It's All Relative

I know I talked about Montana's Mountains . . . well, the further west one goes, the BIGGER everything gets -- mountains, for sure, rivers, trees and so on. What an absolutely magnificent part of the world I live in. I guess it takes going away to fully appreciate what surrounds me every day. I loved visiting other places -- all of which have a beauty of their own -- but, believe me, here is where I want to live.

I have been away for 42 days and have driven 15,889 km. It's good to be home after another 15 hour drive. I think I'll stick around here for a while. Thanks for traveling with me on the blog.

--till next trip.

Magnificent Massive Mountains of Montana

Contrary to what you may think, the last 3 or 4 hours of my 15 hour drive were exhilarating rather than tiring. I am back in the mountains, and it lifts my spirits and my interest. The mountains between Billings and Butte are big and round and rocky, but sparsely treed. It was fun to drive the hills and dales and curves.

In stark contrast, the road between Mitchell and Billings was long and tedious at best. I had SO MUCH trouble staying alert. I had to keep stopping and walking around the car, or filling up with gas, or getting something from MacDonalds or just stopping at a picnic place and closing my eyes for 10 minutes. I ate and drank coffee and listened to the radio, but I just had to stop so frequently. That, of course, made the trip even longer. When I got to Billings, I parked beside a Super 8, hooked up to their WiFi and made reservations for a motel in Butte. I actually had come to a bit by then, so I was pretty sure that the worst of the drive was over. I was right. If it had not been going to be dark soon, I wouldn't have minded tackling the next set of mountains. I'll save that for tomorrow. I have no intention of leaving while it's still dark, however, because I want to be able to see the scenery. I think I can make it home tomorrow, but if not, I'll just stop and finish the trip the next day -- whatever day that is (I'm a bit lost with respect to days and dates!)



I took a slightly different route from Rapid City to Billings. I went up through Belle Fourche. It's actually a bit shorter, but about the same time because it's only a two lane road. It wasn't busy, but at least it was a slight change of scenery. That highway runs through several Indian Reservations and consists of some foothill kind of territory. It was cold through that area. The daytime temperature today between Mitchell, SD and here in Butte ranged from 3 degrees C (That's about 37F) to 16 C (I think maybe 60F). I thought if it got much colder, the rain and fog that occurred would be snow. It stayed rainy for most of the trip.

One thing I noticed in that foothill country is that the sparse smattering of trees which were found along strips where there must be water were mostly pine trees, but nestled in among the dark green were those beautiful aspens which by now are already a gorgeous light, bright yellow. They stood out agains the other trees as well as the sage-mustard colour of the prairie. Nice.

So, I don't actually know what time it is right now either. I moved my watch back one hour, but I'm sure Butte must be in mountain time, so I'm probably still an hour ahead. I'll use up that hour in the morning I guess. I'm going to sleep in a bit as well.

One more entry tomorrow in this, the last chapter of my Summer Suzuki Saga. (Bigtime trouble getting this blog edited and published -- really bad WiFi here!)

Whew!

Thirteen hours on the road today. I'm in Mitchell, South Dakota. It looks a bit like this: (BTW I took these pictures sight unseen from the car -- the ultimate point and click!)


After driving 13,400 km on this trip, I have a driving tip to share. STAY AWAY FROM ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI!
I went to bed really early last night, got up a bit after 4:00 am and was on the road by 5:00. Mt. Vernon is about 60 miles east of St. Louis. It was dark, and early, but there were tons of trucks on the road. I decided to just stay on I-70 rather than trying to negotiate the ring road (it's darn hard to find and follow because it changes along the way). Just as I remember, the lanes shift with some going off to the right and some to the left. If I stayed in what I thought was the centre lane, I soon found that the centre lane became the right hand lane and it had the yellow "Exit Only" sign. The signage was confusing, even though I knew I just had to follow the signs to Kansas City and follow the GPS. On top of all that, I ran into a big construction project that had us lined up and stopped for several minutes as three lanes had to merge into one. The reason for that construction was a huge new bridge being built -- beautiful and striking. It may well be a partner to the big steel arch that is so recognizable. It took me two hours to get out of the heavy traffic -- just in time to enter the Kansas City traffic. By now, of course, it was morning rush hour so I joined many others in heading up I-29 which goes right by the KC International Airport.

