We are sitting in Miami waiting for our flight home at the end of the first leg of our journey… and what a lot we have seen!

So, our last week has been entirely in Florida.  We crossed from Georgia about ten days ago, and have driven the A1A coastal highway all the way down until Miami, which we reached on Saturday afternoon.

Florida has been full of contrasts.  To start with we were at North Beach and had three days in a larger, more commercial site which had two restaurants within walking distance.  Matt spoke about this last week – but St Augustine was lovely which was nearby and we started to get some nice sunny days. 

As you go south in the state the weather changes – Miami is really tropical and the affluence of the state is in marked contrast to other places we have been.  You really sense the Spanish influence and Miami in particular is completely cosmopolitan.  You do not even hear English on the streets – so like a hot and sweaty London!

We cycled to a nature reserve on Sunday which loved a warning notice… watch out for ticks, alligators, etc.  We saw an armadillo in the woods – and decided that a future trip or idea for anyone that likes sailing might be to do the intra-coastal inlet – this is the water that runs between the mainland of Florida and a lot of the inhabited islands where the A1A generally runs.  The road crosses water the whole time and is very beautiful.  Reg also went on his second ferry of the trip.

In North Beach there was lots of damage caused by Hurricane Matthew which was a theme that followed us down the coast.  Piers and walkways have been swept away and all the private boat houses seem to have been decimated.

After leaving North Beach we went to the state park at Blue Springs.  All the sites on the coast near to Orlando were fully booked so we had to detour inland for about an hour.  At this time of year, the ‘snowbirds’ – i.e. people from more northern states are holidaying in the south.  We have seen New Jersey, Ohio, New York plates and of course our Michigan one fits in well.

Blue Springs was quite a wildlife place. Originally a blue pool and river inlet, it had been operated as a tourist attraction by the original family for decades, but Florida took it over in 1972 and opened it to the public.  As a result it benefited from boardwalks and boat trips.  The big attraction on this waterway were manatees. These river dolphins breed in this area and it was rather lovely to see them early in the morning and at twilight.  We also saw some amazing birds. 

This was a great base from which we went to the Kennedy Space Centre last Monday.  We had to get up extra early so that Matt could have maximum time there.  It was rather like me at the Abba Museum in Stockholm.  I swear we bought up half the shop and read every plaque.  He may tell you more, but to be honest it was absolutely fascinating. 

A guide called Jeff started us off in the rocket garden where we were introduced to space travel courtesy of the ballistic missile programme pioneered by the military at Cape Canaveral – way before NASA was even created.  The rockets there were genuine spares and even one of them had been damaged by the hurricane – a bit had blown off and they don’t know where it has gone!

After that we went to see the shuttle Atlantis which is in an enormous hanger, although it is not a big as you would imagine. Very worn and close up it looks very homespun. Do you remember those pesky tiles that used to come off at the point of atmospheric re-entry.  Well the Atlantis was covered with fireproof blankets to keep the tiles on.  The surface was worn and burnt from all the times it went back and forth.  There was a moving section on Columbia and Challenger and you appreciated all over again what a success the shuttle programme was.  It took over twenty years to perfect and there were 135 missions.  There would be no space station or Hubble without it.

After that we then went to the best bit I think – which was the bus tour of the launch sites and to see the Apollo museum which has the vast Saturn V rocket on display.  This was  a spare that was never used – lying on its side. Huge!  The vehicle assembly building at the site, where the rockets and craft were prepared is the tallest one storey building in the world and the Stars and Stripes on the side alone is 21 stories long – each stripe being 8ft wide.

The Apollo museum was really good and all the presentations at Kennedy were accompanied with great films and interactive activities. 

There was not nearly enough time to do it all – so do go if you ever get the chance.  It was a weird cross between Disney and the Smithsonian.  There were some tacky rides and simulations, but in terms of making you appreciate the genius of mankind and the courage of everyone involved in space exploration – it more than achieved its purpose.  We were really tired but inspired.  Weird then that John Glenn then died 48 hours later.

Next day we had a hike through the Blue Springs park and had the most terrible thunderstorm.  This as it turns out was the beginning of some iffy weather – but we drove down the coast to our next stop which was the Sebastian Inlet park.

We had planned to be there for a couple of lazy days – right by the beach.  However, we arrived in the storm.  Pelicans galore, we walked that first night at dusk and saw some dolphins eating and also more osprey.  Very dramatic scenery and colours especially with the lightening, but a side effect was the worst bugs ever!  The Americans call them ‘no see ums’.  They are tinier than the screens in Reg so we ended up being holed up with the AC on that night. Quite simply I think if we have not contracted Zika – I will be amazed!  We have been bitten by everything, everywhere! 

Next day we tried again and decided that we would be hardy and just do a cycle trail no matter what.  In fact we both ended up with punctures from fishing hooks as I have never seen so many anglers in one place in all my life.  Either side of the inlet were piers and they were crowded morning noon and night – a bit like that bridge in Istanbul where everyone fishes from.

