Familiar ground

Back up on the space coast, up from Cocoa beach and with a view across the indian river to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Centre. Last time we were here was with Lee in 2010 for the shuttle launch, and before that with Kevin when he was learning to fly at Titusville.

Unfortunately our luck seems to have changed: The Vehicle Assembly Building tour we hoped to do stopped running at the end of February, and the SpaceX Falcon launch that had been scheduled for tonight has been bumped for probably 3 weeks due to range radar problems, so we won't be in the neighbourhood that long

Venice of America...

aka Fort Lauderdale. The city has numerous waterways and SO many boats. I have never seen so many large boats in one area before. This is obviously the playground of the rich and famous. On 'Millionaire's Row' as it is affectionately known by the locals, it costs $10 per foot per day to moor your boat. If you want water and power, it will cost you an additional $14 per foot per day! Some of these boats pay $30,000 per month just to sit in the water and look pretty.

There are also lots of nice houses along the waterfront. If you wanted to buy property here you don't pay for the house but the land and it's mooring - in the region of $15m upward. Many people have demolished perfectly lovely houses so they could build their dream home.

We took a river cruise on an old paddle boat called the Jungle Queen so we could see how the other half live.

The boat moored up on their island where we had a nice dinner and watched some local performers before cruising the waterways back downtown. This was the view from their island:

Badger is parked up somewhere around the back! We didn't realise we were this close to the main waterways.

Earlier in the day we decided to visit one of the outlet malls and look for winter wear. Apart from snow boots (which they didn't have any left in stock) I think we are ready for Canada:

Luckily for us it was only 75F (24C) when we were trying these on! I don't think I'll be wearing my new flip flops in Canada for a while yet.

It's grim oop North...

...but that's where we are headed. Ft Lauderdale only made it to 79 yesterday.

at least I won't be driving with the sun in my eyes for a while.

Miami to Key West

As Mark has already said, we have now crossed the US mainland. Miami was a city of contrasts from the lovely white sand of South Beach

and all the art deco buildings

to the less affluent of Little Havana where they take their dominoes seriously

and monuments to the invasion on the Bay of Pigs are still around

Here is a view of the city from across the bay

Key West on the other hand, was completely different. After a few hours of driving across approximately 120 miles of causeways

We found lovely beaches...

sunsets...

and a laid back welcoming atmosphere. It doesn't matter who you are, your beliefs, background or where you're from, everyone is welcome here and no-one bats an eyelid re any outrageous behaviour (not that we witnessed any). It really is a lovely place and is nice and hot this time of year, especially as much of the country is still in the throes of winter. These will be our last sunsets over the ocean until we get to Alaska in about August. Key West is not a cheap place to be either, and Cuba is only 90 miles away and closer than the US mainland

Tomorrow we start our journey back to the mainland and up the eastern coast, where we shall try and make the most of the sunshine before we have to leg it to Canada...

Equinox

Sunset from key west. Coming from the southern hemisphere this is our first proper spring in about a year (NZ doesn't count) so looking forward to light evenings...even though it wasn't exactly a hard winter for us..‎.

Floribbean?

‎Shut up Bill, you're pissed.

Dambusters

‎Sat at Miami Bayside bar watching the pelicans crapping on the boats it does remind me of the Dambusters. They come in a low glide, turn, straighten to target and release, then lift and fly away. It's strangely beautiful and graceful to watch.

I lead a full life....

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

Ocean #4

‎We've officially crossed the north American continent and now paddling in the atlantic at Miami south beach, where all the luxury yachts and art deco pink pastel buildings are. Unfortunately I forgot my white suit....

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Panthers crossing??

Driving through the Everglades from Tampa to Miami, we saw many signs saying 'Panthers Crossing' and 'Panthers Next 5 Miles'. Are these swamp panthers? What we did see were many alligators, some of which were HUGE, just sunning themselves on the rocks/banks of the streams. I guess that answers the question of what happened to the panthers!

I can't believe that less than 2 weeks ago, we were freezing in New Orleans and were running both heaters in the RV. Tonight we are running the air-con! It was a rather warm 5 hour drive today...

(that's 31C in new money)

It took us about 10 minutes to set up then we were off to the pool for a well earned cool down :-)

And I got to wear my new swimsuit that I bought in California...

A bar with a view

‎St pete's beach -supposed to be one of the best in the US, as seen from crabby bill's beach bar.

Happy friday

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Not exactly a showgirl

‎Maria finally managed to unravel and sort out all the beads she managed to acquire at mardi gras. It was over several days which is just as well, as she can't actually move with them all on. 

 

No idea what we are supposed to do with them all now...

Goodbye New Orleans...

... and Louisiana, it's been fun. We really enjoyed New Orleans and the chaos that was Mardi Gras, even though the weather wasn't good and one of the coldest and wettest ever. It was great meeting up with Yvonne and Tony again and partying with them.

I was sad to leave my twin, but it was time to move on :-(  The upside is we can get back to eating sensible food with vegetables and give our livers a break from the alcohol! One cannot live on rum or beer alone.

Onward through Mississippi to Alabama for a few days before we hit Florida...

Mardi Gras reflections

‎So we survived Fat Tuesday in the rain. Glad we came, and some further thoughts:

Not quite the depths of debauchery we were warned of. Maybe the weather slowed things down but most of the nudity we saw was as old as we are. I don't like to look at my own in the mirror, let alone others in daylight.

"Local speciality" cocktails are usually that for a reason - if they actually tasted better maybe you would drink them the rest of the year in other places

At least 3 local bands covered honky-tonk woman. Nice to know that two white boys from the posh end of Dartford have made a recognised ‎contribution to the home of blues.

Guys - for the sake of your brethren, pick a gorilla suit, dinosaur suit, king suit or other costume of your choice WITH A FLY

Roll on Rio....

There's ice in my beer :-(

‎Official mardi gras and it's shaping up to be one of the coldest on record, and raining all day. Maria has had to resort to jagertee and the combination of chilled beer glass and draft beer has a nice ice scum on the top that isn't melting....but at least we are out and drinking. don't think there will be too many people wearing just body paint out on Bourbon today - they would run in the rain

Bourbon st zoo

‎It's definitely picking up here as the weekend goes on. The odd pack of religious right wingers are parading around, usually followed by a larger number of party people who also brought their megaphones and placards to preach the party ethos. My personal favourite so far: "after the rapture I'm taking your car"