Florida 2020

Yesterday's main event was an evening boat ride out of Vero Beach on a 'pontoon'. This is a bit like a minibus on floats with open sides and an outboard motor.  The idea was to see lots of birds and a few dolphins, which we did.  The location was the site of the USA's first wildlife reserve, set up by Teddy Roosevelt in 1903.  It is also part of the intracoastal waterway set up after WWII in response to German U-boat captains' 'Happy Time' sinking coastal shipping in 1942. We enjoyed the ride which ended with a lovely sunset. We had dinner at a very American restaurant, and C's Reuben sandwich was served on dishes identical to the ones we have at home!  Look familiar? Today we helped with the communal breakfast and then went a few miles to a classic car show, both reruns of last year events, and many more in the case of the breakfast.  The cars were a bit 'molested' and not old enough for David's taste but we did get some picture...

Just in case you think we’re enjoying being in sunny, warm Florida here’s a photo taken just now of the outside temp! A week ago it was in the mid 20s! I guess we’re being prepared for being back home where it’s not so warm. However, at least it’s dry here, right?

Today we split our forces: Larry and David went to an Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando with a friend of Larry's from his museum in New York and another friend of his.  Those with good memories will recall that it’s a repeat of last year.  This year the freebies weren’t as plentiful but we saw a combat/rescue helicopter take off and parking and lunch were free. The conference centre is enormous and getting in took a while.  Here is one of the staircases cum advertising hoardings. British prestige was upheld by Rolls Royce, Martin Baker and BAE systems. Carolyn went off to see her Florida hairdresser Chickie. She’s been cutting my hair in February for a few years now, and I love the way she cuts it. She’s a real character, and today her husband showed me around their 'back rooms' where there are all sorts of things that belong in an antique shop. Like over 400 railway lanterns, dozens of old coffee bean grinders, etc. I’ve never seen so much stuff outside of an an...

Today we set off for St Augustine with Larry and Dorie. We are staying in a B&B in the old town run by Julian and Sandy - sorry, Brian and Emory, both very friendly and informative guys who used to live in Texas. C loved the clock in the breakfast room.  The flag reads-'When pigs fly'. Breakfast seems to be either sweet or savoury, and it was savoury that morning, so we had a small salad to start, followed by 'biscuits and gravy'. Biscuits are like scones without sugar, and gravy is a white sauce with peppery sausage bits in it. Very southern. Then for our third course we had peach granita. Certainly a more different breakfast than we’ve had before, but enjoyable nevertheless.  We've had a walk around and visited the castle which the Spanish built to keep British pirates out in the 17th century. Here’s a sign C had to take a photo of! And here's a truck D insisted C photograph. We visited a craft distillery for free tastings of cocktail...

Yesterday we did the second stage of our return journey to Cocoa Beach.  We called in at a turtle rehab charity and looked at a few turtles recuperating after various ills; they all seemed to be on antibiotics. When we were almost home we came up behind a Model T Ford being taken for a spin.  It was bowling along merrily before it turned into Patrick Airforce Base.

Having checked into the motel and having had a nice walk to the lagoon we decided to eat at a Mexican/Spanish restaurant a short walk away. We had a nice meal in a very busy, popular place. Very reasonably priced as well. However, when we left we were confronted with a serious downpour! So we did what anyone would do-we sat down on a convenient bench to contemplate the alternatives. While doing so a man sat down near us, and I asked him if there were taxis for hire. Just Ubers he replied. He said he had a truck, so I asked if he’d be willing to give us a lift to the Super 8 motel. Turns out he’s staying here as well! Talk about lucky, so 'Jason' gave us a lift,  bless him.

Our Edgewater town house was a bit of a disappointment in many ways. It was very roomy and in a great location but rather shabby and down at heel.  Yesterday's strong wind whistled and moaned in the ill-fitting windows and last night the cooker decided not to work. There were no instructions - it seemed to be a single-burner two oven gas cooker - and a couple of knobs were missing.  Embarrassingly, when we got back from rousting out the on-site staff member, it had miraculously come to life!  We did meet a couple of other residents, one from North Germany and one from Corsica; the staff were Hispanic.  The Frenchman offered to cook our Pizza for us; vive l'entente cordiale! We were away in good time but ran into a mega tailback on the only road off the Keys.  It turned out to be caused by a marine flea market obstructing the passing traffic. We must have lost 45 minutes to that.  After that it was 'plain' sailing if you class the continuous spaghetti junct...

Today we went to Key West as planned. It is 64 miles from where we're staying so it took us a while to get there.  There is only one way to go and it took us through a few built-up areas which disappointingly turned out to be like every other.  Once we arrived and parked in Key West (a cool $4/hr!) we took the easy way out and did a guided tour on a hop-on hop-off road-train. We only got off once to visit the railroad museum.  We noticed abandoned sections of bridge next to the road on the oversea sections on the way down and wondered if they could be for a railway; they didn't look wide enough for even a modest two-lane road.  It appears that the railway arrived in 1912 and was the first land link; the famous Flagler was responsible. Key West was interesting and it would have been nice to stay for a couple of days but it was a bit pricey so we rejected it at the planning stage.  It turns out that it has a history of 'wrecking' and so fleecing tourists pr...

