaping forkful, but these were fantastic.
Prius & Priceline: A Year in Review
So it’s been a year since I got the Prius (April 2012), and I thought I’d review some statistics … because I like numbers and have geeky friends.
First off the numbers for the last twelve months for Priceline (source in Excel or CSV). This data includes what I bid vs. what the hotel’s web rate was for the night, as well as what I actually paid (bid + taxes & fees) vs. the hotel’s rate plus an estimate of taxes (12%). I did this because comparing the base bid/ask numbers skews the savings higher, as it doesn’t take into account Priceline’s fee.
So based on those more accurate numbers, I’ve spent 50 nights in Priceline hotels over the last twelve months, paying an average of $67.23 a night with taxes and fees included, and enjoying an average of a 3.32-star hotel.
That’s $3294.37 I’ve spent on hotel rooms that would have been $6648.70 if I ‘d paid retail – a savings of $3354.33, or 50%.
Dude, some say, you spent three grand on hotels? That’s insane!
I can understand that perspective, but there’s another factor at work here – the Prius.
In calendar year 2011, driving a V8 Mercury Mountaineer, I spent $4407 on gasoline. In the last twelve months, driving the Prius, I spent $1985 on gasoline, including a 9000-mile trip around the country. So even with that trip and all the others, spending weekends in 2013 visiting DC, Atlanta, Raleigh, Savannah, New Orleans, Denver, and Greeneville, I still saved over 50% on my fuel bill.
Rather than spend that other $2400 on gas, I spent it on hotels – that’s a lifestyle change I’m glad I made.
Thinking of it that way, applying the gas costs that I’d been incurring anyway to the hotel stays, the delta is only $872.
Think about that for a moment – I had been spending $4407 on gas, but the last twelve months I spent $5379 on gas and hotels.
Fifty nights, $872 difference – that’s $17.45 per night. I’ll call it a bargain.