It is hard for me to comprehend how permanent residents of Florida cope with the constant heat and humidity, not to mention the mosquitoes. Hence, most of my time was spent in my airconditioned car or buildings. Fortunately the Everglades Hostel has good air conditioning, albeit it only in the dorms. The dining and lounge areas are out of doors, as is the laundry. The kitchen house and TV room are a small separate building, just by the waterfall and pond/pool in the spacious tropical garden.

This great hostel in Florida City is the perfect jump off point for the Everglades, the Keys and Miami disctrict. With its policy of 'pay for four nights ($100), get the fifth free', many use it in just this manner. It is served well by the local transit bus service. Of course I stayed and relaxed for my five nights.

Earlier I had stopped to catch up with and have lunch with a friend at AAA, in the Lake Mary area of Orlando. As the manager of the International dept she gets many enquiries about road trips from overseas. She was most interested to hear about RTA as a resource to which she may be able to refer these enquirers.

Spent a full day in the everglades, and even though I was not able to walk the boardwalks, had a most enjoyable time. It was incredibly hot that particular day, and when I did leave the car, left the engine and airconditioning running. (This no doubt will completely destroy my mpg stats.) Bird life was both prolific and active. Not a bird watcher, I am not able to identify most, and it is hard to get a good photo of a bird in flight with my equipment.



I was however, most pleased with this photo, considering how far away it was. It had flown across my path just before I took this photo.



In Florida, at one time or another, I drove on every interstate, as well as the turnpike... and on each and every one of them, I struck storms... incredible brief storms with lightning flashing all around me, and rain so heavy it was not possible to see the car in front. This was especially scary on the Overseas Highway, where I was on the 7 mile bridge. Here there are no shoulders to pull over and the car in front of me did not have lights on. SCARY!! Even though the minimum speed on this bridge is 40 mph, the traffic was moving at much less than that.

And then, in typical Florida manner, we were out of the storm and the sun was shining brightly... in fact, the road was dry.

All this happened on my way down the Keys. I had been invited to attend and participate in two Toastmasters clubs, just as I had done in 2007. [This is one thing I like to do when travelling. Whenever I am in a place for more than a night, I like to see if there is a club meeting, which I can attend. On this trip so far I have been made welcome and invited to participate at Toastmaster meetings in St Paul, Boston, Fairbanks, Anchorage and on the Keys.]

Alligator Alley certainly lived up to its name as I traversed it this time. Standing on the platform viewing area at one of the rest stops, there were two young alligators below us. We estimated them to be less than 5 feet long. None-the-less they put on their best performance for us.





One appeared to be all dark, probably black. However, the other was most colourful.

Crossed from Florida into Alabama on highway 231... where, at the welcome centre, I once again picked up a hotel/motel coupon book. I am finding that in the heat down in the south, the option of sleeping in the car is just not on. Neither is sleeping in a tent without airconditioning. I will be glad to get back to where the temperatures are a little more bearable.

Lifey slowly heading back north