After that little adventure, the drive was just long and pretty much uninteresting. About one-half or one-third of the route was also under construction and the four lane freeway became a two lane road with speed restrictions. I just kept going, stopping only for gas. I ate the left-over pizza from Pine Knot and drank coke as I drove.

One very good thing about Iowa rest stops is that they all have free WiFi. When I realized that I would be able to make it to Mitchell, I just stopped at a rest stop, hauled out the laptop, and reseved a room online. Great.

As I drove further north, the scenery became more interesting. There are huge corn fields -- all looking bronze and yellow with no green at all. It must be the kind of corn that is harvested as a whole rather than just the ears. At first, I wasn't sure if it were some other kind of golden grain ready for harvesting, but when I could see fields that were growing closer to the highway, I could see that it was, indeed, corn. Along the side of the highway, there was also some kind of shrub that was covered with light yellow flowers interspersed with brighter yellow brown-eyed susans. It was really very attractive.

Once I made the turn west on I-90, it was all prairie. It looks so open and clean -- very pretty. When Lila and I drove this way, we ran into a huge rainstorm with rainbows and all. It was sunny with a bright blue sky today.

I'm still operating on Eastern time. This is well into the Central Time Zone, but I'm saving the change till I need the boost of "gaining" an hour. There's nothing else to do tonight and I'm tired, so I think I'll just go to bed early and get going first thing tomorrow. It's easy driving -- straight, light traffic (after all, where is there to go?). I'm hoping to get to Billings at least, but will make that decision along the way. If I find that I'm having accumulated fatigue, I'll stop earlier or maybe stop in the middle of the day and stay somewhere before Billings. Once I get a good look at where the motels are along the way, I'll head to bed.

I also finally got my Satellite Radio working, so I' ve thoroughly enjoyed lots of good programming. I also bought a novel from I-Tunes, so I'll get it on the iPod -- lots of things to do tomorrow!

The First Leg

The solo flight has begun. I waited till afternoon to leave Pine Knot and headed for Mount Vernon, Illinois -- just west of St. Louis. By leaving late, I was able to plan an early morning attack on the hated St. Louis - Kansas City route and hopefully avoid some of the worst of that traffic and poor roads. Of course, it has been a few years since I last drove these roads, so maybe they are all fixed by now.

Mary Ann and I poked around this morning. I got the oil changed in the car and we picked up a few goodies for me to munch on during the drive. Then we met Dee for lunch. I wish I had more time to be with this part of the family -- I love them.

I smugly thought that I would avoid the high gas prices in Pine Knot and fill up the tank in Somerset where prices would surely be lower. They weren't, so I carried on. I smartly waited till Bowling Green where the gas was a good ten cents MORE expensive than in Pine Knot. By then, I had no choice. I just now filled up here in Mount Vernon where the price is pretty much what it was before I began this trip today!

Kentucky is rife with "parkways". I travelled on the Cumberland Parkway, the William Natcher Parkway, and the Audubon Parkway.

When we got up this morning, there was a different "feel" to the air. It tempted us with a cool, fresh feeling and seemed to carry the promise of a lovely autumn day. By the time I left, it was beastly hot again, but I think the season is turning. On the drive up to Somerset, there was just a hint of colour among the trees -- again, the promise of the gorgeous fall colour that can be seen everywhere a bit later in the year. Interestingly, by the time I was on the William Natcher Parkway (just past Bowling Green in Western Kentucky) there were definite colours in the heavily treed sides of the highway -- delicate yellow -- not yet bright, and a bit of darker bronze on some of the trees. It will be stunningly beautiful in a few weeks -- I'm sorry to be missing that.

