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It was another late start, we didn't get to bed til after 2am by the time we'd settled down from the flight, done the washing and gotten ourselves a bit sorted.
We missed breakfast, we were sure it went til 10am but when we got there at 9.45 we found it was actually 9 b***** it lol After failing to eat we got all the bags we left in the car out and did a big reorganise.
We took the long way, the scenic route. Initially we went past gorgeous beaches, condos and slices of middle America. Once again we went over some pretty impressive bridges crossing large bodies of water some of which once again had power lines set in the water running parallel to the road.
We stopped off and did some grocery shopping having run it all down before we went on the cruise and we found a nice park at Lemon Bay to construct our sandwiches for lunch. It's actually feeling quite good to not be eating so much, even though we were far from the biggest eaters there we were still having way more than we would normally.
We started heading east across the Florida peninsula and hit swamp territory with The Everglades on both sides. There were warning signs that wildlife was on the roads, they use sensors and if something is detected the lights on the warning signs flash. They flashed! The panther signs flashed! We saw an eagle, a small deer, a turtle and a rabbit :-( Not quite what we were hoping for lol Oh and do I need to mention still no bears? Lol
We passed numerous Indian villages some of which had a totem pole outside the compound. One larger village had a general store, restaurant and some sort of Indian Village you could check out (tourist trap??) all of which were shut when we passed them. If car numbers are anything to go by the massive Indian casino we passed is very well patronised.
We also passed numerous air boat tour places, something we plan on doing a little later on after Fort Lauderdale. There were quite a few locks along the way presumably to control water levels.
Once we headed south we came out of the Everglades ans swamp gave way to pasture, it was quite strange after all that water to see dusty fields, cattle grazing, a number of plant nurseries and some agriculture; maize, bananas, stone fruit and other fruits. One nursery had very large palms (fantails maybe) possibly 10 or so foot high for sale for $50! You wouldn't get a palm that size in Aust for less than $500.
Before too long we were on our way down the keys, each one a little different it would seem but all with touristy stuff; accommodation, restaurants and tours. It takes about 2 hours to get right down to Key West and due to our late start it was dark by the time we were only a third or so of the way. It reminded us of Louisianna where we crossed bridge after bridge with the power lines mimicking their course.
Our B & B seems great, huge room, bigger than usual bathroom and fridge complete with a mini freezer not the usual freezer box. It's down the back so should be quiet. The only draw back to that is the wi fi doesn't quite reach our room so after a shower, armed with a duty free drink each we headed a short distance to sit by the pool and do our usual on line stuff. The pic on this blog is the view from our "office" we worked in this evening :-)
So far the temps are similar to home, about 30 today so no biggie to us :-)
- comments
ann Re - Bears We never saw any either, even right up into Canada where they were supposed to be.
Sue If all else fails we are going on a moose and bear tour in Maine, one way or another I'm not leaving without seeing a bear!