Florida again for our last two weeks in the USA

Kayaking at Wekiva Springs

Leaving Cedar Key we headed for Orlando where we dropped off our rental car and picked up another, which will be the last one of our trip. Many people who visit Orlando head for Disney's Epcot, Magic Kingdom, or Universal Studio's, but that's not our style, instead we spent a great day at Wekiva Springs State Park where we went canoeing on the river and swimming in the springs. It was quite busy with Spring Breakers doing the same thing but not as crowded as the theme parks would have been. We also went to a Ripley's "Believe It or Not" which was a bit quirky, and visited some shopping malls too.

Lovely big house on the river

Orlando was only a short stop before returning to see our friends Trevor and Carol in Homosassa again, who had a full house with Don, an 84 year old US Navy veteran who had come down from Delaware, and Eddie and Lily who were visiting from the UK, as well as us. That weekend was "Shrimpa Palooza", a Mardi Gras style festival in the town, celebrating everything "Shrimp" - what we know as king prawns. After the morning parade there were stalls of local artisan and craft goods, great food and local bands playing music in the sunshine.

Carol, Trevor, Craig, Jim, Lily and Eddie at The Freezer

During our few days at Homosassa we certainly had a great time, including a lovely meal with everyone at "The Rusty Duck" - a truly rustic eating house where you bring your own bottle, and with a menu that by normal American standards could be considered fine dining. As we know from our previous visit, many of the homes round here have water access and boat docks - the picture above is one of the bigger places - and Jim the next door neighbor kindly offered to take all of us out in his boat for a trip along the estuary. We went upstream this time, docking at The Freezer Tiki Bar for a simple but delicious lunch of seasoned fresh boiled shrimp, before heading up to the hot springs for a swim in the waters that are the winter home of manatee - though they have all moved away now that the weather has warmed up.

Sponge covered bike at Tarpon Springs

Ellis and Fay, another British couple who live there 6 months of the year, hosted a really nice drinks and nibbles evening at their house where we met lots of people, and for our last morning in Homosassa we all went out for breakfast to Kims, a small local cafe which serves tasty short order food. Just one week of our trip remained when we said our farewells and headed off towards Tampa, stopping for lunch at Tarpon Springs, which is the sponge capital of the USA and with the highest percentage of Greek Americans of any city in the US it has a distinctly Greek feel.

Making Cigars by hand in Ybor City

In Tampa, we spent a day in the sun on the beach at Indian Rocks and saw dolphins swimming past, and have been to Ybor City, a historic nieghborhood famed for its cigar factories and where cigars are still hand rolled today. Unsurprisingly there is a distinct Cuban feel here, and we happened to be there for the fourth annual Cuban Sandwich festival, where they broke the record for the world's largest Cuban sandwich. In the afternoon we headed off to St Petersburg for a walk on the pier and along the beautiful waterfront.

Siesta Beach

Today we went to Siesta Key to walk on the white quartz sand for which this beach has been voted #1 in the USA, and tomorrow with a forecast of rain we are going to the Dali museum in St Petersburg. As you probably know our trip is coming to an end so by the time you read this we will be counting down the hours before we have to say goodbye to the United States and board our flight home.

There is no photo album this time but we'll post again soon with some facts and figures about our trip, along with an album and also our future plans.

Texas to Florida

Last stop in Dallas was the 6th Floor museum at Dealey Plaza, located on the 6th and 7th floors of the building formerly known as the Texas School Book Depository. If that doesn't ring any bells to you, its the place from where the shots that assassinated President John F. Kennedy were allegedly fired back in 1963. The building is now home to a museum, documenting the assassination but also the life, times and legacy of the person that was JFK.

Photo of "Dealey Plaza 2003" by Brodie319
Weather wasn't so good when we visited !