I noticed another remarkable feature of Kentucky country -- at least until you get to Western Kentucky. Most of the major roads seem to run along the ridges of the hill country. Little rural roads wind down into the valleys, or "hollers" and up again on the opposite side. However, the highways often have bridges across these little valleys or rivers, and these bridges are SO HIGH. If any of you know that high bridge on the Blueberry Paulsen route between Christina Lake and Rossland, you would have a picture of what these bridges often look like. (Well, maybe not quite THAT high.) Similarly, sometimes the overpasses on the parkways are very high as well since they span from one ridge to the other.

So much for all that. When one drives along, there is a lot of time to look at things and think about them because there's no one to talk to! I miss my driving parter. I'm about to tuck in now and get up about 4:00 so I can beat the St. Louis curse. I'm hoping to make it to Sioux Falls, South Dakota tomorrow. That's a pretty long drive, and I'd just as soon get there before dark, so I'm leaving early.

Pine Knot Arrival

Back safe and sound in Pine Knot. It was an uneventful drive back from Calhoun, although the traffic and congestion around Knoxville was the worst we experienced throughout the entire trip. We stopped, hoping to see Jordan, but since he wasn't at work until later, we left him some Rogers Golden Syrup and a couple of cards and headed for home.
The washing machine is going. The car is almost re-packed, and we've had pizza with Dee. She'll be back after her DUI class -- that is, after she finishes teaching her DUI class!

I plan to leave after lunch tomorrow. That will get me pretty close to Mt. Vernon, Illinois. If I get an early start, I can get around St. Louis before the traffic gets heavy I hope. I hate that part of the trip, but it's better to do it in the morning than at night or at 5:00.

It's been a great trip and I was just wishing so much that I lived closer to this family. I hate leaving, but I am so looking forward to seeing my family at home.

Almost Back to Kentucky

We got up so early this morning -- 4:oo am. We wanted to get on the road right away so we could be through Atlanta before rush hour. This was our third trip along the Florida Turnpike and it doesn't get any more scenic or interesting. It was dark, of course, and we had coffee, but I found myself getting very weary only a couple of hours into what was going to be about a 12 or 14 hour day. We stopped at a service plaza and I put my head back for a few minutes and then got up and walked around. Magically, I was "back" and felt fine for the rest of the day.

It seemed to take forever to get even as far north as we were on our trip to Destin earlier -- boring and boring. Then it took forever to get to the north border of Florida (what a HUGE state). What was in front of us next? -- Well, it was the HUGE state of Georgia! In truth, it was an easy drive and Mary Ann and I solved most of the world's problems along the way. We ate hamburgers for lunch as we drove and other than that, stopped only at a Pecan place for a few minutes. Once we got past Atlanta -- HOV lane is great -- easy drive -- we stopped for gas and ran into a BrandSmart Store where we wasted about 30 minutes looking at all kinds of things. BrandSmart is a huge store that sells electronics, appliances - large and small, dishes, pots and pans, decorative things, cameras and on and on. It's a great place to waste time.

We decided to carry on past our original destination so we ended up here in Calhoun, Georgia -- only about 5 hours from Mary Ann's. There is an Outlet Mall here, and, as if we weren't tired enough, we poked around there for a while. We're about shopped out, let me tell you, and the car is really in need of a good reorganization. It's amazing how messy it gets in spite of the fact that we seem to reorganize all the time. When we got home, we'll take everything out, sort out what belongs to MA and what belongs to me before getting ready for my solo jaunt home.

I forgot to mention something from last week. I had been complaining about having not seen one citrus tree in Florida, even though we passed through an area called Indian River -- that's supposed to be grapefruit country I thought. Well, we abandoned the freeway when we drove from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale, and did we ever see lots of orange, grapefruit, lemon or ?? groves. They covered acres and acres. It's unfortunate that we were there at this time. Apparently it's the only month in which there is NOTHING ripe, so we didn't get to eat oranges fresh off the tree. Along that central Florida strip we also saw acres and acres of sugar cane. It is the home of Domino Sugar apparently. It would have been fun to have found a piece of sugar cane to chew on, but that didn't seem in the offing, so we went to Wal-Mart instead and bought buns and ham for lunch that day. :)

We have no intention of getting up at 4:00 am tomorrow. I think we'll make a later start. We do plan to stop in Knoxville to try to see Jordan on the way, and then it will be home to Pine Knot.

