Claiming Baggage

Everyone has baggage.  But, if you're like me, I LOATHE claiming that baggage whenever I fly. It's not that I'm worried that the airline will lose or misplace my luggage, or someone will steal my overstuffed suitcase; I just hate waiting around after my flight to wait for my suitcase in a crowded baggage claim area. I much prefer to simply use my carry-on, but that isn't always enough, especially during Christmas time when you fill an entire suitcase with gifts to travel back and forth with.

Luckily, I have never lost my baggage. If I ever did, I would certainly claim it.  What I don't understand is people who don't claim their baggage, for whatever reason.  For those of you people who don't claim your baggage, it's up for grabs by anyone, and the people at the Unclaimed Baggage Center aren't afraid to take advantage.

The Unclaimed Baggage Center is located in Scottsboro, Alabama.  It was founded in 1970 by Doyle and Sue Owens as a part-time business, but has now become a full-time venture.


According to the Unclaimed Baggage Center website, "in 1978, the Owens incorporated the company and watched it prosper as one of the great 'hidden' bargain centers for savvy shoppers".

The website also says, "in 1995, Bryan Owens, son of the founder, acquired Unclaimed Baggage and directed the expansion which includes the current contemporary retail store that covers more than a city block. The store has many amenities including a Concierge Desk to help guests and Cups Espresso Café - serving Starbucks Coffee and Dippin Dots".

Sounds like this place is a gold mine, but feels to me like a classier, more vintage thrift store.  Approximately 1 million items pass through this store each and every year.  After at least 90 days of intensive tracking by the airlines, the majority of these items are then claimed, "unclaimed". About 60% of the merchandise is clothing, and the remaining items are cameras, electronics, sporting goods, jewelry, books and not surprising, LUGGAGE.

 It may seem there is a shit ton of unclaimed luggage out there, at least enough for there to be a huge store that covers a city block, but there actually isn't as much lost luggage as you may think.  Airlines use sophisiticated global tracking devices and over 99.9% of checked bags are returned to their rightful owners.

Apparently, Unclaimed Baggage actually donates 1/3 of their items to an extensive list of charities. They donate clothing and other items such as strollers, car seats, and luggage to foster care programs.  Other items donated are wheelchairs,  walking aids, and even eyeglasses to charities not only in the U.S. but worldwide.

Over the years, the Unclaimed Baggage Center has encountered very many odd and unique items.  Some of the items include expensive jewelry such as a 5.8 carat diamond, as well as a 40.95 carat natural emerald.  How can people not know they lost these items, and how can they not claim them? 

Other items include a full suit of armor, which is an exact replica of a 19th century original.  A woman who had bought a Barbie at the center apparently gave it to her daughter, who then promptly pulled the head off (sounds like something I used to do).  If her mother was about to scold her daughter for abusing a brand new Barbie doll, I'm sure the mother kept her mouth shut once she saw $500 in rolled bills fall out of Barbie's thin neck.

Not all items at the Unclaimed Baggage Center are for sale though.  "Hoggle", a dwarf/troll/goblin creature from David Bowie's movie, "Labyrinth" is a permanent fixture at the center. A violin from the 1770's is also not for sale.

The center doesn't always keep the unclaimed items either.  Even if no one claims them and the center sees that an item needs to be returned to its rightful owner, even though the owner didn't claim the item, they will return it.  A guidance system for an F16 fighter jet, valued at $250,000, was found in the unclaimed baggage but the center returned it to the US Navy.  Along with the guidance system, a camera designed for use on a NASA Space Shuttle was also found, but the good people at the center returned it to NASA.

Perhaps two of the most frequently asked questions are if the center can help someone locate their lost baggage, or a shopper can request certain items. The answer to both questions is no; by the time the baggage reaches the center, every effort has been made to find the owners.  The baggage the center receives is anonymous and at least sometimes up to 120 days past the travel date.  The center doesn't fulfill personal requests either because that would require dozens of personal shoppers combing through thousands of items and filling orders.

Ironically, the center's website devotes a section of their report to "Travel Tips" to educate travelers about the Do's and Dont's for baggage.  For their sake, I'm pretty sure they put that up there because they have a good heart; if people actually heeded this advice, nothing cool or unique would show up at this center at all and would just be a warehouse full of clothing.

Would you be willing to travel across the country to check out this local gem? I wouldn't plan a trip around it, but if I happened to be within driving distance, I'd surely check it out. Many people say it's worth the trip.