Walking our bikes back to the site was hot, sweaty work – but we manged to have a beer at a café and some shrimps just to make it all seem a bit better!

After Sebastian Inlet, we drove further south again to Del Ray beach.  We found a site that Reg could stay at for a month, so we got parked up and started to organise what we needed to do to get back home.

We hired a car on Friday and drove back to Palm Beach which is the most exclusive part of the Florida coast (I think so far).  This is where Trump has his resort which the A1A drives right past.  The money was oozing out of the place. We have seen more Jaguars, Bentleys and Rolls Royces in this last few days than even maybe Park Lane on a Saturday night.  The property, golf courses and hotels are stunning.  Some of the houses can be glimpsed through huge hedges with their own beach frontage and then access to the waterway at the back where they have their boats moored.

Driving was weird – so quiet, so fast, so easy!  We went to the Flagler museum in Palm Beach.  Henry Flagler was the partner of Rockefeller and founded Standard Oil with him.  He devoted his life to developing Florida – building hotels all down the coast and most crucially the rail road which eventually went all the way to the Florida Keys until it was swept away by a hurricane… but more of that when we get there.

Old Flagler was obviously quite a cool guy – and his own home – Whitehall in Palm Beach is now a museum.  We spent a  couple of hours there and it has been described as the Hurst Castle of the East Coast.  It was really interesting.

After that we went to Breakers – one of his hotels.  Completely and utterly luxurious.  We had a bite to eat and a drink, felt like paupers and realised that this is a very different America to what we have seen in Mississippi and Alabama!  It was St Tropez, Paris, London, New York all rolled into one. Great people watching – but we needed to get back to Reg.

This weekend we packed Reg up on Saturday. Matt washed him, despite it raining. Luckily after our three thousand miles he is in good shape. Matt thank goodness did not slip off the roof – or we would have Matt’s Mishaps part two.  We had to put the bikes inside, but packed our cases and set off in the car to Miami.

We arrived here to a beautiful hotel called One at South Beach and have had a wonderful time despite the most terrible weather. It has rained, blown a gale and been dark and stormy for 48 hours.  However, the sun came out today and we finally got to sit by the pool and walk by the beach. 

South Beach is great – so much Art Deco – we are looking forward to having a bit more time here when we come back in January.  We did some Christmas shopping in between the showers, but have loved the shower and the huge bed after Reg. 

So what a great couple of months it has been.   We keep asking each other about highlights and what we have learnt.  The natural beauty of the place is amazing – as is the hospitality and friendliness of the people.  We have loved the history and how well they present it. 

We have been very content with life on the road and Reg has been a dream and very comfortable.  We are quite chuffed that so far, we have got ourselves from A to B without killing each other.  Roll on 2017 and Merry Christmas.

A&M xx

 

Less scintillating than Pictures of Lilly, however there is a guest appearance in the second one from my co-driver!

We’ve been waiting for decent WiFi speeds to enable the upload, so I’m hoping you all think its been worth the wait. Thank you to Nick for the loan of the video camera.

There have been ructions in Reg about the division of labour in writing this blog so consequently a new author will appear on alternate weeks with a different perspective on our travels, let me introduce Reg (no, it’s really Matt, however the thoughts of a one tonne bus might be more insightful).

We left you with us moving on to Georgia, the Peach state, of which we sampled only one product containing peaches which was a small pie purchased, yet again (sigh), from Walmart, the product may not have actually contained anything more than peach extract, it was, however, very tasty.

OK, so we visited Columbus, a town also visited by General Sherman on his tour of the southern states during the civil war, and like several other of his destinations he refashioned it by burning much of its industry to the ground.  Even more devastating was that it was destroyed after the signature of surrender by confederate forces and consequently after the end of the war. After the war it was rebuilt with a number of large brick warehouses and factories that now host parts of the local university.  It also has a number of attractive houses in downtown and was overall pretty but boring on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

We decided to push on and drove on to spend the night in Arrowhead State Park, outside of Macon, Georgia.  Woke again to a view of a beautiful lake and a rather more difficult run around several hills around the park.  Visited Macon, the main thing to say is more slave owners’ houses and a crap lunch, moved on quickly to … Ocmulgee (pronounced Oak-MULL-gee as in the sub-continental Indian foodstuff).  Ocmulgee was worth the visit as it’s another example of the Mississippian Mound Builder traditions of the original Indian inhabitants of the Mississippi region that died out before Europeans arrived.  The Mississippian’s built a number of large mounds in the area that were still a sacred site to the local tribes when Europeans did arrive. Unfortunately the local tribes, named Creek by the British but continuing to call themselves Ocmulgeee, were again dispossessed and forcibly relocated by a series of lopsided treaties.  This resulted in the Ocmulgee Creek now having their reservation in Oklahoma, several hundred miles from their traditional homeland and the railroad digging cuttings across two of the most significant mounds.  The US did, however, conduct a large archaeological dig during the thirties which highlighted the significance of the mounds and discovered an Indian lodge with the complete floor intact, including a large Eagle relief.  The National Parks have an interesting museum and have recreated the roof to the lodge, including what I suspect isn’t the original air conditioning ducts on the mound.

