USRT Florida Day 2 - R&R day at Vistana
Today was a good day to sleep in late, which we deserved after the long drive down on Thursday and then 13 hours of basketball in Tampa on Friday. So we took today to get settled, write some stories for WNYMedia and get our column into Sports and Leisure for April, and just enjoy the condo here at beautiful Vistana Villages.
Since I have recently become a gym maven again, I went over to the fitness center in the clubhouse this afternoon. Not a full serve gym, but they’ve got the requisite treadmills and bikes, some weight machines and a dumbbell rack. That works. I had the whole place to myself for a while, but about 3/4 of the way through my workout two families with six screeching children come into the place and start abusing the machines and treating the place like it’s some video arcade. One little boy is running around and bumps into me while I am flat on my back on the bench lifting 20 pound weights. I accidentally drop a weight and it lands on his toe. The kid is screeching in pain, the father was ready to fight me, until an attendant shows up and points out the sign “no children under 14 allowed”. Fortunately the kid wasn’t hurt too bad. But it’s unbelievable how people can come down on vacation and think they can abuse the facilities and wreck things with no consequences. What they were doing to this expensive gym equipment was outrageous.
Our original plans had us going to Clearwater today to see the Phillies play at their ballpark. We figured we would just make this a rest day instead and switched the date for that visit to Tuesday. And a good thing too since there was lots of rain the region and this was one of many Grapefruit League games that either got cancelled or suspended. Fortunately it looks like sunny skies for the rest of our stay here.
Of course we’re watching the NCAA games with a keen eye, although I am also watching closely the NHL action and it was all bad news again for the Sabres… The Leaves beat Ottawa, Florida wins to tie the Sabres and even the Bruins snag a point in a shootout loss. I”ve been the optimist all along but my embers of hope for the playoffs are flickering. And then to add to the misery… the Buffalo Bandits drop one at home to the Toronto Rock to tragically put an end to “The Ultimate Sports Weekend”. Speaking of which… nice job Sabres in jumping on the USRT theme for your lame promo. And don’t insult us by saying that’s just coincidence because we know that everyone in Sabres country from L.Q. on down knows about the Ultimate Sports Road Trip.
So tomorrow we’re back to Tampa for the most riveting and compelling matchups of this NCAA tournament - at 12:10 it’s Siena v Villanova and then 2:40 San Diego faces Western Kentucky. Can we expect a big walk up crowd to snap up those unsold 300 level seats? Highly doubt it!