Truckin' For Jesus

Truckers come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, much like a bucket of Legos.  But the one thing they have in common besides foul body odor, missing teeth, and a penchant for a CB radio, is Jesus.

Welcome to the Trucker's Chapel, a place where truckers can come and sit down for a mass, thanks to Rev. Joe Hunter, a retired trucker himself.  CNN reports "Hunter's Truckstop Ministries Inc. works like a spiritual gas station. He prays with truckers, coaxes them to make tough decisions and hands out taped sermons that fortify them on lengthy business trips."

Joe Hunter has his own personal reasons for starting this chapel, some of which are inspiring and some of which just reaffirm the trucker stereotype.

I wonder how many of these truckers stop at this chapel in Georgia and confess they just porked a 16-year old prostitute in Atlanta, thus cheating on their wives for the 67th time this year? Or how many truckers stop in and pray for forgivenessafter they just received a BJ from some crackhead at the rest stop just down the road? 

Having a trucker's chapel is like having a whore church...some things just don't make sense.

Sunday Funday

I'm always looking for things to do on the weekends.  Farmer's markets, going to a bookstore, heading to the beach with a good novel, or seeing a matinee.  There's always tons of stuff to do here in sunny South Florida, but around the world, there are so many other fun activities in which to participate.

In a recent search to find out what other people around the world like to do on the weekends, I was blown away by the amazing weekend activities I discovered!

In Australia, who wouldn't want to strap on a mattress with 79 other people and create the world's Largest Human Mattress Dominos for the Guinness Book of World Records? These Aussie's had a Sunday Funday doing just that in August 2009.

Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to Orlando in June or I would have participated in the Most People Walking on Stilts in Multiple Venues, which also took place around the world in cities like Las Vegas, Moscow, and Montreal.

If I lived in England, I know I would have participated in this year's Largest Gathering of People Wearing Underpants.  Unfortunately, I don't live in England, nor do I wear underwear.

I think it's time to start traveling to far away locations like Thailand so I can eat at the Cabbages and Condoms restaurant, or to the Czech Republic for a The Great Whipped Cream Battle, or even travel to Austin, Texas once a year to celebrate Eeyore's Birthday.

Seriously though, I am considering moving to Japan so I can visit the Hakone Kowakien Yunessun Wine Spa on a weekly basis.  Sure, Florida is fun, and going to all these other places and engaging in these awesome activities might be fantastic, but nothing says fun like sharing a spa with a bunch of Asians.

SeaWorld, Shamu, and 1,000,000,000,000 M & M's

Emily and I decided to take a short Valentine's Day vacation to Orlando this past weekend, not because it was Valentine's Day but because we just wanted to get away for a while. We had gone out for happy hour that night, which ultimately turned into many happy hours and we didn't fall asleep until 1am or so, but that didn't stop us from waking up at 6:15 am to get ready and be on the road around 7:30 am for our 3 hour trip north to Orlando.

Our first stop was SeaWorld in Orlando. For those of you who have not experienced SeaWorld, it is worth the $75 per person. A word of advice—buy your tickets online or buy them at a ticket outlet in Orlando so you can avoid the long lines Emily and I stood in awaiting to buy our tickets. Also, make sure you get there early as the parking lot fills up fast and the crowds come in the afternoon.

There are so many amazing animals and exhibits and shows to experience at SeaWorld. From alligators to sharks to belugas to killer whales, there is not an opportunity to be bored. The exhibits include the Wild Arctic where we saw polar bears and belugas; Shark Encounter where there were sharks of all shapes and sizes; Penguin encounter where we literally walked onto the set of "Happy Feet"; Sting Ray Lagoon, where we got to touch sting rays as they swam by in a shallow outdoor pool; Pacific Point Preserve, where we got to see sea lions up close during feeding time; Dolphin Cove where we saw dolphins play with toys in their pool; and of course who can forget the two marine shows we watched, "Shamu: Believe" and "Clyde and Seamore Take Pirate Island". Very amazing shows and this list is not all inclusive by any means. Emily paid for two one-day tickets but they are good for unlimited admission for the rest of the year. I guess it pays to be a Florida Resident. We plan on going back because even we weren't able to see everything SeaWorld has to offer.

