Oh no, it's Friday!

Usually today would be TGIF but with Friday came the realisation that we've already been in the US for 3 weeks and eventually it will be time to go home. Each day so far has been packed with new adventures and we have to keep pinching each other to remind ourselves that we're really here.

Today we raced into town to grab a couple of rainbow t shirts & postcards before we left Key West. Once again I my senses were assaulted by the sheer madness of sounds and sights and smells. The noise in town is crazy, even at 10am and in hindsight I wish I'd voice recorded it on my phone. Jamaican music combined with hawkers shouting , people laughing and arguing in English and Spanish, cigar smoke and Mexican food and cats and chooks and crazy people on bicycles and scooters dodging trolleys and the stupid conch train. I'm so glad we came here and in a different way to Memphis, I was glad to leave.

I thought the trip back up the Keys might be boring because we'd aready traveled it but honestly, I don't think you could ever get sick of sea views on either side. The pelicans are particularly fascinating. They glide effortlessly alongside the highway at window height and then suddenly plummet down to grab a fish. Their landing is as ungainly as their flight is elegant.

We made land fall at Key Largo and in a totally uncharacteristic move for two vehement anti gun people, we went to a shooting range and learnt to shoot a hand gun. Turns out both of us are crack shots, hitting around the bulls eye with every round. Just holding a loaded gun made my knees tremble and every time the man next to us let of a shot I jumped. What worried me most was that by the time we'd got to the end of our box of ammo I wasn't nearly as afraid. Anyway, like many of our experiences here it was a one off. I certainly won't be looking to bear arms when I get home.

I booked a 2 star hotel on Priceline tonight because it was the only rental I could find under $150. It's called, ( ironically since we're 90 miles away) The Key West Inn and it suits our purposes beautifully. A full kitchen and a bedroom upstairs so Taine can have the TV all to himself for a night. We went for a walk around the neighborhood before dinner and it was beautiful. There's nothing at all pretentious about this side of Key Largo but it looks like a great place to kick back and enjoy the weather.

This ends our time in South Florida and we'll be sad to say goodbye. It's a unique and beautiful part of the world and I would recommend it to anyone traveling this way. Tomorrow we'll start wending our way up toward Orlando and Disneyworld.

Key West

It's still raining in Key West so alas, no sunset for us. Given that I've seen some pretty spectacular sunsets in my time; no 1 on the beach at Fremantle WA, no 2 just last week at Sanibel and 3, from our lounge room window at home in Mortlake, I guess we'll just imagine how gorgeous this one might be.

Key West is a paradox. Wander the back streets on foot and be overwhelmed by the beauty of the architecture and fascinated by the eccentricity of the locals, the chickens and the cats. Walk on Duval St and surrounds and be overwhelmed and annoyed by the hawkers, the drunks and the scammers.

It's impossible (for me anyway) to capture the magnificence of the houses here in words or pictures. There's such a huge range of architecture and each style is intriguing and makes you want to live there. You can almost feel yourself swinging on the porch seats of the more modest dwellings, swanning down the stair cases of the extravagant four story mansions.

It's hot and humid in Key West. Even in early Winter the air is languid and the feeling is laid back. I can see that Hemingway would have found inspiration here but I'm surprised perspiration didn't smudge all his writing. The sea is calm because the coral reef prevents wave build up. On a grey day like this the horizon is seamless. The chickens cross the road at will. We found out today that they are the descendants of Cuban cock fighting birds, let loose on the island when cock fighting was banned and protected under the wildlife laws. Likewise the cats, some of whom can prove Hemingway's cat Snowball as an ancestor with their extra toes. The cats are everywhere, well kept but not at all tame, arrogantly peering out at you from behind fences or trees. Traffic rules appear to be non existent but there's very little of the road rage arrogance that we've seen in other places. Lots of people ride bicycles or scooters, none with helmets and many of them in various states of intoxication. At night time the place shines like a Christmas tree, the gabled roof lines lending themselves perfectly to the seasonal light displays.

And then you step onto Duval St. Every doorway has a spruiker. If you step into a shop you're pounced on. Want a picture with the parrot or the man dressed as a pirate? $10. It's more overt than Bourbon St and in our opinion, more annoying and confronting.

