Saturday 31st December – New Year’s Eve in Tampa

Steve and Barbara had probably been awake for hours by the time that Simon and I showed our faces for coffee, but we’d had a late night by our standards!  After a brief chat and exchange of contact details and this blog address (hi, Barbara and Steve!) we decided to have another bite of the Siesta Beach cherry as it was warmer today:

Tampa skyline

Hatted muffler man

Having taken over 4 free parking spaces in the car park we ventured onto the sand.  I risked wearing a bikini but a brief toe-dip in the water confirmed to me that I would not be swimming today!  But it was pleasant to lie on the smooth sand for a couple of hours reading before driving the final hour and a half North to Tampa.  It was on this journey that I had a flashback to earlier in the trip when we had been trying to see all of the over-sized roadside attractions.  ‘That’s the muffler man!’  I shouted to a very confused Simon.  And it was, or to be more precise it was the ‘hatted muffler man’ listed in our road atlas as one of the two Florida ‘must-see’ gimicks.  And we weren’t even trying!

We were booked into the Barrymore (better not risk the pool here either then) Hotel for two nights, situated by the Riverwalk in Tampa.  Straight away it was a vast improvement on our recent Miami motel experience.  The RV was in a secure but spacious parking lot that we could see from our window. The room was up to our ‘usual’ standard, the reception staff were extremely helpful and even better than that – there was a free return shuttle bus to wherever you wanted to go in the city. 

Go bolts!

I had done some research leading up to our stay and discovered that an area called ‘Channelside’ was holding a New Year’s event with fireworks.  Entry was gained with free wristbands on a first-come, first-served basis.  After a couple of hours relaxation and pampering we were ready to jump on the shuttle and try our luck.  The other group on the bus stated that the place to be was at the party at the Aquarium but as they were all dressed in tuxedos and dresses we agreed that the outdoor fireworks were probably more our scene.  And we weren’t wrong!  There was a great atmosphere at Channelside.  There was a security presence but it was all very friendly.  As we strolled around to get our bearings we chanced upon the booth handing out wristbands to the restricted capacity viewing area for the fireworks, positioned right on the waters edge – result!  We bought reasonably priced beers to drink whilst people-watching.  There was an area set up with big-screens showing the ice hockey match that Tampa Lightning were playing in and a DJ booth was set up in another area getting people dancing in the street. 

The evening went by rapidly as we people-watched, chatted to strangers and grabbed a bite to eat as midnight approached.  We made our way through to our exclusive wristband area at the waters’ edge just before the countdown and the fireworks began.  It was a world away from watching fireworks back in the UK when it is almost always freezing cold and your feet get numb by the end of the evening! The atmosphere remained buoyant and the area we were in had loads of space available so we weren’t crushed in by any means.

At the end of the fireworks and the ‘Happy New Year – 2017!’ wishes there was the inevitable ‘what now?’ decision to be made.  We were more than happy with the 5 hours or so that we had been out.  The hotel had told us that the Riverwalk back to the hotel was safe at any time so we made our way there with the general throng of people heading that way and enjoyed some night-time views of Tampa. 

Despite being away from friends and family we had enjoyed a great night for New Year in a place I certainly never imagined spending an evening like that!