With a long drive ahead of us we awoke the next morning to several inches of snow and sub zero temperatures, and despite leaving Dallas at 11 am the highways were still covered in a mix of deep wet slush and hard packed ice patches. Driving conditions went from "bad" to "worst ever" whenever the big eighteen wheeler trucks overtook in the outside lane, spraying our car and everyone else with very thick and heavy slush which temporarily reduced visibility to nothing for several seconds at a time until they passed. It was by far the worst conditions we have driven in but gradually improved as the day progressed, though we picked up several stone chips on the windscreen along the way from rock salt.

The restored Fordyce Bathhouse. now a visitor centre

Our destination was the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas, and we arrived safely that night though it was incredibly cold again. The city was the boyhood home of former President Bill Clinton, but it is most famous for the natural hot springs that it is named after. Downtown is designated and preserved as a National Park, centred around Bathhouse Row with its collection of old time bath houses. The Fordyce house has been restored and serves as the visitor centre for the National Parks Service, giving a unique glimpse back in time to what life was like in the early 1900's. As a great way to relax and warm up, we "took the waters" ourselves at the Quapaw Bathhouse, one of only two houses that are still open to the public today for bathing.

The tyre sidewall completely blownout

Leaving Hot Springs the weather had warmed up ready for our two day drive back to Florida. Unfortunately within twenty minutes of our early start that day we hit a huge pothole - recently created by the cold weather - which instantly blew out the front right tyre on the rental car and left us stranded at the side of the road. We quickly changed the wheel but the spare was one of those skinny space saver types, and with no nearby location to swap the car out, the rental company directed us back to Hot Springs to a Walmart to have the tyre replaced. We were back on our way by midday but as if to rub salt into the wounds, when we passed the pothole for the second time there was a local road maintenance crew filling it in. Moral of this story should be don't bother getting up so early, but we'll just put it down to bad luck.

We like Cedar Key !

As it turns out we were not too late getting in that night to Mobile, Alabama, which was just a one night stopover before another not-quite-so-long day to reach Cedar Key in Florida. We stopped here back in January and its a place that really captured our heart, so we thoroughly enjoyed returning to somewhere that we've been previously - though the no-see-um's (midges) were more prolific than last time.

A few hours drive brought us in to Orlando where we finally exchanged that rental car for another one, which should be our last one. The previous car served us well considering what we put it through but we're pleased to have exchanged it especially as the rental company upgraded us for free to a better car for our last two weeks. Time is running out fast, and even though the big mileages are done we have a few things still to look forward to which we'll post about before we leave the USA on 24th March. Meanwhile here is a new photo album on Facebook including some previous photos from earlier in Texas.

Texas - part 2

Mexicans on their side of the border
in Big Bend National Park

The drive from San Antonio to Terlingua was a long one, mainly on Highway 90 towards Del Rio then following the Rio Grande west and hugging the Mexico border. From here we visited Big Bend National Park, which is a protected area of the Chihuahuan desert. Great scenery and views, as well as a Bobcat that ran across the road in front of us, and several Roadrunners too. Being so close the border with Mexico we were stopped on two occasions by the US Border Patrol, and despite it being obvious that we were not Mexicans they diligently checked that even as tourists we had the right to be on US soil. In some places like Boquillas Canyon, the river separating Mexico from the US is just a few feet wide, and a few enterprising Mexicans do cross over in the early hours to lay out handcrafted goods for sale with honesty boxes, and return to the Mexican side for the day to lay in the sun and have tourists take pictures of them.

Heavy frost on barbed wire
near Fort Davis

Next stop was a small town named Fort Davis, based around one of the best surviving examples of an Indian Wars frontier military post. Occupied from 1854 to 1891, it was strategically located to protect emigrants, mail coaches, and freight wagons on the Trans-Pecos portion of the San Antonio-El Paso Road and on the Chihuahua Trail. The weather turned very cold on us here, a cold front coming in dropping the overnight temperature to -11c, which created stunning frost but also an extremely cold night in an motel with a badly fitting door and a noisy heater.

A very big telescope at
McDonald Observatory

However cold it was, spending a full day at the Mcdonald Observatory made up for it all. Its actually part of the campus of University of Texas at Austin, and we did a tour of some of the telescopes, even getting to play with the buttons to move them around. During the day we did some observations of the sun which was very interesting and we stayed on to do an evening observation with them of the stars and planets too, though the weather was not kind to us with banks of fog rolling in due to the cold weather. However, it was a very interesting day, and we left with our brains overloaded with information and pondering the enormity of space.

