(What follows is pretty much a boring travelogue. Read at your own risk. Really, I’m telling you. Your distraction of reading this could possibly cause you to miss the “Fast Money” part at the end of the game show “Family Feud” on TV. You’ve been warned.)

If you’ve ever thought about taking a jaunt out to Florida, now might be a good time to do it. We were there for a quick trip recently from Saturday, May 6th to Wednesday, the 10th. Sometimes quick trips that aren’t planned out well in advance turn out to be just as good as the ones that are meticulously planned months in advance.

We had been invited to a family wedding and didn’t reply to the RSVP until the last minute when we finally decided that we could break away and attend.

I guess, once again, we proved that it’s possible to get to anywhere in the world from right here in little ol’ Sanpete. I say that to people sometimes when they act like Sanpete is so isolated and so out in the boondocks that we’re eternally cut off from civilization.

This trip’s flight turned out to be “easy peasy.” We found round-trip air tickets for about 250 bucks a pop on Allegiant. The Provo Airport has flights to St. Petersburg/Clearwater (Tampa Bay area) on Allegiant.

Flying from Provo simplifies the whole process. Getting through the short lines at security is easy. And since there’s only 4 departure gates, you don’t have to run a marathon to get to your gate. Your chances of getting lost are minimal.

(Even though, we saw some college age kids madly running from one end of the small terminal building to the other because they were confused on which gate they were to be at. Their flight was doing a final boarding call.)

Wheels up to wheels down from Provo to St. Pete, Florida, is 4 hours. That’s about the same time it takes to drive to Pocatello, Idaho from Sanpete.

For the first time in quite a while, over the course of our last several airline flights that we’ve been on, there were no significant delays, cancellations, or major issues otherwise. Oh, unless you want to count the one-hour delay in departure when we returned to Utah. But, I choose not to count it because the pilot either “stepped on the gas” or had a tail wind that got us back to Provo essentially at the scheduled arrival time.

Once in Florida, we quickly snagged our rental car from Avis. It was a Prius – one of those Toyota hybrid gas/electric battery cars. The guy at the rental counter said, “For 10 bucks more a day, I can give you a “real car. The shifter on that car is like a joystick on a video game.”

We stayed with the Prius and didn’t regret it. It had good acceleration and got over 50 miles to the gallon. It was a “real” enough car, for sure.

At the wedding Saturday evening, we had a great time. It was held at the Bradenton Museum of Natural History and Science. The ceremony was held in the courtyard. We were then ushered into a large auditorium for a planetarium “star show.”

We learned our place in the universe. Even though we are just “spits in the ocean,” we have importance and meaning. We each impact other lives for better or worse – a good lesson.

Dinner was ready when the show was over and dancing followed. The underwater viewing area for the manatee habitat was alongside the party area. I don’t believe I’ve seen such playful animals.

Much of the rest of our little vacation was beach, beach, beach. Lots of sunscreen saved my lily white, winter preserved, Utah body. The beaches are beautiful. The water was a gorgeous, turquoise’ish blue. The sunsets were fabulous.

Among other places, we did visit the De Soto National Memorial which is a 27 acre area managed by the National Park Service. It tells the quite sad story of the exploration party of the Conquistador Hernando de Soto. He landed in Florida in 1539, and was looking for gold. He died disappointed. He didn’t realize that the real gold in Florida would be future tourist dollars.

We were on the Gulf side of Florida (West). Another Florida explorer, Ponce de Leon landed on the Atlantic (East) side of Florida. I may visit there some time and pick up where he left off in search of the “Fountain of Youth.” I’m feeling like I’m a quart or two low on my “youthfulness” about now. So maybe I better schedule another trip soon.

Anyhoo, there’s much to see in the Sunshine State. And we’ve proved that it’s easy to get there. And, once you get there, it’s fun! Maybe you should consider the possibilities. — Merrill

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