Taine talked us into the conch (that's pronounce 'conk' ) train rather than the trolley tour. We were told we could get on and off as many times as we liked. What we weren't told was that the stops were all back at the terminal! The commentary was informative and kind of interesting but we wanted to be able to get off and take photos and that wasn't possible. Our day was brightened considerably by excellent Mexican food at a street side bar, complemented by the chance to people watch while we ate. You see all kinds of people in Key West. The local women's group were meeting outside a very auspicious looking house across the road, straight out of 'The Help' or 'The Stepford Wives'. There are buck's parties and senior's groups and hippies and foreigners like us. People in all states of dress and undress! We've even seen two brides in their wedding dresses in Duval St.

For dinner we had ribs and wings at Daddy Bones BBQ across the road. It was delicious. Like everything else here, food prices are also a conundrum. I paid $10 for Taine to have a reheated pretzel and a lemonade from a fast food vendor down the street this morning but tonight we feasted on 3 types of BBQ, collared greens (this is a delicious discovery), sweet potato chips, corn bread, root beer, budweiser and key lime pie for $35. Go figure!

We made it to the bottom!

I'm reserving my opinion on Key West until tomorrow night when we've had a chance to check out more of the non commercial sites. It was quite a long drive down the Lower Keys, it drizzled rain all day and I wasn't really in the mood to enjoy anything because I was too tired. Despite smothering myself in super strength insect repellant ( and aerogard bought from home) I still managed to get savaged by the bitey things in the Everglades and spent all night itching. Obviously I have super sweet blood because the same thing happens with sand flies every time I go to NZ and yet Taine and Geoff haven't got s single spot between them!

The highlight of the drive to Key West is the 7 mile bridge. 7 whole miles without any land to be seen is a pretty remarkable engineering effort. The remains of the original bridge run alongside the new one and I have to say I'm glad I wasn't traveling down here in the days before the new one was built. A lot of the trip is over water on the overseas highway and of the parts that are on land there is often just room for the road with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the Atlantic Ocean lapping at the other. I'm sure it's just a trick of the light but the Atlantic side looks green and the Gulf side blue (or maybe it's the other way around). Anyway, you can just about reach out and touch both seas at the same time. Needless to say, I bet it's scary down here in a hurricane.

The keys are fascinating in that each one seems to have quite a separate identity. Some are quite opulent, like Duck Key. Others, like Knights Key look really run down and then there was Ohio Key which was really just a big RV park. There are so many keys that there's even one called No Name Key because they must have run out of names or just couldn't be bothered anymore.

We are staying at the Parrot Key Resort in the new part of town (staying in old town doubles the bill). It rates pretty well on Trip Advisor but it hasn't done much to thrill me yet. It has nice pools and pretty coloured furniture but to be honest I've come to appreciate the 'homegrown' nature of the La Quintas and Travelodges who don't pretend to be anything more than they are, charge accordingly AND give you breakfast. The hidden traps in booking hotels in America are the added tax and the resort charges. Every city and state has a different tax rate and this changes daily so you can never be exactly sure how much extra to add to the advertised price. On top of that, anything that calls itself a resort adds a resort tax. In this case for instance, the advertised rate for AAA (RACV members) was $135 per night, plus tax $32, plus $25 resort fee. When Geoff asked what the resort fee covered the receptionist said it was a way of re investing in the resort. Hmmm.

Anyway, the beds seem comfy and there's a fridge for the Budweiser so all's well. We took a drive into Duval  St to check out the action this afternoon. Duval St in the day time is a little bit like Beale St and Bourbon St but with chickens. Seriously, there are chooks (and amorous roosters) running free all over the place.

It's also very reminiscent of Cavill Ave in Surfers Paradise. Lots of T Shirts shops and cheap souvenirs. We did the obligatory visit to the southern most point of the US mainland and headed down to Mallory Square for the nightly sunset ritual.

Unfortunately sunset was a non event today because of the rain so we headed back to Duval St for dinner at Caroline's. This improved my mood immensely because my shrimp & bacon sandwich on multi grain was excellent and we were treated to our first taste of the famous key lime pie, a delicious cheesecake concoction served with real cream.

The Keys to relaxation

My heartfelt thanks to colleague Linda Simkin who suggested we include the Florida Keys on our itinerary. We're only half way down this slender group of almost connected pieces of paradise and I'm totally in love.