Ever onward we headed to the border town of El Paso. Bordering Mexico we expected lots of character here, however it wasn't particularly historic or well looked after and we were a little disappointed. To top that off, we had planned an extra day here to go on the Wyler Ariel Tramway, but that was closed due to unexpected maintenance. We did however get this photo of El Paso from an elevated car park of an assisted living home nearby !

The view over El Paso, with Mexico in the distance on the far right 

We were happy to move on from El Paso, crossing the state line into New Mexico and passing through Roswell, which you might have heard of as the crash site of an alien spacecraft. We didn't see anything there of course, except snow that had started to settle at the roadside. As we drove northeast towards Amarillo the driving conditions got progressively worse, and having to overtake a gritting truck on a dual carraigeway at nearly 70 mph may be one of the most buttock clenching moments of the trip.

Cadillac Ranch, in the snow.

Crossing back into Texas, on the outskirts of Amarillo is Cadillac Ranch - a piece of public art where ten Cadillac's have been buried upright in a field. Its one of those roadside america things that you have to see, and being in the snow it was quite different too. Amarillo itself was a much nicer town - mainly because historic Route 66 passes through Amarillo on 6th Avenue. Being a snowy Sunday there was not too much going on but we did a detour to visit Palo Duro Canyon state park, known locally as the grand canyon of Texas. It looked stunning in the snow, and we saw Roadrunners, a Porcupine, a pair of Wild Turkeys and the park's resident mascot Texas Longhorn cattle named Brisket, Omelet and T-Bone.

Sel outside the house at SouthFork Ranch

Another long drive found us in Dallas, where we are now. We've been to South Fork Ranch, made famous in the TV series Dallas, and had a tour of the house and surrounding ranch grounds. With our own distant memories of JR it was good to see the place although we cant help but feel that its appeal as a tourist attraction is going to become progressively more limited as time goes by.

Sel at the bull riding ring at
Billy Bob's Honky Tonk.

We also visited Billy Bob's, which is the worlds largest Honky Tonk at nearby Fort Worth with a capacity for 6000 people. It's a mecca for cowboys, with several big bars, a restaurant, stage and dance floor, a pool table hall and a pro bull riding ring. Though very quiet when we visited on a weekday, we can just imagine the atmosphere and buzz on a Friday or Saturday night.

We've got a few more things to see in Dallas, not least the famous "Grassy Knoll", but then we'll be heading out of Texas. No Facebook album this time but we'll have an album for the next post which will include some more photos from this update.

Texas - part 1

Big Thicket National Preserve

In our last post we didn't get round to explaining that we had to exchange our rental car in Baton Rouge - it turned out that the car we were assigned had been sold ! Although inconvenient we ended up getting a nicer car and with a full tank of gas too, so we did alright out of it, but there were more car troubles ahead...

Anyway, as we crossed the state line in Texas in the new car, we stopped at Big Thicket National Preserve, a heavily forested area that has been preserved as a county park. Multiple habitats converge here in South East Texas, providing an incredible diversity of wildlife, and we did a lovely five mile hike through some of the nine different ecosystems that thrive here. Driving south, the Gulf Coast drew within sight and as we passed through Port Arthur we started to see oil rigs and support vessels lining the waterways. On the coast, Sea Rim State Park remains undeveloped and serves as a wildlife sanctuary, in stark contrast to the developments of beach houses that became more prevalent as we drew closer to the Boliva peninsula. Its still a nice area though, no supermarkets, chain stores or fast food joints, just lots of houses on stilts that look like they are holiday homes. Though there is little else here, just a twenty minute free car ferry ride to nearby Galveston can get you to everything you need, which is where we based ourselves for a few days.