Sunday

We headed out with Susan GPS for Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church this morning. We arrived in good time, although we really had no idea where we were going -- just followed Susan's directions. This church is pastored by Billy Graham's grandson. He was there, but they had a guest speaker from a huge church in Franklin, Tennessee. It was a pretty interesting service -- huge, beautiful church with pipe organ and good sized orchestra. There was a great mix of contemporary and traditional music -- there is surely something about a pipe organ blasting out the chords! It was a long sermon -- the service lasted over an hour and a half.

We went to Boston Market for lunch and then headed out to a local shopping centre (again by way of Susan GPS). We poked around before heading back to the hotel, stopping only for an ice cream sundae from McDonalds.

We'll pack up in the morning and head north. We will have to stop somewhere on the way home, but plan to drive directly up I-75 -- a direct, if boring route. I would not like to live in the oppressive heat around here, but there is much to recommend the area in terms of a certain kind of beauty. It rains almost every day -- POURS down in buckets -- and then all of a sudden, it's sunny again. The rain doesn't cool things down at all. In fact, it makes the air seem even muggier. I can't imagine how people handle this weather without air conditioning. It's not as if there is an ocean breeze such as we had in Nevis. People tend to move more slowly as well. I am amazed at the amount of Spanish spoken. I would say that in our travels here, there is more Spanish than English, and the English that is spoken tends to be adorned with a clear Spanish accent.

So, this is it for tonight. No pictures. I haven't taken any -- too busy looking at time shares and shopping! I'll try to check in tomorrow night -- probably somewhere in Georgia. I'm not sure we'll get to Tennessee -- we'll see how the time goes.

Back to the Atlantic and Fort Lauderdale

Before Fort Lauderdale, I thought you might just like to see some evidence of our spaceship trip to Mars when we were at Epcot. What a rush that was!




Fort Lauderdale – Time Share
We now know just about everything one could want to know about time shares and then some. We spent a couple of hours in Orlando with sales people and then most of the afternoon today with a second set of sales people. We did not buy. However, the Fort Lauderdale people were much more pleasant and somewhat more genuine than the Orlando woman. It would appear that time shares are much more flexible than they were in the time when you owned a specific week in a specific location. It could be something I would consider at some time in the future. At least it bears more looking at.
We are staying at a Ramada Inn in a suburb (I think) of Fort Lauderdale. The streets all around here and the areas we’ve covered in the city tend to be wide and spacious. There are medians and grassy roadsides frequently and, of course, since it’s so flat, the streets are straight and regular. Crisscrossing these attractive roads are freeways and parkways and turnpikes all over the place – several of which have tolls. We have pretty much avoided the freeways because they are sometimes hard to get off at the right place. Our GPS allows us to avoid the toll roads and we’ve found that by doing so we arrive at our destination just as quickly. Besides, there’s nothing to look at from the freeway.
We spent much of today at Sawgrass Mills Outlet Malls. There are plenty of stores at this conglomeration of shopping areas – apparently the largest in the US. We walked and walked and shopped and shopped and didn’t even get to all sections, let alone many stores. This morning, we spent a leisurely, pleasant time poking around when there weren’t too many people in the area. By the time we returned after our time share caper, the mall was noisy, crowded, and grubby. I wasn’t all that impressed with the prices – not really much less than any big shopping centre. It was fun to look at some of the stores that are unfamiliar to me, but in the end, I think I’d rather shop at home or in Bellingham/Burlington. We intended to have supper at The Cheesecake Factory and even fought our way into a parking place and walked to the front door of the restaurant. The place was crowded – numerous people waiting to be seated – and the noise of loud music and people talking and laughing created enough of a cacophony to send us right back out to the car. By this time it was after 9:00 at night. We were really quite hungry, but couldn’t think of just what to look for in the way of an eating establishment. We finally decided that “breakfast” would be the best meal for us, so we checked with our trusty GPS friend, Susan, and she directed us to an IHOP. We absolutely inhaled a great breakfast on the way home – good food, good price, good location! We have “de-bagged” our purchases and are about ready for a night’s rest. We’re going to go to Coral Ridge Church not far from here which is pastured by Billy Graham’s grandson. Again, we’re thankful for our GPS friend!