We were out of our apartment in good time today, having gone through the extensive checklist.  We came the scenic, but shorter, route, avoiding  the interstate and metropolitan Miami.  It worked out pretty well for the most part with empty roads through the Big Cypress National Preserve.   Here’s a sign you probably don’t ever see in Worcester! The most built up area was actually after we arrived in the Keys, particular Key Largo.  By the time we arrived at our home for tonight and tomorrow night in Layton it had thinned out a lot.  We are right on the seafront and David may even chance an ocean dip - tomorrow! And so you can see the route we took...

This is a non-profit 3.5 acre botanical garden dedicated to the preservation of endangered species. We chose it because it’s near the apartment, to minimise the amount of sitting in traffic.  On the way we posted a birthday card that has been passing between Carolyn and a friend of David's for the past many years (you know who you are!). The white peacock was beautiful! And very much 'look at me!' Afterwards we came back to the apartment and skulked in the a/c to get out of the 90 degree heat. This evening we went down to watch the sunset, beer in hand.   Since it is the Gulf of Mexico we chose Mexican beer.  We did it last night too, without the beer, and were rewarded by a cloud-free sunset.  As the sun disappeared below the horizon people clapped.  Tonight the only clouds in the sky were over the sun as it set!

We took ourselves off South to Naples today, specifically to the Botanic Gardens.  This time the traffic wasn't so bad, although the continuous built-up area and endless succession of traffic lights makes sure it's a tedious business, even if it's not all that far. It's certainly a wealthy area; on the way back there were two Bentleys visible together at one point.  We also saw a few Teslas, a V-12 Mercedes, a 7-series BMW, a Maserati, an Audi A8, Range Rovers, etc. etc.  No doubt many of the native and Japanese cars are at the expensive end of the spectrum too. The licence plates are from every State of the union plus Canada. There were lots of orchids, naturally, which were lovely as well as the red-flowered plant happily growing on a host tree. The gardens were lovely but as it was rather warm (33!) we decided to cool off in our apartment! We made a very brief stop at the docks in Naples itself before heading back to the cool of our apartment. A typical scene ...

Yesterday we went to see where Thomas Edison and, later, Henry Ford spent time in the winter. Edison, who had worked for Ford at one time, came in the 1880s; Ford bought the house next door in 1916.  It isn't very far but we made a bad choice of route which involved a half hour at walking pace through Fort Myers Beach.  On the way back we were also delayed, for an hour, by a road closure after what looked like a bad road accident. In between there was a lot to see, between exotic plants and trees, Edison and Ford's houses, a workshop and research lab and a museum.  The research lab was set up by Edison to research a domestic source of latex for rubber. Their houses are fairly modest given their wealth. Here are a couple of photos. Edison's House Ford's House As always C was interested in the various plants around the estate.  The most interesting for us was a cinnamon tree never having seen one before.  The only other comment C w...

Today we said 'au revoir' to Larry and Dorie and relocated to an Airbnb at Bonita Springs on the West coast.  It was a long journey - over 250 miles - but without any of the hold ups which always seem to happen at home.  That makes for a much easier time of it and Carolyn was happy to drive it all.   We saw a more workaday side of Florida, as we went through sugar growing areas in the middle. Obviously there's a lot less money in sugar than tourism! We had a hitch-hiker we didn’t know about. About an hour after leaving Cocoa Beach a lizard suddenly appeared on the windscreen wiper! C was doing 55mph at the time, so it was a bit of a surprise to say the least. The tourism side came back as soon as we hit the other coast.  Our flat is very comfortable so far; all mod cons and lots of room to hang up our evening clothes.

We were hoping for a Space-X launch today but it has been postponed for 24 hours because of the wind. It's cloudy and cool as well so we need to come up with suitable activities.  The finest brains - i.e. Larry and Carolyn - are wrestling with the problem as I (David) type The launch is to put 60 small satellites up to improve internet coverage somewhere in the world.  Space-X launches are good value because the first stage comes back to earth, accompanied by two impressive sonic booms. Later. The organisers came up with three activities: a botanic garden in Melbourne at Florida Tech University; lunch at Friendly's restaurant; a visit to the aviation museum at Melbourne Intnational Airport. The botanic garden was mostly palms, bamboos and creepers; interesting but not very colourful, with a few exceptions (all of which Carolyn photographed).   Friendly's was Friendly's. (Both Carolyn and Dorie spent many happy hours in Friendly's enjoying ice-cream when th...

....came the corporation dustcart! From sun and 80 degrees plus on Thursday it was a paltry 68/20 yesterday; not only that but it was raining and windy into the bargain.  Armed with fleeces and waterproofs we set off with Larry and Dorie to drive round a small wetland reserve looking at birds - from inside the car.  We bagged quite a few, mostly anhingas, herons and egrets as well as a coot, a couple of moorhens and one or two others.  Luckily for the anhingas it stopped raining; like cormorants their feathers aren't waterproof and they have to spread their wings to dry them in between dives.  When we arrived they all had their wings folded but they started spreading them soon after it stopped. Round the corner from the wetland reserve is the local zoo, which we've visited in the past.   This time we did everything on offer including feeding a giraffe and two different sorts of bird and a ride on a little train.  Unusually this actually runs on rails ...