From the moment you arrive in Key Largo, the first of the keys, everything is palm trees and pastel coloured shop fronts with barely a fast food outlet to be seen. Shop keepers are laid back and happy to shoot the breeze and even the drivers have slowed down enough for me to feel safe on the single lane, only road that runs from Florida City to Key West.

We called in at the Islamorada info centre and the lovely lady there pointed us in the direction of Robbie's where you can hand feed giant fish called tarpons. Once Geoff had actually been bitten feeding the first one, Taine refused to have a go but I did. My second attempt caused more hysterics than the first because I knew what was coming. You dangle the fish centimetres above the water (while a man fends of marauding pelicans with a foam pool noodle!) and from nowhere this giant fish comes and snaps it out of your hand. So much fun!

Trying to stick to our budget we booked a cheap resort on Wotif. The reviews of La Siesta weren't great but we were trying to squirrel away a few dollars to stay at Key West tomorrow. Imagine our surprise then to find a lovely big apartment style room, a water side location and a beautiful, heated, totally empty pool. Another excellent stumbleupon! Maybe we're just easily pleased because we're simple country folk but lying in a hammock looking out to sea is my kind of holiday ;-)

We had a swim and drank in the sunset from our marina then went to the fish market and bought some stone crabs for dinner. It's a good thing I bought my own McGyver along on this trip because there was nothing in the room to crack the crabs with. Where there's a will there's a way and he sorted them out with a sharp knife and some muscle. I enjoyed the taste but wouldn't pay $15 lb for them again. I'd as soon have yabbies from Tea Tree Lake.

Time now for a glass of wine on our balcony and my day will be complete .

A Day in the Glades

Staying in the same place two nights in a row is a bit of a luxury for road trippers. It was nice to wake up and not have to jump out of bed to repack the bags and the car and we even got a load of washing done before heading off for further exploration of the Everglades.

Our first stop was the Robert is Here fruit stand. The fruit shop has been built on the same spot that a much younger Robert had a fruit stand as a little boy and now it's a thriving family industry complete with some animals to feed and the best milkshakes you will ever taste. I was drawn here by previous trip reports extolling the magnificence of Robert's milkshakes and I wasn't disappointed. Taine had dragon fruit, I had strawberry & key lime and Geoff had papaya. They were all delicious.

Then it was on to the Everglades Alligator Farm for an airboat ride and another look at the local gators. The airboat ride was fun and after years of watching Miami Vice & CSI it was one of those 'must dos' for Australians. We do try not to do any damage to the local environment while we're traveling so was a bit of a conscience struggle. The Everglades is a beautiful and delicate eco system and I'm pretty sure the noisy airboats aren't doing anything to help the balance of nature.

The farm also had the ritual gator feeding session. The pond (about 50 metres across) housed 250 adult alligators, most of whom looked like concrete statues lying on the banks when we got there. In fact, I was ready to bet money that some of them were fake. However, when the bell went for feeding time they were like my Year 9 english class when the lunch bell goes, suddenly becoming very animated (in an alligatorish kind of way!). I wasn't overly impressed with the feeding session or the snake display even though Taine got to be the star of the show pulling snakes out of the bag. Nevertheless, the farm was reasonably priced and I was satisfied that we'd 'done' the Everglades.

From there we entered the Everglades Park itself ($10 per car) and made our way to the Royal Palm Info Centre to walk the Anhinga Trail. Anhinga are birds that live in the glades. The spend a lot of time spread eagled in the trees to dry their wings. The track was a nice way to see the everglade environment  in its wild state. We saw lots of bird life and fish and quite a few gators. It's about 1km long which is plenty. There's only so much waving grass we can manage in one day.

Craving a home style salad we called back in at Robert is Here and bought some salad greens, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and an enormous avocado. Combined with a bag of frozen vegies and some fried chicken I think we've staved off the scurvy for another day.

See ya later alligator

The Everglades are the big, soggy bit at the bottom of Florida. We went there today and I got to handle an alligator!

Coming out of Fort Myers we passed an amazing display of wealthiness. There are so many mega shopping complexes, I'm not sure how they can possibly all survive. My guess is that the residents of the ornate, gated subdivisions like Pelican's Nest & Cedar Creek have little else to do but shop when they aren't at one of the dozens of country clubs along the route. It was all very manicured and pretty, like a movie set.

