19 Comments on “View From a Hotel Window 4/24/15”

1. Good heavens! Did they put you up in a grass hut?

2. Definitely Northern Florida because that looks like a rhododendron bush in the foreground.

3. Best job I ever had was being a word-processor operator on a rebadged Wang for the History & English Departments at U of F from 1980-1983. Now I’m all nostalgic, wahh.

   Say hi to G-ville & the Gainesville Speculative Fiction Society for me!

4. Not able to come up there this time. I’m some hours drive further south. But I’m hoping this isn’t the last FL trip. Next Jan or Feb perhaps? I lived in G’ville for years. Nice place. I hope you enjoy it!

5. Whoa! That’s quite different from that Ohio hotel view I sent you in March while visiting colleges. “Cool” back atcha.

6. Pretty sure I recognize that view. See you tomorrow at the library!

7. I have only visited Florida twice, and both were quick trips t Orlando. As someone who grew up on the Central Coast of California, I found the extreme flatness of Florida rather disturbing. That you could see the rides at Disneyworld from miles and miles away really threw off my sense of distance, as well as not even a bump of a hill in any direction all the way to the horizen.
   Gainsville could well be different, but certainly hope you enjoy your trip regardless!

8. Well, if it’s perfectly flat in all directions, humid, and you get a 20 minute thunderstorm somewhere between 2 and 3pm every day … and if large bugs are doing strafing runs at your window … and if there are lizards everywhere you look … well, then, it must be Florida!

   (I lived in FL until I was 18; I’ve only been back twice in the intervening 32 years, and I haven’t missed it a bit!)

   Have a good trip, anyway, and I hope the bugs leave you alone! :-)

9. You reassured me Florida is my getaway trip….#choicemade

10. Florida is a foreign country. Did a year of college there back when, still seems like a weird dream sometimes. Swimming in January. Giant cock-roaches (Excuse me, palmetto bugs.) Water that reeks of sulfur. Enormous cattle ranches.

    On the bright side, Cuban food is excellent.

11. Oh yeah, bizarre trees.

12. Not just the palm trees but the palms nestled among all the other greenery. Palm trees could signal L.A., but then it would be palms surrounded by nothing green anywhere.

13. Watch out for the alligators, they hide behind the shower curtains.

14. The warning to avoid palmetto bugs should not be taken lightly. When alarmed or crushed they emit a highly noxious odor that always reminded me of Dr. Pepper on steroids. To this day I cannot be around anyone drinking Dr. Pepper.

15. Only a six hour drive away from me. I thought about it but…much as I would love to meet you, Mr. Scalzi, I will have to wait until you come a little closer the panhandle (or Lower Alabama, as it is often called.) Alachua is, however, a good taste of non-tourist Florida. My dad worked there for nearly 35 years, and I grew up about an hour away from there. Don’t get me wrong, I do like Orlando, but it’s not the Florida I really love.

    So welcome to my state as I know it. I hope you are well-treated and enjoy your visit.

    @tom – I must take (humorous) umbrage at the link between Dr Pepper, which is the delicious king of sugary drinks, to the smell of palmetto bugs, which is foul and soul-crushing. ;)

16. florida: UG! boring, hot place fully of bigots & redneck scum. when the ocean rises & floods them out i wont miss any of them.

17. To say nothing of that distant, wafting keen of police and emergency vehicle sirens that trickles sweetly through the balmy tropical air. Ever approaching! Ever Florida!

18. Nice view!Life is all about appreciating what you have, when you have it because well life is unpredictable but I guess that’s what makes it all worthwhile.

19. Oh Nice!