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Published: April 11th 2023
Dear All
Greetings on this my first proper entry on my travels through Florida, my US trip for 2023! As mentioned in my introductory blog, the plan was to fly into Tampa and out of Miami, visiting a few places in between.
I was correct in my thinking that the flight for Tampa wouldn’t be such a “family” one as the one to Orlando would probably have been, and it was filled with really quite sedate people – mostly English pensioners who probably have a property in Florida escaping the dreary UK winter. Unfortunately the start at Gatwick Airport was pretty rubbish though, but it turned out to be the only rubbish thing about the whole trip, so that’s good!
On that day, the self-service check-in and bag drop off were both offline, and so everyone had to go to the manned check-in desks. While I had checked in online, had my boarding pass and had no luggage to check in, I still had to line up there as I needed my documents checked – presumably as I’m currently travelling to the States with my current passport, and my older one which has my visa in it. I
Rescued Sea Turtle
Manatee Viewing Centrehad to have these checked on the way back too. The queue filled the whole of the British Airways check-in area, snaking around 20 times back and forth, and then backed up through the rest of the airport almost all the way back to the train station where I had arrived! I was told initially the queue would be one hour, but it ended up being two-and-a-half! It moved fairly fast throughout, until the end, when people on flights that were due to depart were called forward ahead of those at the front. Most people were being Britishly jovial about it, and I got talking to quite a few people, but it was extremely frustrating and stressful towards the end as so many people were being called ahead of me. It made the BBC news that day. Thankfully I always aim to arrive at airports early, and I think this was the time when such a decision pays off. After having my documents checked, I was straight through the security line and then onto the flight – no time at all for chilling in the airport lounge, which was probably a good thing!
The flight was great. I was
St Pete Beach
St Petersburg initially sitting towards the front amongst a large group of RAF cadets who were pleasant more than badly-behaved, but I asked to move to the back middle row as there was still quite a bit of energy being sat in the middle of such a large group. This was a great move, where I had three (!) seats to myself, and involved lots of lying down and napping. I watched two typically American films from my childhood to get me in the American mood, and they certainly hit the spot – “Coming to America” and “Back to the Future”. They definitely got me in the mood!
I arrived towards evening, and quickly boarded an hourly bus onto my Air BnB accommodation I’d booked a couple of miles from the city centre, conveniently located on the bus route between the airport and the same city centre. The place was large and very comfortable, and for what may be the first time in my east/west travels, I had no experiences of jet-lag whatsoever – I can’t say the same writing this up just after my return journey though! West is certainly best!
Tampa turned out to be a very beautiful
city – clean, friendly and safe, particularly in its Downtown area. I quickly noticed the warm Floridian weather there, reaching the late 20s each day with high humidity. Back in the UK I had walked to the train station in just a t-shirt in 4 degree windy weather, no jumper or jacket, as I didn’t want to be lumbering these around with me for my two weeks in Florida – it was a cold walk, but great call. The spring Florida weather I was experiencing was balmy and tropical, but not uncomfortable unless out walking in it longer than 20 minutes or so. I’m not sure I’d like to visit in the summer when the temperatures are knocking 40! I recalled the last time I was travelling in a hot place for parts of my South American trip in 2019, and realised that all my trips since then have been to cold places or at cold times of the year. It made a change to be packing shorts, sunglasses and flip-flops rather than thermals, hat, scarf and gloves! There are actually not that many tropical places in such developed countries, and it felt strange at first to have the heat
View from my Accommodation, Tampa
A typical American suburban street and humidity in such a rich, developed country. I’d not been to many places in the world like this, only Singapore springs to mind – hot and tropical yet developed.
After a really wonderful night’s sleep in a very comfortable bed, I very much enjoyed my first amazing day of simple sightseeing. I caught the hourly bus into town and walked along Tampa’s lovely Riverwalk, stopping for a late breakfast of a burrito at a posh supermarket in town – I noticed, as I’d observe for my whole time in the state, that Florida is filled with Spanish-speakers, and I heard as much Spanish being spoken throughout my time there as English.
After exploring a bit of the Downtown area, I took a Cross Ferry fast boat trip across Tampa Bay, Florida’s largest, to the equally beautiful but slightly smaller St Petersburg. At the port, I hopped straight onto a beautiful old-fashioned vintage-style trolley bus, which seem to be prolific in urban areas of Florida, to the city’s beach area called St Pete Beach. Although the trolley bus was very aesthetically pleasing, the seats were solid wood and incredibly bum-numbing for the hour-long journey there. After a quick
visit to the very busy beach, being a Sunday, I stopped into a classic air-conditioned local diner, “The Waffle House”, for a late lunch of hash browns with cheese, onions and mushrooms. Heading back into St Petersburg proper, a city which is renowned for its museums, I had time to visit one. I skipped over its most famous “Salvador Dali Museum”, not being a great fan of the man or his paintings myself, and headed to the very educational and sobering “Florida Holocaust Museum”. It’s quite an unusual place to have such a museum, but it turns out a number of Holocaust survivors ended up living in the local area, including one who lent himself to creating a virtual interview experience with a survivor – you could ask him almost any question and he’d relate back a pre-recorded response. He must have recorded hours of such responses. It was a moving experience and felt very much like I was speaking with him directly.
