Rusty told me I should talk to Pete because he used to bike, and so I did. It turns out before college he used to be a category one racer and used to race with Greg Lemond, who was the first US racer to win the Tour de France (I ride a Lemond bicycle), and Lance Armstrong. He said that even racing with Lance back then, before he even went to the Tour de France was brutal.

I’d say that meeting all of these really talented and amazing people is the best thing about having worked here. Everyone there is of such high caliber that they all fit in together so seamlessly, and their all so modest about what they’ve worked on, that you meet them as normal people, where if you had met them under different circumstances, you would have been star struck.

At around 6 pm, Jackie took me back to her house where I met her husband, their three kids, and two of their friends who were sleeping over. I played and talked to them for a while and then we ate dinner. I booked my tickets for my flight home and back here again, even though I’m still not sure if I’ll have enough time, but I won’t know for sure until I try, and I’m going to give it every effort I can.

I talked to my parents for a bit and then passed out. I’m not really sure at what time that happened at but I slept through the morning chaos here till 8:30, so I must have been out.

I made some breakfast and took a shower which was so relaxing that I took another nap till 12. I ate some more, and then started writing these posts. I’m not sure where else the time went but its almost 2 pm now. I’m going to go ride my bike (without a trailer! I’m so excited!) to Disney world and maybe ride the boat and mono rails around the parks and then come back here later on. I think I’ll end up at Universal tomorrow, and them maybe at one of the Disney Parks on Sunday, and spend Monday just riding around downtown Orlando, before catching my early flight home on Tuesday.

I’ll try to post more when I’m out doing things. TTFN! (Ta-ta, for now) (Sorry, but I’m surrounded by Disney characters so I had to.)

After I said hello to every one at Cecropia, I had some time to kill, so I went and road my bike around. I went to the grocery store, and on a search for free tickets.

Getting free tickets in Orlando is harder than it sounds. I tried several different approaches, but none of them had any success.

First I tried going directly to Sea World. I went to the ticket counter and asked for a manager. They sent me to guest relations. There it looked hopeful for a second, the first person I talked to was really excited about what I had done, but when he went to talk to his manager to see if there was anything he could do, he came back with nothing.

Then I went to a few of those ticket booths you find in almost every plaza around here. They did have some ways to get free tickets if you sat through lectures on condominiums, but I wasn’t old enough to be eligible for any of those. The lady here was really nice and tried to think of other ways I might be able get in and suggested talking to Human Resources at Sea World.

So back to Sea World I went. Human Resources was divided into two sections, Benefits, and Hiring. I went to Benefits first, and they sent me to Hiring. Over there, the girl at the counter didn’t know what to do, so she went to talk to her manager and came back with a phone number of the person in charge of community relations and donations. I called the number and was sent to voice mail boxes which said that all donation requests must be sent in in writing and can take four to six weeks for a response. I’m going to try and call again today and see if I can bring my written request in in-person, but I’m not very hopeful about this avenue.

When I had been at guest relations earlier, I saw people passing in vouchers they had got from their hotels, so that was my next approach. I went to several of the fanciest hotels I could find and tried to see if I could get a free voucher. I offered to work half or full day in exchange for one if necessary, but most of the time I was talking to an outside contractor hired as a Concierge (spelling on that word has me completely lost), so there was nothing they could really do.

My last try was asking a few employees I saw going in and out of the super market as I was snacking on some of the food I had bought. One of them said that he would have given me one of his passes, but that he had already given them all out, but that I could try asking other employees when they were leaving work. He said there was a bus stop right by the employee exit by human resources, and that I would probably have good luck there, but I felt a little too awkward doing that so I passed on that option.

I also tried to get into Discovery Cove for free with little success, but it was still neat to learn about this place. Its a resort of three beaches and a coral reef that you can snorkel in. They provide everything, including lunch and a seven day pass to both Sea World and Bush Gardens, but costs $159 for a basic ticket. This is way to steep for me right now, but actually isn’t that bad considering you get into the other two parks for free multiple days. You can also get the standard ticket, which costs $259, which gets you 30 minutes of one on one swim time with a dolphin.

Out of luck, but having killed enough time I went back to Cecropia. I was happy though because I did go grocery shopping and I got an extra free cookie at the bakery, so its not like I didn’t get anything for all my efforts.

I talked to a bunch of the guys there (Rust, Steve, and Dominic) about my trip. Me and Rusty went back and forth relating this trip to a hiking trip down the John Mayer Trail (on the west coast?) he had done when he was my age which was cool because we could both relate to that feeling of being encouraged through other people’s kind actions, which they do to live vicariously through you.

I got here around 1:30 this afternoon. I stopped by Cecropia, the company I used to work for, to say hi to everyone, and meet up with Jackie, who is letting me stay with her till Tuesday when air fares go back down.

On my way into Orlando this morning I stopped at a Mobile to just look at a better map and get directions. It was pretty hard to pick out a good route, not knowing what the roads were really like, but since Cecropia’s office is right next to Sea World, I just ask the for directions to there, without using high ways. The two ladies were pretty much stumped, but called her boss and got directions using no highways, but still on major roads. Her boss also said it was ok for them to donate a bottle of gatorade. Then a state trooper came in and helped give me really good directions that worked out perfectly. There were a lot of turns on them and Orlando was still a good 30 miles away, so I really wanted a copy of that map, but didn’t want to spend $5 on it since I’d have no use for it after this week. I asked if I could trade in my gatorade for it since I had plenty of water, but instead she just donated that too!

I was on my way with the directions I got from the trooper. About ten miles into them, it was about time to refill my water bottles when I came across a hot dog stand. Still trying to conserve money, even though I’m not as bad off as I thought I was, I wasn’t going to get anything. I still talked to him though as I was filling my bottles, and he gave me a dog and sports bottle of gatorade for free. These two things just totally made my day and made up for my rough morning yesterday.

More happened later but I’m exhausted now. I should have plenty of time to post tomorrow so I’ll write more then!