Like any other Florida attraction, SeaWorld also has rides and also has an attached waterpark called Aquatica, where one of the rides is called the Dolphin Plunge where you can take a ride in a tubular waterslide through an aquarium. We chose not to go to Aquatica because there is just not enough time in one day to do it all!!! At SeaWorld though, there are a couple roller coasters and water rides. The roller coasters are Kraken and Manta and the water ride is Journey to Atlantis. For some reason, we decided to ride on Journey to Atlantis, which was a fun, thrilling water ride. The ride took us in a boat-like coaster through the underwater world of Atlantis, and once we hit daylight again, we raced down a very steep water track and got soaked at the bottom. Spectators can see the first drop from the front of the ride, but what the first time rider doesn't expect is the second, steeper, scarier drop at the end/back of the ride that is not in the public eye. I thought there would only be that one drop and then the coaster would take us up a steep incline and let us out but no...not the case at all. After we got pulled back up from the first drenching drop, the ride sped up, soaked us again, and dropped us harder and faster on a second, curvy, steep, fast slope and we finally slowed to a stop. I don't like roller coaster rides of any kind, water or not. Emily loves them. I decided to loosen up and give it a try...I have been on many coasters before at Six Flags but that was only a one-day, once in a lifetime thing and I will NEVER do it again. I couldn't stop shaking and I was soaked and hot and ready to leave. Good thing the water coaster was one of our last stops on our SeaWorld tour.

Our SeaWorld experience was very enjoyable, minus standing in line for the tickets, shows, and the water ride but what we were able to see and experiences was definitely worth the wait, especially since we got to see most of the exhibits from an underwater view, which was really neat. From there, we went back to our hotel, put on our swimsuits, and headed to one of the three pools at our hotel for a nice, refreshing dip in the pool. We were tired from the night before and the three-hour drive north, but we were also hot and sweaty from walking around all day at SeaWorld so a late afternoon swim was necessary. We then showered and got ready to head to Old Town, which is right across the parking lot, for some Saturday night drinking!

We had made plans to stay at the Suites at Old Town, which is a hotel at the Old Town attraction, which is one of the best attractions Orlando/Kissimmee has to offer. Old Town is an attraction that offers free parking and free admission because it is like a town within a town. There is a city street made of cobblestone with old style restaurants, shops, cafes, and bars. Almost every night of the week Old Town offers a different event and since we were there on Saturday night, we were able to experience the Saturday Night Cruise, where people bring their antique and classic cars and drive them in a parade and park them for our viewing pleasure.

Old Town also has rides like the Ferris Wheel and other typical carnival rides, except these run every day of the year, not just a few days each summer month. There are many great rides, food, and attractions at Old Town but the best attractions, and the scariest I might add, are the Human Slingshot and the Super Shot. The Human Slingshot is a ride where you get strapped into a safety harness/chair contraption and are then catapulted 365 feet into the air and are left bouncing until you come to a stop. NO THANKS! The Super Shot is a swing mechanism with wires between two towers. You are slowly brought up to 150 feet into they air as you lie down on a safety harness, either by yourself or with up to two other people—and then you once you are at the top, you let yourself go and freefall to the earth at speeds up to 80 MPH and are left swinging over water until you stop. Again, NO THANKS! But it is fun to see other people on these rides. I'm fine on the ground.

The best part about Old Town on a Saturday night, however, is going into one bar and ordering a beer, walking around town with it, and entering another bar for a refill. There is no traffic on this street, only during the car parades, so pedestrians are free to walk on the sidewalk or in the middle of the street as they wish. The hotel wasn't that great but it was a one bedroom suite with a living room, a kitchen with a table and a bedroom with two queen beds, along with a private balcony and the most comfortable pull down wall bed I've ever experienced.

Emily and I stopped at Tropical Breeze restaurant for a beer and we also grabbed a couple excellent burgers and frequented a few other taverns Saturday night and even watched some of the Saturday Night Cruise. We had lots to drink, played Skee-ball at the arcade, watched a kid ride the bull, and checked out some of the antique cars and then we decided to head next door and go to Fun Spot, with the world's most amazing go kart tracks ever!!! We stood in line for an hour, yes, an hour, to ride on the tallest, curviest, steepest go-kart track I had ever been on! It was a lot of fun but by 1 am, Emily and I were beat so we headed back to our hotel. When we got there, we weren't excited about sleeping on the rock hard mattress in our room so I tried out the bed in the wall, which was the comfiest bed I had ever slept on! Emily and I passed out on that bed for about 45 minutes before we woke up, brushed our teeth, and slept on a real, but hard bed in the bedroom.