Historic Mission Control at the
NASA space centre Houston

From Galveston we drove up to Houston to visit the NASA Space center, doing a tour of the campus by mini road train to view the historic mission control room that served NASA for many years. It was here that either some or all of the Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle missions were controlled and managed from, and therefore the place where those famous words "One small step for Man" and also "Houston, we have a problem" were first heard, which makes it a pretty special place. The room is now decommissioned and serves as a museum, and the new mission control is just one floor directly below.

Boeing 747 Jumbo with a
Space Shuttle on its back 

Flight operations were in progress when we visited so we were unable to see that room but they did put a live feed on the tv screens for us to see what was going on. We also saw the Space Vehicle Mock Up Facility, another full scale Apollo rocket, plus there was plenty of space history on display in the visitor centre, and a jumbo jet with a Space Shuttle on its back in the entrance to the car park, so it really was a full day out.

The San Jacinto Memorial.
At 567 feet tall it is the worlds tallest masonry column.
The Star on the top weighs 220 tons !
Everything is bigger in Texas.

Texas has in interesting history, as we learnt at the San Jacinto battle monument and museum. Originally colonized by the Spanish in the late 1600's, the land that is now Texas was claimed as one of New Spain's provinces, becoming part of the original Mexico. In the early 1800's Mexico rebelled against Spanish rule in the Mexican War of Independence, and subsequently became its own nation, encouraging immigration from the fledgling Union by offering land very cheaply. Colonists came in their droves, and in fifteen years immigrants outnumbered Mexicans by five to one. Mexico subsequently stopped immigration and imposed central goverment control, but unsurprisingly the settlers didn't like this, and in the early 1830's they rebelled against Mexican rule. The battles between Colonists and Mexicans culminated in the decisive battle at San Jacinto in 1836, led by General Sam Houston, after which Texas declared its independence from Mexico. It then briefly became a Republic until 1845, when it was admitted to the Union and became the 28th state. The monument at San Jacinto is a grand memorial to all those who died at that bloody battle, the tower standing 567 foot tall and with a small observation platform at the top giving commanding views over the area, including the nearby WW1 battleship "Texas" memorial museum.

Batttleship "Texas", taken in panorama.

On our way back to our base at Galveston, the car flashed up a "Change oil soon" message on the dashboard. It had only done just over 7000 miles but America changes oil at much shorter intervals than Europe does - often every 3000 miles. So, another call to the rental company, who suggested driving it up to Houston to swap cars again. "No way" we said, partly the traffic, partly because we've only had this one for a few days and partly because its a nice car and we weren't keen to risk getting another crappy one in return. To cut a long story short the company agreed for us to get a drive thru oil change done on the car at a nearby Firestone garage, and despite a little hitch getting payment on account we were done within the hour, so fingers crossed for no further problems as we have plenty mileage coming up.

Greeting from Austin !

With the car sorted, we headed off to the city of Austin, which is the the capital of Texas. We stayed outside the city and took a 30 minute bus ride in each day, doing an organised tour on the first morning to get our bearings. Its a big and diverse city, and the tour took us to the Capitol building, around the huge University of Texas campus which is the fifth largest in the nation,  Hope Outdoor Gallery which is basically a legal graffiti park, the site of the first Whole Foods Market and nearby the current Whole Foods flagship store and offices, plus various music and art districts, and the best places for food trucks.

We spent a few days here exploring on our own after the tour, plenty of walking around and a few trips out in the car too. The city reminded us of Portland, Oregon, in that it has a young population, quite arty, new age and alternative, healthy and fit, and full of street art such as the famous "Greetings from Austin" postcard painted on the wall.

Gruene Hall

Leaving Austin we headed for the city of San Antonio, stopping in Lockhart for lunch at Blacks BBQ which is the oldest BBQ pit in Texas, established in 1932 and continuously owned and run by the same family. We also stopped at the historic village of Gruene, to see Gruene Hall which is the oldest music hall in Texas, built in 1878. The tables were all engraved with names, date and slogans, and we reckon the place could tell some tales.

The Alamo on the right, with the Long Barracks to the left.

