First, some background information: We had originally made reservations for Jetty East condos in Destin on July 5th, 2005. It took us three months from when we decided where we would stay in Orlando until we decided where we wanted to stay for our "beach vacation". We finally settled on Destin after exhaustive research on TripAdvisor and elsewhere, and a good friend recommended Jetty East to us. We found their website, found a unit that looked good, and called and reserved the room. Within HOURS, honestly, no exaggeration, Tropical Depression 4 became Tropical Storm Dennis. As you know, it became Hurricane Dennis and headed straight for the panhandle as a category 3 storm. The National Weather Service reports that the eye actually made landfall on the terrace of the condo that we had reserved. (Ok, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but not much). Jetty East was clobbered by Dennis, and remains closed as of this writing. They don't expect to reopen until after January of 2006. We were back to square one.We didn't want much. We needed a two-bedroom, full kitchen condo with a gulf view on an upper floor in a complex with a pool. Family-friendly would be best. Cost was a major factor in our decision - we were trying to stay within our budget.
Eventually, after several more months of research, we settled on the Island Echos condo complex on Fort Walton Beach, just west of Destin. We made reservations on September 24th. When Elzie talked to them, she specifically asked if the pool and tennis courts were operational, and if the beach access was OK. Sure, they said, all repairs were completed as of September 15th.
Within HOURS (again, no exaggeration) TripAdvisor posted a bad review (with pictures) of the place that had been written two days earlier. The review stated that, although management had told them that everything was fine, the traveler had found that a 40-foot section of retaining wall had collapsed and dumped concrete blocks and tons of sand into the pool at Island Echos, there was noisy construction going on, the BBQ grills were missing, there was mildew growing on the walls, etc., etc. We immediately sent ResortQuest (the management company that handles Island Echos) an email message pointing out this information, and asked what was going on. Their reply directed us to contact the reservation office, who had just told us that all the repairs had been completed. Well, ok. The complainer on TripAdvisor had taken his pictures on September 12th, and they said everything was fixed by September 15th, so we assumed everything would be OK, certainly one month later, right?So, that's where we were as of the morning of Day 6, when we tried desperately to get everything packed up and to vacate the room by 10:00am. We didn't actually make it. We ended up checking out about 10:15am, but luckily they didn't charge us for an extra day. We hit the road, heading north. We stopped at (I love saying it!) Okahumpka again for fuel ($2.79/gallon). We stopped in Gainesville at a McDonalds for lunch so the kids could play in the Playland (and hopefully burn some energy that might otherwise be used to argue with each other in the car). We continued on west through Tallahassee. We stopped at Chatahoochee for fuel ($2.99/gallon) because (you guessed it) I love to say Chatahoochee. "CHATAHOOCHEE!"
At a rest stop on I-10, a creepy thing happened. I hopped out to answer the call of nature. When I got back, I started up the car, and noticed a man standing at my driver's side window. I cracked the window just a bit to see what was his deal. He gave me some story about how he was almost out of fuel, was on his way to Texas with his wife and 2-year-old, and had lost his credit card. He was trying to reach his brother-in-law, but he wasn't able to. If I could "help him out", he would be happy to "get it back" to me. OK. Now this guy was reasonably well dressed and clean shaven and everything, and he was driving a later model Ford Explorer, so he didn't look like a bum. However, there were a few things bothering me. First of all, if he had a cell phone, why didn't he call the credit card company, or the Florida Highway Patrol? Does he only have one credit card? What about cash? Ever hear of an ATM machine? Does his wife not have any credit cards or cash or an ATM card either? You know, if I was sure he was on the level, I might have been happy to give him a few bucks, but I was down to a single $20 bill, and I wasn't about to give him that much, or to leave us with no cash. And quite frankly, I didn't buy his story at all. And I CERTAINLY wasn't going to give him my home address so he could "get it back to me". No sir. So, I told him we didn't have any cash to spare (which was the truth), and he said ok and sorry to bug you and walked away. We boogied out of that rest area and got to movin' on down the road as quickly as we could. From then on, whenever I stopped and the family stayed in the van, I made sure to lock the doors. But I still feel guilty about it - if he was on the level, I would have liked to help him out.
