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Published: August 26th 2010
We flew into Tampa, Florida in mid afternoon for a week of meeting up with friends and seeing a little bit of what Florida has to offer other than Disney World and similar "leeesure resorts" - which we avoided.
This meant another Budget car hire, but not another Dodge(y) car. It was another Kia and unlike JFK we passed through the airport & car rental formalities smoothly and quickly. We reacquainted ourselves with Gladys the GPS lady who we pointed in the direction of our friends house in Naples, three hours drive away.
The drive from Tampa to Naples is mostly Interstate highway close to the coast. The first half hour or so is the most spectacular as you drive over the I-275 Bridge over Old Tampa Bay, then via the 'Sunshine Skyway Toll Bridge' over Tampa Bay. The journey was uneventful and Gladys expertly guided us to the correct address, where we met up with Melissa - a travelling buddy of Felicity's who had been to visit us in Zurich a few years before.
After saying our hellos and unpacking the car, we decided to go for a bit of a walk to the beach, via one
of the local hotel's boardwalks. It is instant nature as you walk along the boardwalk that is surrounded by plants - and instant America as extended golf carts shuttle those unable or unwilling to walk back and forth between the hotel and the pier at the end of the boardwalk. Despite the heat and humidity, the 3 of us sought the healthy option and walked. Our arrival at the pier was rewarded with a few dolphins swimming nearby and a few pelicans in the distance. Florida in July is hot and humid and Naples is no exception, so after a few minutes down at the pier, we headed back to the hotel bar to chill and be chilled by a cocktail.
That evening, we went into old downtown Naples and to a curious clothing store/restaurant combination called Tommy Bahamas. We were going for the eats rather than the pleats and they'd tastefully laid out the restaurant, so you didn't feel like you were in the middle of a Caribbean Couture jungle. That was off to the sides. We all agreed the food and drink was very good...especially the key lime pie !
Naples is quite a wealthy city
with a lot of large beach front properties and the next day we went for a drive around the neighbourhood. There are some seriously huge monster mansions along the roads that run parallel with the shore. What is also evident is the number of ones which are just holiday homes. Because it was summer in the rest of the US, hot and humid and sometimes stormy Florida is avoided by the holiday homesters at this time. So many of the houses and the high rises containing luxury beachside condos, were empty and had their storm shutters up. With the financial crisis, some could have just been ownerless - but what a waste !
Naples was another chill-out destination, not doing too much other than catching up with Melissa. We of course went swimming in the hot bath that is the Gulf of Mexico and were entertained by more dolphins & pelicans that came close by.
One day - well to be honest it was almost midday before we got started - we headed to the Everglades. Being just over 1 hour's drive from Naples, it would have been rude not to have visited them. Our main goal was
to go on a boat ride through the everglades - the USA was intended to be one of the most tourist trail parts of our 8 month trip. We found "Captain Doug's" a boat service that had been recommended to us and hopped on a boat almost immediately, carrying just us, a German family, Captain Driver (I forget his real name) and a large Pelican who plonked himself at the bow of the boat and was fed fish by our Captain. It was a standard fan boat, synonymous with the everglades, and as we occasionally hurtled through the glades at what seemed like breakneck speed, visions of James Bond's Live & let Die flashed up on my memory bank. Maybe it was the time of day, but the wildlife tally was a little disappointing - a few (alli)gators, one raccoon and one Pelican were just about the sum total of our sightings. But it was still fun.
We'd enjoyed a number of nightcaps on Melissa's balcony overlooking a small pond which seemed like it had more wildlife than the everglades we'd experienced - minus the Alligators. Melissa had looked after us like visiting royalty, but on the Friday, we
made our move to slowly head back to Tampa to catch a flight to Mexico City on the Monday. We had decided to extend our time in Mexico and South America a little and that meant adjusting some of our Round the World flights. We had to find a Star Alliance airline booking shop. In the US that meant going to an airport.
We said our thanks and farewells to Melissa and headed in the direction of Orlando. No we weren't going to break our Disney World avoidance promise to ourselves - but we did want to go to Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) at Cape Canaveral and the nearest airport to that, that met our needs was Orlando. It also meant that we had the most choice of cheap hotels that were being offered in the Florida version of the hotel voucher freebie, that I'd picked up while passing through Tampa airport.
The drive was largely highway and a diagonal cut northeastwards through Florida, guided by the ever present Gladys the GPS lady. We got to Orlando airport and essentially had to compete with those checking in to get time from the check-in/ticket agents. Fortunately, the queue for
Continental wasn't large and we quickly got served by a guy who whilst a little shocked at having to rework a round the world ticket managed to change the bookings with his airline as requested. The later changes could be done via email we decided.
By the time we'd messed around with all that, it was too late to consider KSC, so we pointed Gladys in the direction of Kissimmee, where the most vouchers for hotels were. The Travelodge seemed the best value for money and this time, unlike in New England, they accepted the voucher at face value and said they could do two nights for the same price. It wasn't especially busy, so competition amongst all the Motels on that strip was probably pretty fierce.