And so here we are in San Antonio, which has a very Spanish feel to it.  We've been all round the Downtown area, and along the Riverwalk both by boat and walking, which is just such a great place with its waterways winding along beside a plethora of restaurants, bars and cafe's. Nearby is a stark contrast with what remains of The Alamo - the site of the famous battle where the Mexican Army laid siege and subsequently slaughtered the defending Texans. Again we've learnt a lot of history here, far too much to put into this blog this time but you can read about the Battle of the Alamo by clicking here.

Here's the latest selection of photos on Facebook too, and we'll post again soon.

The gulf coast of Florida to Pensacola, and then across into Louisiana

Apologies in advance as this is a double helping since we've fallen behind a little with everything we have been doing and seeing !

Enjoying the sunset at Cedar Key

Leaving Homosassa we stopped for two nights at Cedar Key, a network of islands extending into the Gulf of Mexico. Theres only one road in and one out, and it felt like going back in time - a bit like being on Alderney, but without the wind blowing. There wasn't much to do here but it was so calm and quiet that we could hear and see the dolphins hunting for fish in the shallow waters, and the sunsets were simply stunning.

Heading westwards toward the Big Bend region of the Florida panhandle, we stopped at St Marks Wildlife refuge where the park rangers were doing a controlled burn to clear the undergrowth. We also saw the St Marks Lighthouse, built in 1867 and up until very recently the original fourth order Fresnel lens was still in daily use

Selfie with the Batmobiles !

Reaching Tallahassee, the state capital of Florida, we did a great tour of the Tallahasee Automobile and Collectibles Museum. It is a private collection that is more than just a museum, sporting a wide selection of cars, from vintage to modern, motorbikes from all era's, vintage outboard engines, and a collection of rare steinway piano's. That's not all, there's collections of knives, golf clubs, guns, sporting memorobilia, fishing lure and vintage spark plugs, and more besides. Arguably the highlight of all the collections is the Batman section where three original Batmobiles are displayed along with many Batman artifacts, making it quite a unique place to visit with something for nearly everyone.

Sunny day at Wakulla Springs

Nearby is Wakulla Springs, the longest underwater cave system in the US and the sixth longest in the world. The spring is a first magnitude, and water flows at an average of 200-300 million US gallons per day. This forms the Wakulla River which flows southeast to join the St Marks river before emptying into the Gulf at Apalachee Bay. Here we took a short boat tour down river to see more wild Manatee and the abundant bird life, and we're told its the closest we'll ever get to the true wild Florida. It was a stunning place and easy to see why this park was used for filming scenes from the original Tarzan movies, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

The Birthday Girl !

Making our way back to the coast via the Apalachicola National forest preserve we ended up at Panama City Beach. Its a stark contrast to the nature that we came from, very built up and touristy, and nicknamed the Redneck Riviera. Its a prime destination for Spring Breakers, when in March around 200,000 college students head for a week of partying in the sun. Its geared up for it too with plenty of tacky souvenir shops, funfair rides and happy hour bars- just imagine Benidorm meets Blackpool, but in America. Fortunately late January is still quiet season, only a few snowbirds still around and the town starting to wake up and get ready for the onslaught. We didn't do too much here either but had several nice walks on the beach, browsed some shops and celebrated Sel's birthday with a slap up meal at a popular seafood restaurant. (We might add that it was not the place in the photo !)

Inside the National Naval Aviation Museum

Reaching the western boundary of the Florida coastline we stopped at Pensacola, visiting the National Naval Aviation Museum. Its the largest museum of its type in the world, with 350,000 square feet of exhibition space displaying over 150 aircraft from all era's of flight. The museum is in the grounds of the Naval Air Station Pensacola which is home to the Blue Angels, the US Navy's aerobatic squadron, and many of their former planes are on display here too.

