Some GREAT hot dogs and Hiking(not biking) Brooker Creek Preserve

I was craving a hot dog, a good hot dog, and came upon Frankies Hot Dogs 'The Gourmet of Fast Food', located on Kennedy Blvd, just west of the University of Tampa campus. One of those places you order, they give you a number, and then bring the food out to you. Nice menu, mostly fried everything(cheese cubes are amazing), and all kinds of Hot Dogs...the very very long skinny kinds are grilled and served on a toasted bun...then you have complimentary help yourself toppings like NY style onions, raw onions, hot relish, relish and sauerkraut. The place is very Chipoltle like, modern comfortable booths and tables, plenty of large flat screen tvs throughout. When craving a wiener(Happy Hour is 3-5 two for one hot dogs), this is THE place to go one near downtown Tampa. They also serve wine and beers(Peroni on Tap).


Sunday, the sun was finally shining after quite a few days of Tropical Storm Fay lingering around to the north of us, so I went to do some off-road biking just north of Tampa at Brooker Creek Preserve. They have numerous trails, but I found out as I got there that the trails are for HIKING only(no bikes allowed). No problem, went through some beautiful trails, immediately I saw several deer, wild turkey's, a few snakes, very interesting flowering bushes, a lot of different types of topography, and best of all, it was so PEACEFUL. The trails can have you hiking through this 9000 acre wildlife preserve, less than a half hour from Tampa, all day long. A nice escape.

After wards, I met a few friends at Westshore Pizza a few blocks form my house to catch the ending of the Tampa Bay Rays game against the White Sox, where they were all par-taking on the $1 Yuengling drafts which they have during all Ray games.