Bayous to Beaches. Oct 19. Day 19. Cosmos,Clearwater and Clean Rooms. Clearwater Beach

[WileyCoyote]

Saturday 19 October

Yesterday is HERE

We did manage to get some sleep but were up early and having not heard back from the owner, and the storm subsiding, decided to be on our way early.

In daylight the house looked no better to us

Even the table runners were dirty with ingrained stains I just didn't want to touch anything.

I spent some time putting together photos to send to AirBnB and we walked round and did a complete video

I think the loo brushes were the final insult

I mean, really, you cant just supply a decent toilet brush for goodness sake when you are charging over £150 a night for a "beautiful" home ?

That was when Andy showed me his discovery from last night that through the garage was an unfinished extension or annexe that was in a right mess and had missing windows. And definitely didn't feature anywhere in the listing.

We also realised that if the internal door from the house to the garage wasn’t locked - someone could just get in via the missing window and get into the house ...…..

It was also pretty horrible walking through the garage to the laundry machine especially since someone had left something nice in the laundry basket

Outside the view was as indeed as promised and I was so very disappointed as this could have been so lovely.

But even the pool area seemed uncared for - the pool deck was overgrown with weeds and lethally slippery in the wet

When we opened the sliding doors to get out we could see how filthy the sills were. Black with grime and discarded fruit loops

Everywhere just wreaked of not having a decent thorough clean. Or maybe we are super picky as our review really stands out against the others.

We were both in need of coffee and after using some wipes to freshen up rather than touch anything in the bathroom we loaded up the car and said goodbye to house.

As we left Bradenton, it was still grey and windy and we felt completely underwhelmed by the whole place.

I am sure its very nice but just didn’t work out for us. We had planned to spend some time in and around North Port and Port Charlotte on this part of the trip and all that was being abandoned because of our awful experience in this house.

I felt doubly cheated and fed up.

Going over the sunshine skyway in the high winds was an experience but soon enough we found ourselves heading to Clearwater.


We decided to stop at Perkins which was about 4 miles from the hotel.

Wouldn’t you know it.

As soon as we ordered the whole street lost power with the howling winds still going on

It was so windy they even went out to take down the big flag

And the traffic lights went too so the police arrived

They were sure the generator would come back on but after 30 minutes it still hadn’t and it was becoming incredibly hot with no air conditioning.

After numerous coffees and free fruit, we gave up.

They did give us vouchers for a free breakfast.

We left the server the same tip we would have done with breakfast as it was clear that she was going to take a hit on those today.

Not the breakfast we anticipated ..

As we reached Clearwater it was raining again.

Yeah welcome.

We were both so fed up by now and carried on driving to see if we could spot a cafe.

I was trying to find Another Broken Egg but of course when we had the choice of going left or right, we picked the wrong one and were in fact driving away from it.

But hurrah for Speggtacular. It had been eggceedingly delicious when we tried the one in Largo

We were eggcited to be finally eating !

I went for the corned beef hash and Andy had a skillet.

I also had a cosmopolitan. Because why not

It was eggcellent and we were eggstatic that no more bad luck had befallen us for at least 45 minutes.

It was no Yolk folks. Things had been pretty grim up till now

Bill was eggcepptable 😂

While we were eating there was another torrential downpour and it didn’t seem to bode well but in true Florida style by the time we paid the bill, the sun was out.

We had spotted a Brown Boxer sports bar across the way and were interested to see if they would be showing any of the UK football.

Another Cosmo was required as we were bracing ourselves to see if last night’s last minute hotel booking was going to be a good one or not

They weren’t showing the football so we moved on after a couple of drinks

Hoping our hotel is in better condition that this one …

We finally pulled up at the Wyndham Grand and wow, it certainly lived up to its name.

The valet looked at all our cases and asked if we were moving in - the joys of roadtrips

We were just so pleased when we walked into the lobby - its gorgeous and as soon as we completed check in we were given a mimosa to pass the time while our cases were brought in.

It was so nice we moved over to the bar where there was some rugby on and Andy settled in while I had a look round.

By now I really wanted a shower and to get changed, I went up to the room - heaven.

The room was fab and we had a partial sea view.

We could also see all the boats in the marina - its was wonderful

I excitedly texted Andy some pics to show him - what a result this had turned out to be.

And hurrah, a sparkling clean bathroom

The cases hadn’t made it up yet but I couldn’t wait and had a lovely hot shower using all their lovely products. It felt so good.

The cases finally arrived and I unpacked while Andy showered and after sorting out enough stuff just for tonight and tomorrow we headed back out

I took a peak down at the pool while waiting by the lift

It all looked so nice as we set off to find the other Brown Boxer Bar

All very Baywatch.

We found the Brown Boxer - people tend to cluster at the bar or outside tables so it was difficult to take pics . We came back tomorrow and it was packed !

A Moscow mule for me

We weren’t massively hungry so shared some crab cake sliders

While we were in the bar there was another torrential downpour but it cleared by the time we took the walk back to the hotel

Stopping on the way for Edy gelatos

Andy went for rum and raisin and I had creme brûlée

I am the world’s most incompetent and slow ice cream eater so by the time we reached the beach it was dripping all over me

People were gathering to watch he sunset - even though it was cloudy it was still nice.

We got chatting to a lady who had moved here from New York and she had a gorgeous dog with her who was enjoying lots of fuss.

It was a really nice end to the day.

We got back to a message from Airbnb confirming that we had been refunded the remaining nights at the house but we were being charged for the first night and a cleaning fee (the insult).

No way was I having that and sent more pictures and asked that the matter be referred further.

They were insistent on charging the first night - so even though their policy is you should give the owner “ reasonable time” to respond, it would seem if you give them too much - you might forfeit some cash.

The fact we were under a stay at home tornado advisory at the same time as waiting to hear from the owner also seemed to be falling on deaf ears so there was a fair bit more messaging before I decided to call it a night.

The day had turned out well in the end.

This was a beautiful hotel, a great location and we were set to have a lovely end to the holiday - so I wasn’t going to finish this evening being on a downer with Airbnb.

We had at least by now been refunded enough to cover the hotel bill … and in fairness to Airbnb that money was back on our credit card before we left Clearwater so it was pretty speedy.

Its been a crazy couple of days - but as we sat in the super king sized, super comfy bed in the very swanky room… we reflected on how things turn out the way they do and felt pretty happy with our lot

Todays cocktail tally - a much improved 3
Holiday total : 30