Downtown Pensacola has plenty of history, being one of the first European inhabited settlements of what is now the USA. The Spanish were the first to arrive and settle here during the 1500's but the city has been ruled by five governments - Spanish, French, British, Confederate States, and the United States, earning it the nickname of the "City of Five Flags"

A balcony in the French Quarter,
ready for Mardi Gras in New Orleans

Having changed rental cars at Pensacola we hit the freeway, crossing the state line into Alabama briefly, then crossing into Mississippi, and then into Louisiana. Our destination was New Orleans, pronounced by locals as Norlins or N'Awlins. Straddling the mighty Mississippi river, New Orleans is a major port and well known for its unique blend of culture, music and cuisine. Its a true melting pot and most tourists head for the French Quarter, where the world famous Bourbon Street is located. By day the streets are filled with bands playing Jazz and Zydeco, and on weekends those streets are filled with party go-ers and revelers. With Mardi Gras coming up soon, many buildings were elaborately decorated in the parade colours of gold, purple and green.

The French Quarter, New Orleans.

Mardi Gras runs for several weeks and now has many parades, culminating in the big parades this year on the 17th Feb - Fat Tuesday. Its mixed emotions for us that we'll miss the biggest parades but we did see the preparations and also the first parade of the season which gave us a good taste of the big day, but without the crowds. We saw plenty of other things here though, the historic French Market, Louis Armstrong Park, and the historic St Louis Cemetery no 1. We also sampled Cajun and Creole cooking, with dishes like Jambalaya, Gumbo, Crawfish Ettoufee and Corn Mach Choux, plus a bite of Alligator, though our favourite place was definitely Cafe Beignet on Royal Street where they served hot sugared beignets (donuts), freshly made to order.

New Orleans skyline from
the Steamboat "Natchez"

No trip near the Mississippi would be complete without a ride on a paddle steamer, and New Orleans is home to the last authentic one on the entire river, the Steamboat Natchez. We picked the perfect afternoon for great views, and we also learnt lots about the history of this unique city too. One area we passed on the river was the ninth ward which was the area completely devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The Louisiana state museum near Jackson Square has an amazing exhibition on this subject, providing an incredible insight to the devastation and destruction, the hardships that followed, and the spirit that rebuilt the city. Looking around now there is little sign that it ever happened, but it was amazing to get a feel for what the citizens of New Orleans went through.

Sampling Tabasco on Avery Island

As we left New Orleans heading North to Baton Rouge the rain poured down as we drove through dense swamp land on elevated roadways. On the way, we stopped at Avery Island, better known as the home of Tabasco sauce. We did a free factory tour there, learnt about how the peppers are mashed with salt from the mine on the island, aged for three years in used bourbon barrels, before being strained and mixed with vinegar and then bottled. We were surprised by how many different products lines Tabasco make and they had every one available to taste, including a Tabasco soda and two flavours of ice cream.

The Mansion house at
Oak Alley Plantation

Arriving in Baton Rouge, Louisiana's state capital, we visited both the old and new state Capitol buildings, the old looking like a castle and now used as a museum, and the new one having an observation deck on floor 27 with commanding views over the city. We also doubled back a little to visit Oak Valley Plantation, the site of an old sugar plantation where slaves used to live in the shadow of the mansion house, which has 300 year old oak trees lining its magnificent quarter of mile front entrance. The house has been restored and is open for tours, and the plantation grounds are a museum to plantation and slave history.

Phew, Thanks and well done if you've read this far, its been a long haul this time. We'll leave you with the latest album of photos on Facebook which brings us all up to date. Next post will be from Texas.

Florida - Homosassa

We left Deerfield Beach on the east coast and headed west right across the full width of the Florida pan handle to Homossasa, where we met up with Trevor and Carol, another couple who we have met previously in France several times but whom we did not know particularly well until now. They fit the description of snowbirds perfectly, living the summers in France and the winters at their home in Florida, and in their own words, they "don't do cold anymore".

Staying with them for a few days was great fun - not only did we get to know them better but it was also good to meet their neighbours and get an insight into living there. This part of Florida is well inhabited but not overly commercialized or particularly touristy, which was a complete contrast to what we have seen on the east coast and especially the Miami area.

