Man’s Polk County Vacation Turns Into Probation
There is an old saying here in Florida. Come on vacation, leave on probation. Meet John Riley. He thought he could outsmart the law while visiting Davenport’s Fireside Lounge in…

There is an old saying here in Florida. Come on vacation, leave on probation. Meet John Riley. He thought he could outsmart the law while visiting Davenport’s Fireside Lounge in Polk County, last night, but it looks like he didn’t have the best game plan.
According to a Polk County Sheriff's Facebook post, around 8:40 PM, the staff at the Fireside Lounge had had enough of him and his antics and asked the local authorities to help boot him from the premises. So, they made sure he was trespassed... Basically, kicked him out the place for good. But John wasn’t ready to call it quits. No, he came back about an hour later, thinking maybe he'd get a warm welcome or a free drink. Nope! Wrong John!
The manager wasn’t having it. Kicked him out again and locked the doors to keep him out for good. So, naturally, they called the cops. See ya John! Now he's facing arrest for trespassing in Polk county a second time. Things got even worse when he started acting up, demanding the cuffs come off and telling the officers to “catch me on the other side.” Yup. Sounds like a threat to me. Deputies don't take kindly to those sorts of things.
Polk County Probation:
For his trouble, John didn’t just get slapped with a trespassing charge. He also picked up a charge for threatening a public official. Yeah, not the best vacation souvenir. So, after being placed under arrest, he got to experience another local attraction: Grady Judd’s Bed & Breakfast—also known as the Polk County jail.
And just to add a little extra flavor to the story, John’s not even from around here. He’s a tourist from Arizona who decided to visit the beautiful Polk County, only to find himself leaving with a one-way ticket to probation instead of a beach tan. Welcome to Florida, John. Guess this vacation's gonna be a little longer than you planned.
Southwest Florida Has One Of The Best U.S. Cities for Dive Bars
Southwest Florida Has One Of The Best U.S. Cities for Dive Bars
It’s 1997, and you just turned 25. You see a cutie across the bar. You exchange a couple of bashful yet confident glances with each other until you finally gain enough courage to grab a stool near them and introduce yourself. After countless hours that feel like mere minutes of chatting, you ask the sassy bartender for a napkin and pen. You write your number with a saucy wink face and “Call me!” next to it.
Dating in the ’90s was cute, and in dive bars, we can pretend it’s the ’90s once again. From the delicious food to the giant mugs of beer, dive bars are a special place that explode with character and personality you can’t find anywhere else. That’s why we want to share where the best ones are with you. To capture that old-school romance, read on to check out the best U.S. cities for dive bars!
Methodology
Let’s dive in! To find out the best cities to dive-bar hop, Shane & Co. began with a list of 75 of the largest cities in the U.S. We collected data on nine factors sourced from Yelp and compiled them in several categories, including entertainment, parking, and average star ratings. Our team assigned each factor a weight. From there, we converted the data into a score between 0 and 5; the closer to 5, the better. The calculated scores were multiplied by their factors’ weight and added together for a possible total score of 50. Read on to see what we found!
Factors:
The Top 20 Best U.S. Cities for Dive Bars
20. Orlando, FL
19. Bridgeport, CT
18. Buffalo, NY
17. Miami, FL
16. Milwaukee, WI
15. Seattle, WA
14. Providence, RI
13. Pittsburgh, PA
12. North Port, FL
11. Sacramento, CA
10. Portland, OR
9. Riverside, CA
8. St. Louis, MO
7. New Orleans, LA
6. Cleveland, OH
5. Cincinnati, OH
4. New Haven, CT
3. Tampa, FL
2. Hartford, CT
1. San Francisco, CA
The Best U.S. Cities by Category


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