Reddit's Fantastical Voyage Pt. Four

• 1:00pm - Arrive in Tampa
• 2:00pm - Rent car
• 3:00pm - Connie's BBQ
• 4:00pm - Can't make it to cat shelter. Go to beach instead.
• 7:00pm - Snacks and beer at Truckyx's apartment
• 9:00pm - Durty Nellie's with OilyTheOtter
• 1:00am - Drive to Tarpon Springs. Pass out at OilyTheOtter's house.

September 15^th

• 11:00am - Soapier! Discover cat shelter "does not want our publicity".
• 3:00pm - Go to big cat rescue shelter, realize how broke we are.
• 4:00pm - Pho and Banh Mi, acquire durian
• 5:30pm - Eat durian with neighbors
• 7:00pm - Drive to Ybor for meet-up. Find no one there. Leave.
• 8:00pm - Find out Redditors were there, change meet-up to St. Pete.
• 9:00pm - Copious drinking at the Emerald
• 1:30am - Late night snack
• 2:00am - Return to Bar, find friend punched in the face...
• 3:00am - Pass out at Truckyx's apartment.

• 9:00am - Kahwa coffee
• 10:00am - Haul ass to Orlando
• 1:00pm - Disembark for D.C.

We were told that the transportation situation in Tampa was going to be a surprise. In a tone of voice that I hoped was signifying good things... It turns out we had nothing to worry about; we got another rental car. The tone of voice came from it no longer being the big surprise it was supposed to be because we ended up needing a car at the last stop. A car was necessary in Tampa unless someone wanted to be our personal chauffeur from Soapier to the requested cat shelter and back to where we were sleeping, and then to Orlando to catch our flight out - a full time job for two days. Kitten Caboodle Ranch was out of the question, about four hours away, but there was another awesome cat shelter in Sarasota, only an hour and a bit away. We headed to St. Pete to grab some food and pick up a friend, Truckyx, who wanted to tag along.

Checking the shelter's website, it turns out that they were unfortunately only open until four in the afternoon which did not give us enough time to get there. Writing that off for the day, we decided to get some food and hit the beach. For food we went to Connie's BBQ, a little hole in the wall in south St. Pete that is one of my favorites in the area (I just graduated from college down there). Then Tom and Truckyx headed for the beach while I caught up with some people on my old campus.

We all met up later at a beach bar and headed back to Truckyx's to grab a snack and figure out what to do. Our host for the night, OilyTheOtter, said he would come down and meet us in St. Pete, so we met at Durty Nellie's, an Irish dive downtown. Then on to Oily's place in Tarpon Springs and wonderful sleep (I actually slept in a bed!).

Wake up. First stop: Soapier! We were trying for a packed schedule on this day. Soapier at eleven in the morning, out by two to speed off to the Cat Depot in Sarasota which closes at four, then to the meet-up in Tampa at seven-thirty. We were greeted at Soapier with a warm welcome, but I ducked out for a moment to call the Cat Depot to see if they could stay open an extra 10-15 minutes to give us a little more time to film once we got down there. I talked to a woman who seemed very enthusiastic when I said I was from a Conde Nast affiliated website and she would call me back in a few minutes after talking to her supervisor. When she called back all she said was, "We looked at the website and I don't think we want your publicity". So no Cat Depot... Soapier was a ton of fun, though! Check out Tom's video on how Reddit soap is made.

After Soapier we decided to check out a big cat refuge we had heard about near Tampa. It turned out you can only enter as part of a tour that was more than we could afford, so another cat shelter written off. We were getting quite hungry by this point so we headed to the Saigon Deli in Tampa for some Vietnamese food. Afterwards we also purchased a durian to try later. Check out FoodProof for more on the culinary side of things.

With that gastronomic adventure complete, Tom and I headed out to the meet-up in Tampa. There had been a wreck on the bridge we had to cross and we ended up arriving almost an hour late. Which explains why we didn't find anyone at either meet-up location. Shit. We gave up and went back to St. Pete where I knew more people and we figured there was guaranteed to be something going on. On the way back we found out that the people who held the door for us at the restaurant we popped into in Tampa were Redditors who recognized us and neglected to say a god-damned thing, but they wanted to come and hang out in St. Pete now. We all met up at the Emerald and drank. Heavily.

At a certain point Tom and I both desperately wanted to eat something, so we ducked out and went to Angie's, a little burger and gyro place downtown. When we got back a hilarious surprise was waiting: xzxzzx, one of the Redditors who drove over to hang out, had been punched in the face. Some guy pulled up in a car, got out, hit him, jumped back in the car and sped off. Then, not two minutes later, a guy ran down the street asking if we had seen a guy beating people up come this way. I still have no idea what the hell was going on, but xzxzzx is OK (he is talking a little funny and has a swollen face, but should be fine soon). You cannot make that kind of stuff up. Seriously.

The following day we got up, got some delicious iced-coffee, and sped onwards to Orlando where our flight would be leaving from at one in the afternoon. The on to DC!