After a lovely time in St Pete (as it’s known locally) and around, I headed for the last ferry of the day back to Tampa again. It was here that the awesome feeling I often get
when I start travelling hit me, I nearly cried. I was at the front of the fast ferry looking down at the sea and waves rushing underneath below me, Titanic-film style, when a slightly funkier remix of Miami Vice’s Crockett’s Theme came up on my MP3 player. With the tropical skyline of Tampa in the distance surrounded by palm trees and the waters of Tampa Bay, it was highly atmospheric, magical and very moving – I was travelling again! In Florida!!
My second day was also awesome, with a bit of public transport issues that were fortunately not insurmountable. I took a first bus to Tampa’s Transit Centre, then another towards a suburb called Brandon where I got off with a bit of time to spare for my final bus switch, enjoying a burger brunch at the “Shake Shack” – I think one of my favourite thing about travelling in the States is partaking of the almost infinite variety of fast food options, with often the most delicious chips anywhere I have ever tasted! I then took a final bus south to a place called the Manatee Viewing Centre.
It has become very common now for 60% of
Florida’s manatees to spend the cooler winter months hanging around the state’s power stations, as they pump warmer (still clean) water out into the sea, rather than their traditional warm spring locations. Thus, there at the Tampa Electric Company, a massive industrial factory with chimneys billowing steam, they have created a free tourist facility where you are able to glimpse these fantastic creatures in the wild, as they keep warm by the power plant’s warm waters. It was an unusual site to juxtaposition a coal-fired power plant with a nature reserve. Unfortunately on that day though, the weather was rather warmer than usual, so apparently the manatees were out feeding in the Tampa Bay area during my visit. But it was still a lovely place to visit anyway, with boardwalks through mangrove trees, swampland and grassy reed beds, an Observation Tower with fine views, and even a sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation centre. I also bought my first of five plush toys there, which became a bit of a thing for my souvenir-collecting on this trip, a little manatee! Unfortunately this now makes two unsuccessful attempts for me to see manatees in the wild, after a similarly unsuccessful time in
the New River of Belize’s Orange Walk town in 2016.
But here come the public transport issues, which I have come to expect now in America when not renting a car. The Manatee Viewing Centre was actually a bit of a trek to get to along a grass verge to the side of a busy road from the bus stop at a busy highway intersection a mile away. With cloud cover and windy conditions going there it was manageable, but on the way back it was hot, sunny and sweltering though – I used my umbrella to shield me from the hot afternoon sun. The walk also went through some pretty nasty grass which left grassy spikes stuck all over my shoes and socks which were not much of a joy to pick off both there and back. Finally, the pedestrian crossing was not working across the busy three-lane highway due to roadworks, so returning to Tampa I had to negotiate the busy traffic junction without any helpful green or red men. There was also no visible bus stop for the trip back either, so I asked a very friendly Indian gentleman at the local petrol station, who happened
to live in London in the 1980s, who told me the bus stops just outside the garden centre nextdoor. This was also confirmed on my Google Maps’ public transport setting, despite there being no actual bus stop or sign there.
I waited there in the blazing hot sun, umbrella up, for an interminable ten minutes for the next hourly bus to come. When it came, and despite my signalling, it wasn’t going to stop. I was certainly not going to wait in the heat another hour for the next bus only to have it try to whizz past me again, so I literally walked out into the road in front of it so it had to stop. The bus driver tried to drive around me, and I automatically did a “Tank Man” manoeuvre to stop him driving off again, pointing to the doors. He opened them at last and I got on, telling him there was a bus stop there. He was in no way bothered about it, and I paid my fare and sat down. Really!
The bus took me to Tampa’s Westfield Shopping Centre in the suburb of Brandon, where I enjoyed more American fast food
in the form of a delicious Philly Cheese Steak in its food court. I then took another bus to Tampa’s famous Ybor City. This area of town is home to Cuban immigrants who sought shelter and settled there since the Cuban Revolution of 1959, but has recently developed into quite a touristy place. It is also home to Tampa’s cigar industry, with many shops dedicated to this produce, as well as a sizeable number of roosters strutting their stuff on the street. Street roosters actually came to be a theme not only there, but also in Key West, Little Havana in Miami, and even in Miami Downtown itself. They love their roosters wandering the streets down there - mornings must be nice...! It was a pleasant place to wander around in the afternoon, although I imagine it must really take off at night due to the many drinking establishments around. After an enjoyable walk around, I took a refurbished street car similar to the one back in St Pete, and also with wooden seats, back into Tampa’s Downtown again, where I got a normal bus back to my accommodation once more. I also enjoyed a nice chat with a friendly
local at the bus stop in town, called Herb – great name, and great guy!
This brought my time in Tampa, and my very pleasant start to my Florida trip, to a close – the next day I was heading inland a bit, away from what I learned was “Old Florida” and into the heart of the state’s booming tourist industry – Orlando! More on that in my next one.
So until then, thanks for reading, and all the best for now!
Alex
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Brendan Vermillion
Airport Woes
My blood pressure went up just reading about the line at the airport. Like you, I always arrive well before I need to at the airport, and for just that reason. Fortunately , Dave and Merry Jo do as well, which is a reason we travel so well together. I am so glad you are warm, enjoying our fast food and hate that you had to Tank Man a bus. Can't wait to read the next installment.