We had a rather scenic drive down Highway 98 through Destin to Fort Walton Beach on Okaloosa Island (and yes, I love saying "Okaloosa" too). We missed one turn on Highway 113, where the highway actually does a left turn for about a half a mile and then turns right again. We went straight, but it didn't take long to figure out that the highway wasn't under us anymore. The dead end sealed the deal, so we turned around and found where we had gone wrong.
There was some storm damage evident in Destin, but not much. It was kind of fun seeing all the places we had read about on the Internet while planning to stay there, but we were looking forward to Fort Walton Beach too.
We all got a bad feeling when we found Island Echos. It looked almost deserted. The parking lot behind the building was full of sand and generally untidy. We decided to get out and check the place out before we checked in this time. That turned out to be a very good decision. The pool looked just as it had in unhappy-traveler's TripAdvisor review - full of sand. The beach didn't look usable - there were huge dunes piled up against the building's retaining wall. The place was a disaster.
There was nobody in the office (which closes at 5:00), so I picked up the "After Hours" phone and dialed the offices of ResortQuest. The lady on the other end told me that she had "just been informed yesterday that the pool was down". What a load of garbage. That pool had been down since Dennis at least, maybe Ivan, and they had already lied to us about it being fixed a month ago. I read her the riot act. Then I let Elzie take the phone and read her the riot act, part II. She offered to put us up at Water's Edge, just down the road. She said it was a new building, and they had a large pool which was operational. It was a more expensive room, but she offered us a 15% discount, which brought the price down to $7 less than our original reservation. We were skeptical, but agreed to check the place out. This, along with our storm history and the poor start at Grande Vista, was leaving us feeling as if a dark cloud were hovering above us.
We piled back in the van, and found Water's Edge. We got the keys to unit #509 from the lock box, and went around back to check out the facilities. The pool looked pretty good, great in fact. The beach was fine, well groomed, sugar white sand, and no debris was obvious. The walkover looked to be in good condition. We found a grassy area with barbecue grills. We located the elevators (after some difficulty), and opened up the unit.
We were relieved to find that it was exactly what Elzie had been hoping for. From her notes: "It was beautifully decorated in yellow and blues with ocean themed accessories. We had a 'guest room' bedroom with a Queen Bed (Libby slept in here) and a bunk room for Kaybee and Little Bit, both with TVs, and a master bedroom & bath that had a screen door to the balcony and a view of the ocean. The balcony had 4 chairs, 2 child chairs and a couple of tables.
"The living room was roomy and stocked with games and books. There was a nice, large kitchen table in the dining area and a beautiful kitchen with granite counters and a washer and dryer. The view of the ocean was perfect. Also in the condo was a small print of Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' - Libby's favorite painting ever since she was in pre-school. This was a good sign that we were in the right place."
She got on the phone with the ResortQuest lady and told her we would take it. I spent the next hour or so lugging baggage up to the fifth floor.We found a restaurant recommendation for a nearby seafood place called "Floyd's" in the "Welcome to Our Condo" notebook that we discovered in the living room. We decided to give it a shot. We loaded the kids back in the van, and drove about a mile to the Okaloosa Pier area. The restaurant was fine, not crowded at all (it was a bit late, though), and the waitress was very accommodating. The TV was on, and showing the first game of the Cards/Astros NL Championship series (one of the few that they actually won). We all had fish of one sort or another, and it was all great (especially my grilled grouper). We let the girls split a brownie sundae desert.
We then crossed the bridge to the city of Fort Walton to visit the Publix. We stocked up on cereal, lunchmeat, bratwursts, fresh fruit, and beach toys. We were back in the Central Time Zone, which made Elzie happier, as her internal clock never did sync up with the Eastern Zone. We all went to bed anticipating the next day at the beach.
Learn all about Day 7...
No comments:
Post a Comment