Disney Day Three

Disney – Day Three
Magic Kingdom. Well, we walked and walked and walked some more today! As with Hollywood Studios, we enjoyed all the activities, but we weren’t awed and thrilled as we were at Epcot. The park today was much more crowded with many children of various ages. We went to pretty much all the featured presentations except for the roller coaster type rides. We went to whatever we could see since we were often pleasantly surprised in an attraction that we didn’t necessarily think would be all that good.
I liked to see The Pirates of the Caribbean again after so many years and it was totally fun to shoot guns and spin our space ship in Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger’s Spin. Several 3-D presentations have added water and smells and movement and that was fun too.
This morning we had to attend the Time Share Presentation – needless to say, I didn’t buy one – so we got to the park later. We’ve just come home now and we’re going to go out for supper. If you are reading this, you’ll know we found a WiFi spot and could get this uploaded. Tomorrow morning we’ll leave for Fort Lauderdale via a longer, but different route around Lake Okachokee. We’re actually looking forward to a day of driving rather than walking!

Disney Day Two

Disney – Day 2
We spent a wonderful day at Epcot. We arrived just as the gates opened and left after the fireworks at night. Again, we walked right into every attraction we chose and have come home totally worn out with tired feet and legs. We think we probably stood or walked for at least half of the 13 hours we were there.
We still have no internet connection and no time to drive to a WiFi spot. Tomorrow after we spend time at the Magic Kingdom, we’ll try to do that.
Soarin’, Space Mission to Mars, Living with the Land, and Spaceship Earth were highlights. The only thing we missed, unfortunately, was the Test Track where we could have driven a very fast car on a the longest, fastest attraction in Disney history – too bad.
Right now, I’m going to put this computer away and rest my weary feet.

Disney Day One

Disney Day One
We started today early, leaving Jupiter just before 6:00 am. The traffic was light as we made our way onto the Interstate and then back to the Florida Turnpike. We stopped at the first service area for gas and for some morning baking to go with the coffee that Sandra made for us.
Central Florida is not much to look at – flat, nondescript greenery – boring. It wasn’t too long however before we could leave the turnpike and head the few miles to Orlando. We were soon surrounded by “Disney”. The roads all seem to be parkways, again, with light traffic. We had no trouble at all in finding our “resort”. Once we signed in at the welcome centre, we were able to consult with someone who helped us with tickets and schedules. We were delighted (and somewhat surprised) that the resort people have arranged our mandatory tour for 8:00 on Thursday morning. This is good because it meant that we could lickity-split for one park today, another tomorrow, leaving a good part of Thursday for a third park.
We decided on Hollywood today and a dinner theatre afterwards. It was pretty close scheduling to get back to the motel and then to the theatre in time for dinner, but we made it.
When we got to the park, we walked right in – no lineup at all. It took a couple of minutes to kind of get our bearings but then we set out on our planned mission. Of course we weren’t able to follow our planned schedule, but we did lots and thoroughly enjoyed the day.
Now, what is all this business about long lineups at Disney attractions? We stood not more than maybe 5 minutes waiting to get into any attraction. I think there was only one line in which we were further back than about 10th, including some that suggested Fast Passes.
I think we both enjoyed the Motor Car Stunts the most. They showed us car chases and then explained how they did them -- fascinating and very noisy and exciting. We saw Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid (supposed to need a FP; we walked right in without one person in front of us), Narnia, Movie Legends, Indiana Jones, a parade and I can’t think of what else. In sum, it was hot, with some rain; we had tired feet and felt grubby all over by the time we got back to the motel.
Tonight we saw Arabian Nights. It’s a dinner theatre with a fun presentation with horses. The story was simple, a bit funny, and well presented, but the horses were wonderful. They showed Arabians, of course, plus gypsies, dancing horses, cowboys, a beautiful display of Western riding reminiscing the oneness of American Indians with their mounts, trick riding, a beautiful unicorn and a dancing black Arabian horse. At the end of the show, they turned out all the horses into the ring where they ran and rolled and romped, seemingly after a hard evening’s work.
We have not internet connection here. Apparently there is service somewhere in the resort for a price, but nothing here in the motel. We are not in a fancy place at all. The advertising is a bit suspect I’d say. I guess some of the resort may be nice, but this is no better than most Super 8 rooms – and they all have free internet. I can’t even find a network to piggy back on. I’m writing this in Word and will paste it in a blog tomorrow when I can find a connection.

