Monday, June 25, 2007

There's a beach over there!

On Sunday, our 2nd day in Panama City Beach, we actually saw the beach.

No, we didn't go to the beach. We just saw it.

We're here for the week. And decided to take it slow and easy this week. No rushing here or rushing there. So, we haven't rushed down to the beach or anything. In fact, the only part of the beach we saw Friday was driving up and down Front Beach Road, glancing off to the right or left -- depending on which way we were driving -- we'd see, over some of the fences, some water.

Sunday, we never made it to the beach. Until late last night, that is.

In walking distance of the house we're staying at are a couple of fast food chains. There are some local places, too, but until we knew more about them, which we'll pick up from the locals, we've pretty much stuck with the chains.

On the way to the closest public access are McDonald's and Arby's. We ate at Mickey D's already. So, about 9:00 or 10:00 o'clock last night ... depending on if I'm looking at the clock on the wall or the watch on my arm ... we decided that, yeah, we were hungry, and drove ... even though it's walking distance ... to Arby's.

They suffer what many fast food restaurants suffer from. New employees that need training.

Learning how to use a credit card machine can be a daunting task at times. In fact, it can take two people to do it.

And it can take two people around 3-1/2 minutes to perform a single credit card transaction. It was so perplexing to them, they were not only scratching their heads, but their asses, too.

Perhaps we erred by deciding to pay for a roast beef sandwich, a Reuben, an order of curly fries, and 2 drinks with a credit card. At 10:00 ... or 9:00 ... at night. Silly us.

Still, after several minutes, we had our receipt. The food took a little longer, because they had to cook the fries.

That would have held up all the people waiting in line. Except there weren't any.

Well, there was this one lady who ordered two sandwiches to go. She paid cash, so there wasn't a problem there.

Except they gave her two combos. But it was okay because they charged her for that. She seemed to accept that explanation.

Oh, and they put her food on a tray. So she got her husband out of the car to eat inside with her.

I must congratulate the Arby's staff for training their customers so well.

The Wife and I ate ours there because that's how we ordered it.

Then, afterwards, crossed the road to the public access, walked out on the boardwalk, and looked at the sand and gulf.

Oh, we didn't actually touch the sand or anything. Just looked.

Today's our 3rd day here. We're planning on getting closer to the beach this morning. We may actually walk on it. If we can get breakfast first, that is.

4 comments:

  1. hey, you're only about 7 hours from us. lucky you! if we do karaoke while you're here, you might even hear me sing all the way across the state.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Would you stop blogging and enjoy yourselves! We can hear about this when you get back.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SarahK: Is that what that was? We heard something while we were on the beach, but couldn't figure out what it was. Mystery solved.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jo: But I *am* enjoying myself! The Wife is snoozing and I'm checking restaurant times ... and checking email and the blog. And it's just so ... I don't know ... much of a habit to see something or think of something and say ... I'm going to blog that. And, since I'm not at work, I can just jump on the laptop and blog it on the spot.

    * * *

    Me: Hi, my name is Basil, and I'm a blogger.

    Support group: Hi, Basil!

    ReplyDelete

Please choose a Profile in "Comment as" or sign your name to Anonymous comments. Comment policy