WEDNESDAY

Today was a beach day. We started out at Harris beach but moved on to Pennykamp beach where we spent some time wading about and sitting on a bench in the breeze. Then we returned to the Ramada, played in the pool and hot tub, and zonked out on the lounge chairs. Dinner, believe it or not, was at KFC.

Lunch was at a Cuban place called Mario's Cafeteria. He makes a great Reuben and we tried a Cuban dish I think is called casaba. It's a root which is boiled then drizzled with olive oil and garlic -- delicious.

Key West

Driving in Florida is deadly boring. It's no wonder folks fall asleep on the road.

Today we drove down Rt 1 *yawn* to Key West. We were lucky to be able to find parking spots near the two attractions we wanted. Of course there was a crowd of tourists near the marker for the Southernmost spot in the continental US. The Brits would have been proud of us as we queued very nicely and all took pictures of other folks with their cameras.

We then got tickets on the conch train. It would have been very nice but we were last on and had to ride backwards. I simply cannot do that so three quarters of the way through the trip when near our car we jumped ship and hid out in the Ben and Jerry's. The ice cream revived me and we headed home.

We decided to come all the way back to Largo to Gamins for the same dinner as last night. We ordered as before but the meal was not nearly as good. Very strange.

Tomorrow we are going to try for the glass bottom boat. I will take dramamine, but I am not sanguine.

Across Florida

This morning we checked out of the Best Western in Fort Myers and headed across the state on route 41. It took forever. Even though we did not stop for a long lunch we didn't get to Key Largo until late afternoon.

The good part is the hotel, The Ramada Limited, is very nice. At dinner we decided to book another night so now we are here until Thursday at which time we will most likely head north to Leesburg again. (Is our room ready?)

We plan on seeing some fish from a glass bottom boat (because you have to take a boat to the reef to snorkel and the water temperature is around 70 or so). We plan to drop down to Key West, stopping at the Marine reserve at Marathon Key on the way.

Which will be tomorrow and which Wednesday remains to be decided.

Living higher

In order to remain in a bugless room (Motel6 had bugs) we have upped our price range. Last night and tonight we are at the Best Western in Fort Myers.

Tomorrow we take the alligator alley to Key Largo where we have booked two nights at the Ramada. We got a good deal (99UDS) here at the Best Western but the best I could do at the Ramada was 129. If it's warm enough we'll snorkel and then go down to Key West.

Friday Feb 4th.

Started out a bit late this morning after breakfast at Rainy's. We shot down Rt 75 and then took a side route by the coast. We stopped at two nature preserves to shoot. At the second we met a very nice fellow in an official Fla truck. Hank asked him about local eateries. Turns out the fellow was from Willingboro. His kids never had Rainy as a teacher because they went to Garfield and were there before the PATS program. One of his children is now a teacher.
Having met, yesterday at lunch, a man who used to work in Marlton and a woman who was raised in my home town - the dentist's daughter, I'm beginning to suspect that all Jerseyites end up in Florida. Oy!

We somehow missed the recommended ABC place for lunch and stopped at Emily's Family restaurant in Palm Harbor. Hank wanted to cross the big bridge outside of St. Petersburg so that we did and we were well impressed.

Today we saw a sign saying there was a hundred dollar fine for running through the toll booth without paying. We had to do that yesterday because there were only two lanes, one for sun pass and one for exact change. We had the exact change, but that lane was closed. We had no choice but to go through.

We stopped too late in Bradenton to get a good motel and are at the Motel6 - the good part is the lighting and shower are good. Everything else is shoddy at best. I want to adopt the rule we needlessly adopted in Spain - use only hotels with some star power. No more Motel 6 for us if I can avoid it. I'd rather have a few days less and stay at the Holiday Inns or the like. We'll see.