From here we decided to drive rapidly across much of Georgia to get to Savannah, again arriving after dark at our campsite, Skidaway Island State Park.  The morning after we awoke to a vista of trees and much higher temperatures along with evidence of the havoc wreaked earlier in the year by hurricane Matthew (I know, good to be immortalised as the largest natural events to have affected the US in 2016).  Matthew had brought down a large number of trees in the park and torn up the boardwalk to the bird watching lookout and the pars service is still clearing up the debris a month after the event.  After walking around the trails of the park we went into downtown Savannah to sample the local hostelries as Alex had discovered you can park overnight in the visitor’s centre for eight dollars and consequently we could both have a drink and not worry about getting back to Reg!

Savannah is beautiful, a lovely antebellum city (again, unfortunately, built on the exploitation of slaves) with lovely houses, sophisticated shops and restaurants, and for once a sympathetic use of old warehouses along the river front for restaurants and bars.  We walked around the city, had seafood in a bar overlooking the river and watched an osprey drop down to try and catch fish in the river.  We walked back along Jones Street ‘the prettiest street in Savannah’ thinking it wouldn’t be a hardship were we to have to live here for a period.  We went to dinner in The Old Pink House, an old bank, painted pink that has an enormous (like the Tardis it is much bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside!) series of dining rooms inside, all filled with local people.  We both had the same special of grouper stuffed with crab on a bed of mashed potato, and it was the best meal out we’ve had so far.  The only fly in the ointment was the typical rush that the meal was served in, we were in and out within an hour, and the bizarre over attentiveness of the wait staff culminating in one of the hostesses asking if there were anything else she could do to improve the already excellent experience! (her words).  After dinner we had a couple of drinks on the roof terrace of an old cotton warehouse overlooking the river and watched two large Americans get into their twin beds in the Hyatt Regency hotel next door and go to sleep around 9pm.

Waking up in a car park the next day, we set off to visit Tybee Island and to sample the ‘Breakfast Clubs’ breakfast as recommended in our Moon’s guide.  Tybee is similar to the Gold Coast in Australia, i.e. a strip of modern motels and restaurants with sunshine.  The breakfast was, by the way, not good and we’d recommend avoiding.  What shouldn’t be avoided was the absolutely beautiful sweeping beach that fronts Tybee.  On the way out we visited Fort Polaski, a fort built, with one Lieutenant Robert E Lee as the main engineer, to keep the British out, confiscated by the local Georgia militia at the beginning of the Civil War and pounded into submission after 30 hours by the Union forces on their arrival in 1862.  It was also pounded by Hurricane Matthew, experiencing the highest tidal surge in its history and remarkably already predominantly repaired after several boardwalks and bridges were destroyed.

From Savannah we drove south along interstate 95, completely missing the beautiful drive along US highway 17 as recommended in Moons in our desire to reach Florida quickly.  So, after driving for much of the day we arrived at Fort Clinch State Park, Florida, on the evening of the 30^th November.  Fort Clinch was another fort conceived as coastal defences against you know who, this time though it wasn’t deemed strategic by either side of the Civil War and was largely left to softly decay until being restored as part of the work schemes within FDR’s new deal in the 1930’s.

We drove south from Fort Clinch along US highway A1A which travels along the Atlantic coast and is quite attractive with large houses on the shore front, several exclusive resorts and the third largest US navy base, complete with at least one aircraft carrier, along the route.  The highlight though was the ferry across the St John’s River at Mayport where we drove Reg on and off while reducing the journey distance by 30 miles.  We arrived at our location for the next three nights, North Beach RV resort, in the evening and went for a walk along the beach.  Again the beach ranges for miles, has a plethora of birdlife, we saw sand pipers, pelicans and three ospreys, and exhibits a lot of damage from Matthew.  The damage is such that a large number of the properties along the beach are uninhabitable as the piles supporting them have been exposed by the tidal surges removing the sand dunes on which they have been built.

St Augustine proclaims to be the oldest town in what is now the US as it was originally settled by Spanish explores in the 16^th century, destroyed twice by us (including Sir Francis Drake) and now home to what is an unusual American city in being predominantly pedestrianised with nice cafes and gift shops (some of you may receive items from said gift shops in the not too distant future!).  We had a lovely dinner, apart from the mistake of thinking when asking for our fish to be fried it would be pan fried rather than the deep fried that it was actually was!  Dinner was accompanied by a local trio playing pop classics in the style of the Smashing Pumpkins (brilliant!).

So, next time we will be in Miami at the end of the first chapter of our journey.  Have a great week.

M x