That night before we left Old Town and made our way back to the Suites at Old Town, we were pulled into a discount ticket shop by a sales man and were convinced to sit through a 90-minute presentation on Sunday morning at Westgate Vacation Villas, where we would get a free breakfast and save about $60 on Wet n Wild Water Park tickets. You had to be married or in a domestic partnership to take advantage of this opportunity. Emily paid $40 for two tickets when they're about $47 each to begin with. We were promised a free breakfast, which we got, and we were promised discounted tickets if we sat through a 90-minute presentation about timeshares, which we did receive. The place was huge and there were many people there, all looking for cheap tickets like us, but I think we were the poorest people there since there were plenty of people actually buying time shares. Emily and I don't have an extra $37k lying around, nor do we have $3k for a deposit, nor do we plan on timesharing anytime soon. So, we ate breakfast, were escorted around the premises and sat through 3 HOURS of presentation and bullying to get us to buy a timeshare and we continued to say no. After three plus hours, a mediocre breakfast, and standing in line again, Emily and I finally got our vouchers for our cheap tickets, which we didn't use on Sunday, as it was chilly (65°F), cloudy, and was supposed to rain. We can come back from now until April to use our cheap tickets. Now, had we had more money, this would have been an AMAZING purchase but unfortunately, we are poor folk...someday it'll happen...someday.

After heading to Westgate for a timeshare presentation and free breakfast at 9am, we finally got our ticket vouchers around 12:30pm and headed back to Old Town for a quick shopping excursion at an amazing store called Black Market. It is a huge store full of stuff like beads, stones, shells, jewelry, etc. Emily and I bought beads there back in September when we drove up in the Cavalier and traded it in for my Saturn Vue. We loved the store so much we had to come back and Emily bought a couple pendants for her jewelry-making hobby. We also stopped at Kissimmee Popcorn and purchased Vanilla Nut popcorn and Apple Pie popcorn...AMAZING, by the way.

From there, we left Kissimmee and headed to Orlando. We arrived at the Florida Mall, for no other reason besides the fact we were heading straight to M & M's World. When you walk in to M & M's world from the parking lot, there are the green and red M & M statues there to greet you (not literally) but we came in through the mall entrance. The first thing I saw was an entire wall of different colored M & M's and tubes full of M & M's in the ceiling. AMAZING! Although the M & M's were $11.99/lb, we still purchased a pound for the experience. The store is HUGE and I totally know where I'm purchasing my gifts for birthdays and Christmas this upcoming year. Hope y'all like M & M's and M & M's souvenirs!!! AWESOME stuff!!!

Overall, it was a great weekend. Long drives, long lines, but definitely worthwhile. I would suggest visiting Orlando to anyone at anytime no matter your age. It's one of the most fun and interesting places in our country/world!!!

For more information about the places I mentioned in this blog, please visit the following links:
www.mymms.com
www.seaworld.com
www.old-town.com
www.www.funspot.tutengraphics.com
www.kissimmeepopcorn.com
www.suitesatoldtown.com
www.wgvacationvillas.com

Sandsculpting

Two weekends ago my girlfriend Emily and I decided to head to Sanibel Island, off the east coast of Florida by the Ft. Myer's area. We went shelling on the best shelling beaches in the Western Hemisphere and enjoyed amazing, sunny, 80 degree weather all weekend.

We went to the wildlife refuge and the shell museum and had a pretty close encounter with an alligator at the refuge. Don't worry, I still have all my limbs. We ate at a really cute cafe and drank at a couple lame bars.

On our way home, just outside of Naples, we see a sign that says "Gulf Beaches". It was Sunday and it was still pretty early in the day so we figured why not go check it out. We had all day and Naples is only an hour or so west of Ft. Lauderdale.

On our way into town, we see a massive amount of cars parked everywhere. We had no idea what was going on and then we see a sign that says "Sandsculpting Contest". We paid a few bucks to park and arrived at one of the most beautiful beaches I had ever seen. Pure, white sands...well, pulverized seashells, but white sand nonetheless.

What to our amazement are these incredible sand sculptures. These professional sand sculptors started building their structures on Friday and worked diligently all weekend to create the coolest sand sculptures by Sunday in time for the judging.

I'm telling you, if writing doesn't work out for me and I'm still in Florida, I may have to seriously reconsider my career choice and become a sand sculptor instead. I mean, you're on the beach, facing the ocean, getting a nice tan, and creating something amazing with your hands? What more is there?