We took Highway 41 rather than the interstate and I was pleased with the choice despite the amount of roadwork and construction going on at the Miami end of the Timiami trail. It's a great way to get an overview of the glades and there are any number of places you can pull over for information, airboat rides or 'gator viewing. We got our first alligator sighting on the side of the road. There are little channels of water that run along each side of the highway and the alligators literally lie on the banks or wander across the road if they feel like it. As we discovered at several info stops, the alligator differs from the croc in more ways than its sensitive tongue. Alligators by nature are simple, indolent creatures who have no desire to attack you unless you put part of yourself near their jaws!

Attempting to combine some culture and history along with the day's environmental lessons, we stopped at the Miccosukee Indian Village in time for their alligator show. The show itself was pretty tame. As mentioned before the alligator is actually a pretty timid creature and it took quite a bit of prodding to get these animals to move. I felt a bit uncomfortable about having paid to stir them up for our entertainment but I was more than happy to take my turn at holding one of the babies afterwards.

The story of the Miccosukees is an interesting one.They historically inhabited the upper Tennessee Valley but under continuing encroachment pressure from European-American settlers, many migrated to northern Florida during the 18th and 19th centuries.

They formed a major part of the Seminole tribe, which formed in the eighteenth century in Florida. The United States (US) government forced most of the Seminole/Creek from Florida. Those who remained in Florida fought against US forces and afterward, they moved into the Everglades to try to evade European-American settlement pressure and became the Miccosukees. 

By the time we reached Florida City we were so hungry I was afraid Taine would start eating his own arm so we made our first visit to a US Maccas. It was all the same rubbish we get at home, minus the lettuce (although there was definitely lettuce on the picture!) and much cheaper. Today's special was a cheeseburger for 59c!

For dinner we visited the crab restaurant across the road. Disappointingly they had run out of crab but Geoff & I had a yummy seafood plate of shrimp and grouper. Our side tonight was fried, green beans. These are, quite literally, greens beans fried in batter. Soooo delicious!

 

Here comes the sun

Yesterday was moving day. Time to leave the Delta and fly to sunny Florida for some relaxation. We returned our trusty Kia Sedona (not without some issues because the return address on the agreement was an old one!) , put Soph on a plane back to Austin and then flew to Tampa via Miami.

Tampa was warm and humid when we arrived, very similar to Gold Coast winter weather in Australia. The airport is beautiful with a space age shuttle that runs across from the landing area to the terminal itself.

The first thing I noticed today was the Latin American influence in Central Florida. We grabbed empanadas (sort of fried pies) on our way through Miami and our new rental keeps giving us instructions in Spanish! When we visited an Hispanic supermarket I was thankful we hadn't traveled to South America because I don't think I'd cope with the jalapeño flavouring in so many of the foods! Nevertheless, introducing ourselves to this culture was an unexpected bonus of our trip.

This morning we set off down the Gulf Coast with no real destination in mind except that I was keen to check out the shells at Sanibel Island. Florida is Queensland on steroids. Same temperate winter climate, pretty beaches, palm trees and varying degrees of assisted care communities. We were wondering where all the older people in the States were and we found them in Venice! Venice Beach is also famous for turtles and fossilized shark teeth. You can even hire a shark tooth strainer to try your luck on the beach. We passed on the straining but Geoff and Taine took a dip in the ocean and we collected some sand to add to our collection at home.

We followed the Tamiami Trail road rather than the interstate and this gave us our first experience of over water roads, including a couple of what Taine calls 'roller coaster' bridges. In the middle of the over water roads these bridges appear to go straight up and then down again with only normal barrier rails on the sides (no suicide rails like we have at home). Not great for my vertigo but he enjoys them very much.

Arriving at Fort Myers in the late afternoon we found another trusty La Quinta (the best one yet, great pool, big bathroom) and also discovered that we could get a discount with our RACV membership. Score! Then we drove out to the very beautiful Sanibel Island in search of a beach. We passed lots of impressive houses on the long, narrow road out to the beach and then paid, yes paid! to park in the Bowman Beach car park. To get to the beach itself you walk down a path and over a river where fish were literally jumping in the air.

I think we've probably been spoilt as far as shell seeking is concerned given that most of our previous beach combing has been done at Papamoa and Mount Maunganui so I was a bit disappointed with the size and variety washed up on this beach. Still, it was a lovely spot to watch the sun setting on our first full day in Florida.