When in the US you have to eat like the natives at least some of the time. That night we tried out the Longhorn Steakhouse, which happened to be a two minute walk from our chosen place of rest. They believed in delivering big for the big - and those aspiring to be big (waist-wise). We ordered two beers and they arrived in glasses the size of a 'Mass' at the
Munich beer festival = about 1 litre of good quality brew. The menu indicated (thankfully) that you could order (relatively) small steaks - starting at 8oz and going upto 24oz...you would have to extend your credit limit before you could afford a 24oz steak in a restaurant in Zurich- if they existed. They don't. We both went for smaller steak sizes and were not disappointed - the steak & everything it came with was cooked to perfection. So much so we went back there the second night too.
The next day after a very basic and not too appetizing breakfast at the nearby Waffle House, we pointed Gladys in the direction of Kennedy Space Centre. It's a rather longer drive than we had first thought to get to Space Shuttle headquarters and launchpad of all the Apollo missions and so it was afternoon before we got there. The entrance fee was a hefty $41 each - but then we realised the ticket was valid for 2 visits in the next 7 days and there's a lot to see.
The first stop was the 'must do' tour bus, which takes you around some of the key 'attractions' NASA has
set up for tourists. First stop, the LC39 Shuttle Observation gantry, where a mile or two away you'd be able to make out a Space Shuttle if it were on the launch pad. We hadn't told them we were coming so none were there. The bus tour is well organised and you can spend as much time as you like at one spot, before taking the next available bus to the next stop - the Apollo/Saturn V centre. This is a huge hangar celebrating the technology and considerable achievements of the Saturn V rockets and Apollo program that put men on the moon. It includes the mission control desks that were used in the 1960s and 1970s Apollo launches, with video from the time. Finally you are taken to the International Space Station (ISS) Centre, which is still used to put together equipment to be sent to the ISS. The bus drivers are very chatty and very well informed and all-in-all its a good tour, if a little dumbed down for those, like us, that would prefer more technical detail. Its also a shame you don't get nearer to any of the actual launch pads or the famous Shuttle Landing
facility - probably both for security reasons.
One thing they point out, which is verging on the Disney world, but which is actually pretty well done is the Shuttle Launch Experience. This is a simulator that allows you to experience the sort of G-Force feelings, noise and vibrations of a Shuttle take-off. Astronauts reckon its pretty realistic and whether it is or not, its a lot of fun !
By the time we had finished that, it was getting to be early evening and there were storms in the air that would definitely postpone a Shuttle launch. We decided to head back, but also to return the next day. Well it was either that or Busch Gardens in Tampa - and that would be distinctly verging on the Disney World.
The next day we looked around the KSC exhibits we'd missed the previous day, did another Shuttle Launch Experience and met one of NASA's astronauts in a 30 minute session that was offered. The name of John Blaha is hardly as famous as Armstrong or Aldrin, but his Space and Air Force CV is at least as impressive, having done 4 Space Shuttle missions (2 as Commander),
KSC: Original Apollo Launch control-1
The actual launch control site used during Apollo missions4 months in the Mir Space station after training & living in Russia for 2 years as well as flying numerous aircraft types for the USAF and the British RAF. He is also a genuinely nice friendly guy, who clearly enjoyed his meet the people role.
Mid afternoon, we got back in the car and setup Gladys to guide us to a Howard Johnson's Motel in downtown Tampa, which of course had a voucher and wasn't too far from the airport. We were heading to Mexico the next day. The skies did not look promising and as we hit the highway for a drive of what should have been a couple of hours, the heavens opened. In true US style, this storm was big. There was strong winds, lightning and thunder and at times a wall of rain that reduced forward visibility to only a few feet and caused the highway to be a river in places. I could feel the car aquaplane occasionally. Added to that we had to make our way slowly through toll roads and road works - where work was certainly not in evidence. One thing we noticed during our stay in that part of
KSC: Original Apollo Launch control-2
With Video of a Saturn V rocket lift off Florida was that toll roads appear to be a job creation scheme. In the Orlando area especially where we were driving you'd keep hitting them every few miles. So much for road planning.
The bad weather followed us all the way to Tampa and to add to the excitement, half way into the journey a guy in a beat up old truck overtook us in the left hand lane of the highway and at that moment his left front tyre gave up the will to live and disintegrated, throwing pieces of rubber at our car. He was left with pretty much just the rim of the wheel, by the time he brought the truck to a controlled stop. It took us 3 and a half hours to arrive at our room for the night and just as we reached Tampa it decided to stop raining.
Florida had certainly been interesting and fun, but it was time to head out of the USA - for a couple of months at least - and head to Mexico City.
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Andrew Walsh
non-member comment
No Montu then
Ah Rard, the Montu is missing you - you will have to detour via Busch Gardens on the way back.