Extra! Extra!

The World's Nicest Kitty -- Miss Barbie

-- 17 years old and still beautiful at six pounds!

Jupiter Island - Rich and Famous

Monday Morning --

Another Great Tour with Tom and Sandra

Breakfast first-- Duke's Lazy Loggerhead Cafe with the best almond crunch French toast the world has ever seen!

The best of family and tour guides!

And, now on to the Rich and Famous

I couldn't get good shots of these homes of the rich and the famous. They are, of course, mostly hidden by fences and hedges. They are all lovely and luxurious and the row of these mansions goes on mile after mile on Jupiter Island. Each place must be worth millions. I can't imagine how many people have SO MUCH money -- and, most of them don't even live here all the time!

I think Tom said this is some construction happening at Tiger Woods' home.

We took off our shoes and walked a bit along the beach/ The water was 86 degrees; the air temperature about 90 I think. It was fun watching the little kids playing in the water.

Trees, trees, trees. We are fascinated with banyans, palms of various types, and others. This is Jupiter Island, the home of celebrities such as Tiger Woods. These pictures were taken north of that row of mansions, near Hobe Beach.

Banyans with their strange root system.

Feathery pine-like branches and groves of palms.

Banyan tree lane along with the "tree inspectors".

And now we're back home with the "no so rich and famous" doing laundry!

Elegance to Everglades

It can rain in Florida! The skies opened up and the rain came down while we were eating lunch in a shopping mall. I tried to capture the extent of the rain, but it's hard to do with a camera.

Perhaps the best illustration is what poor Tom had to do to get us out of there and back in the car in time to get to our Everglades excitement. Here he is, running out into the monsoon -- shirtless and with a bag over his head! It was the best we could do since the rain poncho was in the car. He was too fast for me to get better shots. :)






The rain continued off and on while we were on a tram trip through the Everglades at Shark Valley, but it didn't diminish our enjoyment of this very different countryside. First of all, it is a total prairie -- flat with tiny hillocks here and there. This is really a very slow moving river of fresh water and it supports all kinds of wildlife.



This is the road we took on the tram.


We were so fortunate to see quite a number of alligators. The tram would stop so we could get a good look before the alligator slid off the roadway and back into the water. They are quite shy and you have to be quick to get a photo.

This is a mother alligator and her open mouth suggests that she did not like our being around there one little bit.

We also saw a juvenile alligator, but it was in the weeds and I couldn't capture it at all.

So back to civilization! Most of these pictures were taken from the moving car, so the quality is not great, but the memories for me are really great!

Here's a "modest" little home along the road in West Palm Beach, but, there are hundreds of huge apartment buildings like those below. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people all living in little compartments in these huge 40 to 50 story buildings along the beach and along the road. We mused about what life would be like living in that environment. On the one hand, there are gorgeous views and interesting little stores and boutiques along the street in West Palm Beach. On the other hand, there are so many similar yet separated accommodations that it seems unlikely that a person could feel connected yet separate. I don't think it would be the lifestyle for me, but apparently it's what many, many people choose.

Some of the really upscale homes along the waterway have their own parking for boats while others have to use marinas and "boat parks".

Here's a much more modest home and a typical looking neighbourhood shopping center.

Palms can be seen everywhere along the roadways and highways. There are so many different kinds and sizes that it bears a little study -- something to do when I get home.

Goodbye Destin; Hello Jupiter

Just had to include these additional shots of Destin!

