Miami 2
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
1
59
220
Trip End
Jun 17, 2009
Miami,
Florida,
United States
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Reasonably early start (for us). Unless we needed to make an exceptional distance we normally set off between 9 and 10 am, to let the rush hour clear. Today we wanted to squeeze in a last bit of the Everglades that we had bypassed on the way down to the Keys. We find that time is like money, you have so much to spend and you apportion it as you choose, like Titusville and the space launches'. Then there are times when you've spent up - so on you go. There are some places we could have wished to stay longer but that would have increased our costs and also time away, which would have screwed up the weather planning and put us in the wrong places at the wrong times. To get to know some places fully would take longer than we have available but we think everyday how lucky we are to be making this trip anyway. It's worked out pretty good up to now, yes - we've been exceedingly lucky with the weather. At the end of the day it's all a compromise and a balancing act.
You remember the old, classic movie 'African Queen' with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn, well the boat that was used in the filming was moored near the hotel and we went for a quick look at this old, steam driven 'movie star' that had been built in England and did serve for many years on the African lakes
African Queen
. Hwy 1 was busy with a lot of new road and bridge works. We were told that they were in order to be able to evacuate people off the Keys quickly in times of hurricane warnings.
We turned through 'Florida City' and went to the 'Everglades National Park'. This covers hundreds of square miles and we had opted to go on the "Anhinga Trail' at 'Royal Palm'. The usual, excellent, set up and we walked out along the paths and walkways through this area of the Everglades. GATORS - you want gators? They were everywhere - at the sides of the (sort of) fenced path, under the walkways and basking (lurking) on the islands and banks of the lagoons that we were walking through! There were Anhinga cormorants, Great Blue Herons, Wood Storks, Great Egrets, White Ibis, King Rail and lots of Turtles. It was a superb place, all the more for how close the 'gators were. I still think the American HSE's were on early vacation - or is it just, that as a nation, they do not have a need to be mamby pambied!!!
An excellent 3 hours but we were spent up and had to move on to Miami before rush hour and the car rental place closed at 5pm. A quick stop en route for some shopping to take us on to the next destination.
We realized that there is no rush hour in Miami, they just go at the same slow speed but with more cars around you. My trusty navigator got us to the hotel at 1630, where a quick check-in, dump everything out of the car and I reached the rental place with 10 minutes to spare
African Queen engine
. Good going huh, although I was sweating a little.Distance driven 197 miles
Total distance driven over 24 days 2099 miles - not quite the epic on the west coast, as we had been able to stay in a few places longer but still a very enjoyable tour.
We did not bother going out for supper as we had things to do and had also found Miami to be very expensive but then it is a 'tourist' town. We got another 'to go' and spent the evening sorting out, throwing out and repacking ready for Mexico. I tried some blog work but 'Happy' was not and I couldn't get an Internet link. This was becoming a problem that I thought we had overcome in being able to update the blog in a timely fashion. This is currently being typed on 'Happy' in the Mexican hotel room and I will then see if I can transfer it to an Internet café whilst the saga plays out.
