Newsletter 3 – Georgia to Orlando and Miami Beach

In the state of Georgia we found lots of police & sheriff cars on the roads, just like at home, so had to watch our speed.  You can confidently sit at 10% over the speed limit and generally be OK going with the flow of the traffic.  Love having no trucks in the left hand lane, general traffic flows much better and most of the time we cruise along at 70 to 77mph (say 112-124kph).  The boys decided that as we were in ‘fried chicken’ area it should be KFC for lunch, we are becoming so Americanised, again much more than we could eat.  Here you can ask for a takeout box for any food you can’t eat, they often offer you one anyway, so we took a lot of the KFC with us.  We crossed over the Jericho River and found the vegetation changed with more swampy land and sparser, smaller trees.

We could see dark clouds ahead even though the outside temperature was about 88F, then ran into torrential rain with poor visibility for about 30 mins.  Crossed another State border into Florida, so far this is our 6^th State this road trip and more torrential rain near Jacksonville.  Stopped at another Rest Area, automatic flush toilets, auto turn on taps, clean and well maintained,  we decided to all get ice-creams from the vending machine, this took some time as we had to feed in $1 notes or quarter coins one at a time for each ice-cream, however worth it as the ice-creams were very enjoyable.  We then continued on past Daytona Beach, famous for its car racing and again through a thunderstorm and torrential rain when we had to put our headlights and hazard lights on. 

We arrived in Orlando at the Radisson Hotel, Megan & Shaun straight to the pool, the rest of us off to the bar for HH about 6:30, sat in the outdoor area and had drinks, then decided to order pizza and have our left over KFC for dinner.  They delivered our pizzas to our hotel and we had a fun night together.  Val & Bert & Pete & I received a parcel of goods which Shayne had ordered online and had delivered to our hotel for us, no-one would think of organising that but our Shayne now would they?  We had fun with our packages of a ‘Makin Bacon’ cookers and an HDMI cable, lots more fun with the plastic packaging, nothing to do with the drinks we had consumed of course!!

The next day we left the hotel about 8am and drove out to the Kennedy Space Center, about 90 miles out to Cape Canaveral.  We had the most amazing day there, it was very hot, but we managed to drink lots of water and complete all the exhibits we wanted to see.  We were booked on a tour at 10:30 which took us on a bus around the Center, quite a way out a very informative guide explaining everything to us.  A number of places we could get off the bus and look at things and listen to interesting information.  Great to see the launching pad and hear all about it, won’t go into detail here as I would go on for ever (Barry would be bored!)  All things space now have much more meaning, a fantastic tour.  As we arrived back on the bus in the afternoon we were just in time to go into the newest exhibit which is to open on 27th June, we were able to have a preview it is the Atlantis shuttle, this is amazing, we all loved it, consisting of 3 different segments, a 6 minute film about how space exploration came about, then another 6 minute film about space then a great film which seems to be on a round screen which is in front and over the top of you and at the end of the video you see the Atlantis shuttle and a thin filmy curtain lifts and there is the actual vehicle, so well done the Americans certainly know how to do things.  Again a fantastic day, so pleased we were able to have this amazing experience.

Back to the hotel into the pool for a quick swim, a rest and at 7:30 into the cars and off to City Walk, Orlando, wow, again an amazing place, a warm balmy evening, to go into the 5 level car park there were 12 lanes we paid at the toll booth then up onto the top floor parking attendants parking everyone in neat rows, must admit people generally are very polite.  We then took a lift down a couple of floors and then with thousands of other people took a number of travelators along to City Walk, this is all Universal Studios, full of restaurants, shops etc, as the evening progressed all the neon lights came on, making it all so beautiful, set with a lovely lake and boats in the centre.  We met a beautiful couple, Martha and Doug, friends of Shayne & Lee’s who live in Orlando and we all had a terrific dinner at the Hard Rock Café, very big, busy, interesting with lots of memorabilia on the walls, including an ‘Elvis’ room and a pink Cadillac up above which rotated all night and a magnificent ceiling.  Food and drinks were great, I love steak over here.  We then walked around soaking up the atmosphere, a fantastic evening once again.  We seem to be getting less and less sleep, oh well we are on vacation!!!

Next morning it was off to iHop for breakfast, pancake place, then on to Miami, again we went through torrential rain, then by the time we reached Miami it was fine and 98F.  We again have two nights in Miami, it is so big and so busy.  Late afternoon we took a drive to South Beach, drove up and down Collins Ave, hard to find parking spots near the beach, finally we did and then walked onto the lovely beach, paddled in the Atlantic Ocean and then to dinner in a lovely garden bar, where we were able to watch the full moon over the water, magnificent, a very warm night and a lovely experience once again.

Next day Shaun took Megan, Pete & I into Miami as we were booked on the ’Duck Tour’, on the way in to the city we got stuck in a traffic jam, after sitting for about 20 minutes or more, cars started backing back to get to another road we did the same, lucky we did we may have been still there, evidently there was a summer parade going on in the city.  We were entertained watching a number of planes towing advertising banners across the sky over the beach.  We arrived just in time for our tour, this was great with a fun girl as our commentator, we travelled the streets and she pointed out significant buildings, Miami has a lot of lovely Art Deco buildings which have been preserved and or restored.  We then entered the water into Biscayne Bay and ‘sailed’ around checking out magnificent mansions, worth millions of dollars, the islands are all man made and many of the palm trees have been brought in from overseas.  Big port with about 4 big cruise ships in whilst we were there, tourism industry is huge.  Our guide had a vast knowledge of the area, then back onto land and some more travel around the streets, people love watching the ‘Duck’ touring around and we had to say ‘Quack, quack, quack’ and wave.  It was all good fun. 

Megan & Shaun went off to hire a jet ski which they enjoyed and we walked Lincoln Mall, nice shops, one clothes shop had a window and a whole wall of old sewing machines,  very novel.  As it was about 98F we found a fairly new shop called ‘Nespresso’ where they sell coffee and coffee machines, beautifully set up shop, quite a new idea, we miss Melbourne’s coffee shops, here they only seem to have Starbucks for coffee and no such thing as nice cups, all paper cups and plastic cutlery!!!

Yes, we have loved Florida, Orlando and Miami so busy, so many people but it doesn’t really seem too congested, perhaps we are getting used to it.  Yes, I could go on for ever, but I won’t, so much to take in.

Trust this finds you all fit and well.

Love from Jan ‘n Pete