Getting ready to head home.

We're coming to the endof the trip, we've spend a great four days with Eileen, Neil and the girls.

The weather has not been really kind in the Orlando area, in fact there has been some pretty heavy rain from time to time..

 This was Tampa on Tuesday.

We felt sorry for the people on vacation who sitting on the beach here on the Tampa bay, trying to make the most of the trip despite the crappy weather.

A few minutes later as we were leaving, the streets were awash.

Back at the house, note the difference, English with a nice cup of tea.

American with a nice cold Bud.

Of course we had to make a trip to the Harley store.

Today we are packing and going to the airport and the others are going to Universal.

In The Land of The Mouse

When we woke up on Sunday morning the sun was just coming up over the pier Deerfield Beach.

It looked like a good day to drive with top down, and so it was for a while!

Then the weather started to worsen, we found a place to pull off the freeway and put the top up.

As we headed north the speed on the freeway picked up, the speed limit was 70 MPH but it seemed that everyone was doing at least 80.

We were going to meet up with Anne's sister Eileen and her family, they had rented a house for their vacation in the Orlando area.

 

This was the view from their patio, note the huge bug cover.

The area around the house has a lot a of wild life.

The light colored patch in the middle is a coyote.

A group of birds on the street, I think that they are Sand Hill Cranes.

Then I saw this guy outside, not sure what he was.

So as you can see not all of the wild life is in Animal Kingdom.

Norm

Movin' On

We had our final day in Key West and what a day it was.

There was an event at Sloppy Joe's to celebrate  Ernest Hemmingway's  birthday.

Every Hemmingway look alike in the US and beyond was there.

As you can see by the clothes and the automobile this is a picture of a picture from the '30s

Still a wonderful place, and packed out the door.

Here we are with some of the previous winners in the background.

All of the old and still popular places are close by one another, from here we headed over to Captain Tony's for a last look.

There are other things in the area which surprise you:

Irish Curry?

Crab Racing?

Then I saw this device in the old fort museum.

Lines from a Jimmy Buffet song were brought to mind.

"Never been west of New Orleans or east of Pensacola

Only contact with the outside world was an RCA Victrola"

Then it was pack our stuff and head north, well you must admit there's no going south by car.

As we went north both the weather and the traffic got worse.

We arrived in Deerfield Beach in heavy rain.

The view from our hotel room.

Better Late Than Never

I've been having connectivty issues with the BLOG site, looks like the WIFI in the hotel is a bit slow.

We have been visiting the Jimmy Buffet pilgrimage sites, Captain Tony's and Margaritaville, the places where it all started.

Of course we had some more cultural stuff on the agenda, well Anne did.

She visited the Ernest Hemmingway house.

I went across the street and visited trhe Lighthouse.

A really neat place, I met one  of the guys who volunteers there who was from Bristol originally but was now retired. 

They have on show a first order light, this was a definition of the longest focal length and consequently the largest Fresnel lens.

They also have a smaller fourth order light on display.

This is much smaller but still a thing of beauty.

I have no clue who these people are, but I am damned if I'm wasting drinking time waiting in line to take a picture.

So as you can see the Southernmost (anything) is right here in Key West.

Enough of that culture stuff.

Back to hedonism.

Tooday we are kinda kicking back and just looking around with no real plan.

We hoped to go to Dry Tortuga but the tour was sold out.

More soon, I hope.

Arrived in Florida

As  we had a lay over in Vegas, we had dinner in the Airport at "The Pub"

If the California part of the trip was like going to Germany, the Vegas part was like England.

Firstly we went to The Pub, then I had fish and chips in newspaper and an English newspaper to boot!

Of course it's not a real newspaper, it's reprint from the '60s look at the price, 5d.

That's about 2.08 new pence or 3.25 cents.

The flight was uneventful, just the way I like it. We arrived in Fort lauderdale right on time.

 We picked up the rental car and headed south toward Key West, the drive is alomst 200 miles.

However  these are not freeway miles, there are lots of speed  limits some as low as 30 MPH. So it takes a while.

We checked in and relaxed for a bit before going to the poolside bar for a brewski.

This was before I got my brewski, I'm justt imagining...

More soon from the southernmost everything!

I'll explain that comment in the next post.

On Our Way

This trip feels like we're on our way to Germany.
The car to the airport was a Mercedes S550, the driver was born in Munich and now I'm drinking koenig pils in the lounge.
🇩🇪😃


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Jimmy Buffet

The pop quiz question was too tough.

OK, the two songs I had in mind were Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season and Earls Dead.

The first one has the name of the major north-south road, A-1-A and the other is a line from Earl's Dead Cadillac For Sale.

There's somethin' about this Sunday
It's a most peculiar gray
Strollin' down the avenue
That's known as A1A

The Tamiami Trail.

"Earl's Dead - Cadillac For Sale"

Earl's dead - Cadillac for sale
An Eldorado sits out on the Tamiami Trail
Sign on the windshield tells the whole tale
Earl's dead - Cadillac for sale

OK now you are indoctrinated into the world of Parrot Heads.

Look up these two on line and play them a couple of times, you to will become a fan, maybe not a Parrot Head but at least a fan of the man.

Remember to be yourself, everyone else is already taken. (Oscar Wilde)

Ciao Bella

Norm

Headed for the land of Ponce De Leon

Florida

We leave for Florida pretty soon, the land of Ponce De Leon.

This is him; I don't think that I'll need that outfit, we're going Jet Blue via Vegas.

You would probably have to check your sword for an extra charge!

The lay over is just long enough to lose the vacation cash, or maybe not.

As we have been preparing for the trip, the weather has been preparing us.

Today we have had rain and thunder storms.

42% humidity my ass, it's raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock.

The sheds are closed up and the toys put away.

There's no more time for diddling with old bikes until I return.

As we are in the throes of a really catastrophic drought, (even though it's raining today it's not in any way about to reduce the seriousness of the situation) I have installed a solar powered irrigation system for some of the plants.
It is just a big planter from Costco filled with recycled water, a 12 VDC pump, a programmable timer, a solar panel, an old Harley battery, along with a drip feed system recycled from a previous year and an old trash can as a cover, just for you Blue Peter fans, if possible, I would have incorporated some sticky back plastic and a pair of Val's old knickers.

More soon from the land of the 'gators.



Pop quiz.
Name a road in Florida used in a Jimmy Buffet song.
I can think of two off the top of my head, or should that be off the top of my Parrot Head.



Ciao Bella
Norm

Idyllwild

We headed for the mountains on Friday morning and as the traffic was very light, we arrived early.

However as Brentt was already here we just hung out with him until our cabin was ready.

On the way up.

Missy found her owm place to hang out.

The big deal for the weekend was to miss out on the fireworks at home and to experience the town parade here in Idyllwild.

As you may imagine, in a wooded mountain community in the middle of a drought,  the fire department are heros of the town.

They in turn are involved in many aspects of the commumities in which they serve.

Now you may be forgiven for thinking that this was all old school stuff.

Some of it was.

Then of course there was a guy flying a drone over the parade.

A great weekend, just hanging out and enjoying ourselves.

Ciao Bella

Norm