Florida Holiday

Last winter while I was visiting my folks in Georgia, Wendy's restaurant and Airtran airlines run an irresistible promotion – buy 32 sodas from Wendy’s and get a free one-way ticket. Feeling the tug of both my grad student financial situation and a thriving travel-bug, I blitzed Wendy's during my week with my parents, hitting up chain location from Warner Robins (where my parents live) and throughout central Georgia on our short trip to Savannah. At first, I'd go in with my folks, order five sodas, and we'd attempt to drink them. But soon enough, we dropped all pretence of indulging in the beverage and just ordered straight-up cups, no soda necessary. The servers knew what I was up to, and of course, they couldn’t have cared less. However, others apparently had the same idea as me, as I noticed other patrons leaving the counter with tell-tale stacks of cups. Soon every location was strictly enforcing the 5-cup limit per order. Still, I accumulated enough cups for two round trip tickets.

But the Wendy’s tickets were only good for a one-year. Having one ticket left that I had to use before February, Alice and I decided to take a winter vacation. The restrictions on the promotional tickets, as to be expected, were pretty severe and annoying. We almost booked a flight to New York, but a little hesitation left the ideal times unavailable once we decided to go for it. Since we had only a few days open for our trip, spending 8 + hours (with connecting flights) out to LA or other destinations west didn’t appeal to us. So we randomly choose the one warm place the ticket would take us - Fort Meyers Beach, Florida.

It appears as if the hotel we booked on priceline caters to the Northern snowbird, especially, according to the cheers of their websites, those who are Packers or Steelers fans. It also features an “exotic” tiki bar. So stay tuned for reports from FMB coming the first week of January . . .