Folks just having fun at the car show

We happened to arrive just in time for the annual Manatee Festival at nearby Crystal River, which was very much a community event with lots of artisan craft stalls, kids entertainment, food stands and live music. On the way back from that, there was a weekly custom car meet in the parking lot of a local supermarket, with some great vehicles on show and everyone just out to have a good time, which is the ongoing theme around these parts.

There's always plenty to eat too, from Neon Leons, a funky joint named after the bass guitarist of the southern rock bank Lynyrd Skynyrd, serving a unique style of cajun cuisine, to Cody's - a very American style eatery with its floor littered with the shells of the free peanuts that everyone throws to the floor. It was Saturday night, and nearby at the High Octane bikers bar the party was getting into full swing, weekend warriors cruising in for a beer on their iron horses. Folks here sure know how to have fun and party.

Typical boat lift at the bottom of the garden

Day out in the bateau with the neighbors

Every house with waterway access here has its own dock, and most boats are lifted out of the water on custom made boat lifts to keep their hulls clean. The next door neighbors Jim and Kay very kindly took us all out for the day in their boat, through the myriad of shallow water channels and eventually out into the gulf of Mexico. We saw manatees here again, an otter on the shore, and lots of bird life, but also and rather bizarrely, spider monkeys. There are five of them in all, living on Monkey Island, a tiny chunk of land in the Homosassa river. They are fed twice a day and have free run of the island, often seen swinging from the replica lighthouse and naturally retained by the surrounding water.

View of "The Shed" from the boat

All this is very close to a great bar called "The Shed", which really is not much more than a big open sided barn, and boasting its own dockside on the river. We pulled up here in the boat, a local band playing some classic rock tunes, bikes lined up on the roadside, and once again everyone just getting along and having a great time in the warm sunshine. Its quicker to get here by boat than car, and you don't get busted for drunk driving either !

For our last full day with them, Trevor and Carol took us up to a place called The Villages for a look around....a retirement village. However, this place turned out to be truly unbelievable - its a master plan design comprising a 53 square mile site - that's larger than our home island of Jersey - with a population of 109 thousand - that's nearly ten thousand more people than in Jersey (according to official statistics), and yet it had a lovely open feeling about the place. The heart of the villages are the three village squares, all themed differently and comprising bars, cafes, and restaurants, boutique shops plus supermarkets and every other store that you could possibly want or need, making it hard to believe this is all a purpose built complex. Every night is a Saturday night, with free live entertainment in all three squares plus regular events and shows being put on throughout the year too. The night we were there, a local band played rock and roll tunes as the sun set behind them, a bunch of folks had fun line dancing together or just dancing with each other, and even an older fellow in his mobility scooter enjoyed himself just banging his walking stick on the ground to the beat.

Trevor and Carol, Sel and Craig, at Lake Sumter in The Villages

This is custom golf buggy !
(picture is not ours, we pinched borrowed it from Google)

Owning a property here is restricted to the over 55's and the residential buildings are all single family detached bungalows, but the emphasis is very definitely on fun. The complex boasts numerous recreation centers, with pools, tennis courts, shuffleboard and more, lakes for recreational fishing, and over 39 golf courses. There are clubs run by the residents for nearly every activity you can imagine, and nearly everyone gets around by golf buggy, which have their own dedicated road network. Many residents have customized buggys, like this one pictured, built to resemble a Peterbilt truck. Many others have alloy wheels, custom flame paint jobs or maybe just their names on the windshield sun strip, so many of these folk are like born again boy racers and having a whale of a time doing it. Its Disneyland for older people, and with nearly ten women to every man its perhaps unsurprising that there is a huge black market for viagra but slightly more shocking that The Villages have the highest rates of STD's among seniors in the country. Its seems that many of these residents are enjoying growing old disgracefully !

Owls in the wildlife park

Before leaving Homosassa we stopped by the Homosassa Wildlife park, centered around a natural hot spring where Manatee congregate in large numbers during the winter to enjoy the naturally warm water. The "Fish Bowl" underwater observatory there provides a unique glimpse into the world of these remarkable creatures, as well as the abundance of fish that hang out here too. Whilst the spring and all the wildlife there are open to the outside world and free to leave anytime, the rest of the park is much like a zoo, its most famous resident being Lu the hippo who has just celebrated his 55th birthday. They also have many other animals, such as Red Wolves which are part of a project to re-introduce these animals into the wild, and a range of bird-life too, like the owls pictured here.