We left Destin on Friday and headed back toward Tallahassee and then on, across the state to Jupiter on the Atlantic coast. It's a long uninteresting drive, but we were looking forward to seeing Sandra and Tom so we knew it would be well worth driving all that distance. We drove east along I-10 for quite a while before we hit I-75 and then the Florida Turnpike. Now, a title like "Florida Turnpike" or "Ronald Regan Turnpike" sounds like a fancy road to me. Well, the truth is, the turnpike isn't as good as the Interstate and it COSTS MONEY. Tourists are certainly not well informed about the tolls before the booths appear. We stopped at the first toll booth where a very friendly clerk took a dollar from us. No problem. We drove on and then stopped at another booth where another friendly clerk took $1.50. That's okay. At the next booth, they gave us a ticket. When I asked what it was for, the third friendly clerk (and they WERE very friendly) explained that when we turned it in, they would know how much money to collect. We read the back and discovered that if we got off at Jupiter, we would pay another $10.70. Seems like a lot for a very basic four lane highway, much of which was rough and some was under repair. About every 40 or 50 miles there were service centers between the two roads -- gas station (reasonably priced), food fair with KFC, a salad place, and hamburgers as well as a number of vending machines and some souvenirs and brochures. We had to eat, so we had a KFC sandwich -- not great, but it filled in some gaps.

When we got off the turnpike and on to the next Interstate, we drove only a couple of miles before we took the exit for Donald Ross Road, past a lovely golf course and University Entrance sign, past a big baseball park (Cardinals and Marlins do Spring Training here) to Tom and Sandra's place. They were standing outside to meet us and directed us to a parking place right by their apartment.

We've had such a good time here. We got a ton of laundry done today and have begun junking out the car. I can't believe how much laundry we can accumulate and how much STUFF gets chucked here and there in the car. It will be good to start out again all tidy when we leave here.

Tom and Sandra drove us around later today. We drove down to West Palm Beach and through a number of beach towns. This place is FLAT, but, oh my goodness, there is beauty! First of all, I was particularly struck with the wide variety of palm trees -- tall with cement-like trunks, hedges made of wide, frondy palms, newly planted ones with little brush bottle tops, ridged trunks, bark-like trunks and on and on. They are various sizes and colours as well and they make the place look so lovely. The buildings all seem to be painted very light colours with red tile roofs. The stores and the shopping malls are beautifully landscaped and the buildings look much less utilitarian and much prettier than what we see in our part of the country -- both US and Canada. We noticed an attractive building somewhat off the road, nicely landscaped and it turned out to be Toys R Us! Some homes are like palaces and I guess you just about have to be royalty to live in some of the homes and apartment buildings we saw. It was such fun to have the chance to just look at the surroundings.

Tom took us to the Grand Lux for lunch. The food was grand and luxurious for sure. The portions were so huge that even though we shared two meals among the four of us, we were hard pressed to finish. Mind you, the restaurant is known for its great desserts, so among the four of us we managed to choke down three large servings: Erupting Chocolate Cake, Vanilla and Chocolate Creme Brule, and some exotic Bread Pudding. Creme Brule is my absolute favourite dessert, but today, I would select the bread pudding as about the best dessert I have ever tasted. We washed it all down with coffee and struggled out of the restaurant for the drive home in the Halls' new car. It's a Murano by Nissan. It is comfortable and quiet with all the bells and whistles you would want. The back up camera that shows what is behind the vehicle and also where it will go as you turn the steering wheel is particularly interesing and useful.

Tom watched TV while Sandra, Mary Ann and I tried out the Facial Masks that one of my students had given me. You can imagine the fun we had as we decided to choose the anti-aging ones. Can't resist showing you the silliness.

We're planning to see the Everglades tomorrow. Tom found a place that gives a guided tour, so we think that's the best way to see the most in the limited time we'll have. I want to see those alligators! Mary Ann tells us that you don't have to worry about alligators because all you have to do to control them is to hold their mouths shut! Apparently they aren't as strong in opening as they are in snapping them shut. Right. We'll keep you posted on the alligator caper!