Our flight to Florida
was about 3 hours and we were able to see some of the islands below
as we crossed near to Dominican Republic and Cuba. We also flew over
the Florida Keys and got to see the huge area of sandy bottomed
shallow blue blue sea there. Greg was allocated the seat next to us
and told us about the area we were flying over and when we arrived in
Fort Lauderdale he kindly gave us a ride to the Tri-rail station near
his home. We rode from there to West Palm Beach and were met by our
'couch' Linda.
First order of the
afternoon was to get into the hot tub after which Carol promptly fell
asleep on the bed. Also visiting Linda were two friends from college
years and we had a great time over the 2 nights getting to know them
all and having lots of laughs. Carol, Linda, Lyn and Sue discovered
they are all exactly the same age and had a lot in common.
A large portion of the
eastern coast of America is lined with long thin islands, the
mainland is linked to them with bridges and the waterway in between
the two is called the 'Intercoastal Waterway'. It's possible to sail
a great deal of the way from north to south using these waterways. We
walked down to the portion of it near Lindas home and found it to be
quite wide with some yachts but no big vessels, the water is a dark
tea colour possibly because of the water draining from the swamps.
When the first pioneers arrived here (a little to the north in a
place called St Augustine) this waterway was filled with fresh water,
they opened a channel to the sea so they could bring in there ships
and shelter from the hurricanes that pound the coast. As a result of
this practical solution the interior wildlife and wetlands were
changed forever and now the waterways are saltwater and are flushed
with the tides.
Carol and Linda walked
in the morning on the beach and Carol saw a long thin fish jump out
of the top of a wave, spin about and land back in the water. The
morning before Linda had seen a shark outlined in a wave with the sun
behind. In the evening the 4 women climbed on the roof, up 2 ladders,
and enjoyed the sunset while Kent toiled away below making dinner. Of
all the times we have made this meal it is considered the most
unusual meal by North Americans. We make potatos and carrots mashed
together (nothing is ever mashed with potato if potato is mashed at
all), lightly boiled cabbage with a little butter and lots of pepper
(they only eat cabbage as coleslaw), mince with herbs and tomatoes
(ground beef is not a favoured meat...). Linda, Lyn and Sue were
quite worried about what might come out the other end of the things
they saw sitting on the bench and checked in now and then to see how
the cooking was going, relaying not so SOS signals back to the others
lol. In the end everything was eaten and enjoyed and they were
pleased to have tried something new.
Linda dropped us on
Saturday to a pickup point where we were to connect with Holly, Carl
and Kay to head north to Vero Beach for a Spring Equinox BBQ at
Terrys place. Terry is the Head Park Ranger at the Sebastian Inlet
State Park and lives in a home right on the beach at the entrance to
the park. About 35 other couchsurfing hosts and surfers were there
and a small tent city popped up around the house. Carol took the
opportunity to use one of the pushbikes there and go for a ride out
throught the park, view the sunset over the Indian River Lagoon and
also rose with most of the others to watch the sunrise in the
morning. The evening was fun with food, music, dancing and games. In
a game of truth and dare Carol came inside to find Kent wearing the
clothes of the guy sitting next to him!
Next day we put our
things into the car of Lisa and Brian who were taking us up to
Titusville right next to the Kennedy Space Centre. Originally there
was to be a rocket launch on the 22nd but during our planning this
had been cancelled but we were still eager to see the Spacecoast.
Lisa and Brian live right where you get perfect views of any liftoff
so it would have been great to see a launch but we weren't
disappointed as we got to see the area and the shuttle in the
distance up and ready for it's scheduled launch on April 5th. Lisa is
training to be a helicopter pilot and is 50 hours into it, cool!
The day we spent with
Lisa and Brian they took us out for the day to the wetlands that
surround the launchpads. It is a huge area very wet when we were
visiting because of the rain they have had lately and filled with all
kinds of wildlife and birds. We spent hours crawling slowly through
in the car and seeing some wonderful sights and getting some great
pics. We were especially glad to have our new canon with its bigger
lens and better zoom, some of the pics were excellent.
Tuesday we got up at
5am and left for Orlando with Brian who works there. He kindly got up
half an hour earlier in order to drop us there at the Greyhound Bus
terminal on his way to his work at 7am. Next stop Tallahassee.