Trevor and Carol made us feel very welcome and we are very grateful to them for being able to stay at their lovely house and for taking the time to show us around. Time is pressing on for us and we had to move on though we very much hope to see them again in March on our way back to Orlando.

We've not taken that many photos so there is no Facebook album this time but we'll upload a new album for the next post.

Florida - The Keys and Everglades

Glass bottom boat over the coral reef

After disembarking from the ship we transferred to Miami, said our goodbyes and collected another rental car. We did a drive around Miami Beach to take in some of the art deco buildings, then headed south to Florida City - the gateway to the Florida Keys - for a few days to plan the next stage of our journey. We narrowly missed out on getting what would have been a fabulous house sit, but as consolation we had a great boat trip in the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park where we saw loads of great fish, sea turtles and a shark too. Unfortunately the combination of a low swell and the optics of the glass bottom did not fare well for Craig who spent most of the trip out on deck !

Robbie's Marina

Southernmost point at Key West

Moving onto Islamorada, about a third of the way down the Florida Keys, we spent a few days exploring island life Floridian style. Robbies Marina was a great place, bright and colourful with a shallow dock where people fed the huge Tarpon by hand, and the endless Brown Pelican's all around. The Keys do not have many great beaches but they are magnet for sport fishing, speedboats and jet skis. We did a day trip out to Key West, and the most southerly point of the USA, along the way crossing the famous seven mile bridge that we've seen in several movies.

Returning to Florida City we had a perfect base for visiting the amazing Everglades. Driving up to Shark valley visitor center, we did a tram tour to experience the river of grass with its tree islands.

Close up of a heron in the Everglades

There is an unbelievable amount to wildlife to see - alligators of course but also an abundance of bird life such as herons, egrets, spoonbills and turkey vultures to name a few. On the way back that day we stopped just before sunset at a place called Flamingo, where we had our first glimpse and touch of the wild Manatees that hang out in the marina, which was very special.

Mama Gator with babies

The Everglades are huge, and the best way to see them has to be by airboat which are so famous around this area. The water can be only a few inches deep so the airboats are perfect for skimming over the grass in the shallows, and makes for an exhilarating ride, plus we saw Mama Gator with three of her little babies too.

Departing on the airboat

Having already booked for a few nights at Fort Myers we ran out of time and didn't get to see everything that we had wanted in the Everglades. At Fort Myers the beaches go on forever and we did chuckle when a couple walked past us on the beach wearing jeans, jumpers and jackets - as we were lying out in shorts and swimsuit. It's pretty easy to distinguish between the local Floridians and the tourists ! It is still close enough to get to the western edge of the glades from here though and we took a boat trip through the brackish waters of the mangroves where we saw lots more wildlife.

Egrets on the edge of the mangroves.

The pull of the Glades was to much and we retraced our steps back to the visitor center at Flamingo, to do one more boat trip out into the shallows of Florida Bay where among other things we saw dolphins, and which completed our understanding of how this truly unique ecosystem is held together. The Glades are indeed a very special place and unlike anywhere else in the world, extremely diverse and boasting a huge wealth of wildlife and natural habitats. Mankind has had a devastating effect on this fragile natural landscape in a very short period of time but the National Park Service is doing all it can to preserve what is now left.

Deerfield Beach, but not great weather !

Leaving the Everglades we headed back up the East coast, stopping for a few days at Deerfield Beach. On our way up there we met up with Gill and Trevor, friends who we know from France. They just happened to be there on holiday, visiting their daughter who lives near the huge Sawgrass Mills shopping mall complex. It was great to be able to meet up with them and we had a great day out. That mall may well get another visit from us before we head home, to stock up on some bargain clothes.


That was all a week ago and a lot has happened since then but we'll save that for next time - and there is another French connection to come !

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