Jigsaw pieces

(Interlude - went shopping, took Hiro for his service and bought Ed's birthday present and the same thing for myself to review and tell him how it works; Acer Aspire One. Better than a basic Eee for similar money. It's a touch larger than the Eee, but the screen is another league).

So, to continue travels - which some pictures have been posted from already... kest & I left the Hyatt on Monday at checkout time, leaving behind cool people and apparently missing Sushi with hellsop, but mindful of the long drive to Homestead/Florida City, where we'd got a motel near the Everglades to go exploring from.

The drive down involved surprisingly little drama, though I did miss a toll and the traffic was backed up for a big section - we stopped at a Waffle House for breakfast/lunch and found wildlife in the trees (picture to be added), and I discovered whilst searching for pills that the conditioner had escaped in the bag of stuff on the back seat. Gah. Yes, it was about this time that my neck was recovering from the ice skating...

We found the Travelodge just fine, and unpacked, but noticed it was running late so plans to use the pool were scrapped in search of food... Yep... you guessed it... it was mostly closed. Drove up and down the strip a few times looking to see what there was, with the looming sign of "Denny's" overhead next to the parking lot... I insisted on driving a little further, and we found more, including an Applebees... "Let's see if that's open!" - but no, I drove past it. It was on the wrong side on the way back, but that is where we ended up, and in fact, the food was pretty good, way better than Denny's.

The night was disturbed slightly by what seemed to be a duck. I wondered if it was broken A/C, but in the morning, we found a tiny frog hiding on the anti-breakin plate on the door - the call of which was apparently quite ducklike! Noisy little bugger.

In the morning, we pointed the car at the Everglades; stopping en route so I could investigate the Nike outlet store for some socks and possibly cheap Nike+ trainers (all a success), and finally get some cash from the ATM. I managed, interestingly, to put the trainers on the wrong feet and not notice...

The Everglades drive in involved rain, and the horrifying realisation that we had no gas. Thankfully, in the middle of the park at Flamingo Landing, there's a gas station; we skipped some trails (and were harassed by a Vulture flying in front of the car) and went to fill up and grab soda and snacks (soda for me; Cherry Cola in the US tastes more "Cherry"). The trails were... somewhat infested with what I'm thinking from pictures and memory of what they were like would have been blackflies. We also covered ourselves in Deet, since the momentary opening of the window to pay the entrance fee resulted in a car full of said flies. Within moments, the car dashboard looked like a massacre had taken place as we flailed about like a couple of energetic spackers at the demonic insects.

In fairness to the wildlife, it wasn't the best weather. We saw lizards, we saw a couple of birds, but after a lot of walking about, seeing German Bimbos (who used the word "fotoapparat!" far too much when I was near. I can only assume they were impressed by my equipment) and suspecting said bimbos of scaring the wildlife - then we got to the last trails. These were the longest, and weren't in the Mangrove swamps so much, so we assumed (wrongly) that there would be less flying terror.

The sounds of the Everglades are impressive, and it would be nice to see some of the causes of those sounds. Or better yet, a Florida Panther. Which I didn't shut up about, having learned it existed.

Near the evening, and the end of the last trail, I wasn't whiny, but I did say something along the lines of "time to go, we'd better see something bloody impressive". Upon which, Kest finds five alligators moving around near the boardwalk (and I'd been trying to get her to come see one I'd seen in the distance), then near that, a green backed heron stalking food, then another Anhinga, and more alligators, and cardinals, and a good dramatic sunset... So yeah, Everglades, probably best camped in, seen early morning and late evening, and evacuated during the day to avoid the bugs.

I was kinda smug but concerned when we got back; Kest was absolutely slaughtered by the bloodsuckers and despite being dressed, had been bitten through her clothes - I'd considered at various points making some feeble attempt to remove the sea of flies from her back, but figured that they weren't actually biting, since I was also covered. I didn't seem to have shown any signs of biting at this stage...

...in the morning, I looked like I had pox. And it got worse as the day went on... it's only just cleared up now.

On the one hand, UGH. On the other hand, I lived, and I reckon I could be more liberal with the Deet, and more tolerant of the buzzing, and quite enjoy properly exploring an area like that. As long as I had something to block out the buzzing in my ears.

Sadly, the morning also meant dashing back up to Tampa so Kest didn't miss her flight - we took the scenic route through Cypress National Park (I didn't have "insane in the brain" in my head at all. Honest) and made it back in time, but not as good time as we'd have liked given the plan to have coffee before she left. We saw some wildlife on the road, too, including a probably sad turtle on the hard shoulder, apparently moving along but not a safe place.

And then, having managed to escape the airport and once again, get the diversion on I275 wrong, I made my way to krysania1's house...