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#1
02-25-2012, 02:06 AM
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Felix Unger talking to Oscar Madison: "Your horse could finish third by 20 lengths and they still pay you? And you have been losing money for all these years?!" 
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#2
02-25-2012, 04:21 AM
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Timeline time
Wow, what a blur this past 4 days has been. I had the pleasure of meeting many fellow dt'ers and hopefully created friendships that will last a very long time.
So while I sit in Tampa international with about an hour to kill I'll try to give you the highlights and lowlights of a very memorable 4 days. Tuesday- Trip starts when I fly into Orlando for business at the crack of dawn. Not expected to meet up with the gang until the next day. Eat breakfast at a rancid IHOP that will lead to many lowlights in the following days. But in the short term I have a brief laugh at stuffing up their lone toilet on the way out. I high tail it out of there before they find out and expect to undo the carnage that I did. But in the end they will get the last laugh, believe me.......... In the meantime I have tons of time to kill as it's early and I'm not expected at my destination until late afternoon, but I do start heading towards that direction. As I'm driving on I4 I see a sign for a dog track, hell why not? So I cut across 4 lanes and get off having no idea where or how far this place is. Thankfully it was only about 20 minutes away, with the only thing guiding me are these little signs that I keep spotting by the grace of God every few miles. But with his guiding hand I stumble across the Orlando Sanford dog track. I am absolutely floored, it's 11am and they just opened. I'm walking around and admiring the place like it's the Lourve. Boarding has started, to be continued (probably tonight)..........
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Felix Unger talking to Oscar Madison: "Your horse could finish third by 20 lengths and they still pay you? And you have been losing money for all these years?!"
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#3
02-25-2012, 08:28 AM
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#5
02-25-2012, 11:29 AM
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Continued
I have a few minutes here while there's a lull in the homecoming celebration
 .So after the intial excitment/aura of the dog track wore off (after about 3 minutes), it came to my realization that the place was a gigantic s.hithole. It made Freehold raceway look like Keenland. They were still about 90 minutes away from racing there and I only saw a handful of people, but realistically I couldn't hang around until the races started as I had to be in Lake Mary by about 1:30. More importantly, I'm not caught up on my teatnus shots and the IHOP breakfast is starting to rumble again. On the way back to I4, I spot a big Mall, I figure that I still had some time to kill, so I go in. They have this really big sports store, so I go in to buy the boys some stuff. What's the first thing I see, yup Jeremy Lin shirts and jerseys all over the place. I about face and walk out. More importantly, It's starting to become clear to me that the IHOP I had for breakfast has officially become a major situation. Thankfully for now, the mall bathroom is top notch. The rest of the day is pretty much a non-event, except for being absolutely exhausted while having to visit customers and take them out to Ruth Chris for dinner (and obviously the IHOP situation). My luck of nice bathrooms does extend with my customer's office building and the Ruth Chris steakhouse. I have no appetite as I dine and actually feel nauseous at times, but fight though. I do catch a break as my stomach cooperates on the 90 minute drive to Tampa (I guess not falling asleep on the drive is a break too). But when I finally reach my hotel room, I absolutely destroy that bitch. Then exhaustion (and probable dehydration) set in as I crash. Next up Tampa day 1 To be continued........................................
__________________
Felix Unger talking to Oscar Madison: "Your horse could finish third by 20 lengths and they still pay you? And you have been losing money for all these years?!"
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#6
02-25-2012, 07:32 PM
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A big thank you to all DTers and non Dters all across North America, from Woodbine to Hastings Park, to Fulla Sheets and Exacta Bob, to GPK and Bigsmc, and everyone in between. Turf was firm, track was fast, and the golf bar was set at 100 strokes.
Too much fun, didn't want it to end.
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#8
02-25-2012, 09:32 PM
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Wednesday
Wake up excited and fairly rested, unfortunately my behind continues to spew. Still have no appetite, but decide to get a cup of coffee. Go back to the room and spew some more. Finally at about 12:05, Bigs white pick-up rolls up and we're off to the track. Tampa's really the only thing running so expecting a fairly light day. We get to the track and start to cap, waiting for GPK and BT to show. Hit the first race and things couldn't be better. Bigs has us hooked up in his box. It's in the front row about 20 yards past the wire, just freakin awesome. Finally GPK and BT show up and my greatest fear is eased, I'm taller than GPK (It's really not close). I'm actually getting a little hungry now and I've heard so much about the famous Tampa Cuban sandwiches, so I decide to jump in. It's pretty good, but it had Salami on it. Since when do Cubans eat F'n salami? Regardless things are good and I'm feeling better. Until later when out of nowhere, I'm forced to check out the plumbing facilities at Tampa Bay Downs. Thankfully there were adequate. Come back just in time to get out on the last race. After a few 2 for 1's in the Grunder Bar, BT, GPK and myself go back to the hotel to check in.
GPK decides to give us an unplanned tour of the Tampa/St. Pete area on the way back to the hotel. It feels like we drive for an eternity, thankfully my colen cooperates during the journey. We check in, rest and then it's time I give the bathroom a workout for a while, then we decide to go to dinner. Honestly I'm not even hungry. But we go to some steakhouse grill type place, it was actually nice. GPK falls in love with the hostess. I guess she was ok, but the thing that really made his heart pump, was that she was shorter than him. Then he proceeds to order french fries as an appitizer. Who the f.uck has ever heard of something so stupid? French Fries, really? I'm not hungry so I give him a pass. The three of us are enjoying our meal, when out of nowhere some random 70 something year old woman stops at our table and starts to chat us up. She really looks like she just escaped from a mental hospital and just continues to blabber as me and BT just shake our head in amazement. I think GPK is digging her, but she's way to tall for him. Finally the rest of the golden girls at the bar corral their friend and she's out of our hair. It really was a comical scene. We thought about messing with them, but decided it was a play against. We discuss if we should go out at that point, but it's late and we're golfing very early in the morning. We decide to call it a night, but not before having to take BT to get beer. He says he needs it to handicap  .To be continued............
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Felix Unger talking to Oscar Madison: "Your horse could finish third by 20 lengths and they still pay you? And you have been losing money for all these years?!" Last edited by MaTH716 : 02-25-2012 at 10:15 PM.
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#9
02-25-2012, 10:18 PM
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 Tears from laughing so hard. No expanded details on the events in Grunder Bar?
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#11
02-25-2012, 10:07 PM
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Quote:
__________________
Felix Unger talking to Oscar Madison: "Your horse could finish third by 20 lengths and they still pay you? And you have been losing money for all these years?!"
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