Florida 2020

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...