The Sunshine State. And alligators.

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Firstly, an apology. There aren’t any photos attached to this blog, as regardless of how much a world traveller I become, regardless of the life experience that attaches itself to me, I am still quintessentially ‘Erin’. I did take my camera to Florida, had it with me almost everyday, but didn’t take a single photo. I couldn’t find me battery charger, so wanted to conserve it as much as possible. And when it was perfect photo moments, I was too absorbed to remember to actually take any. I will get better, I promise.

Though I think the trip was somewhat jinxed, if my flight patterns are anything to go by. My flight leaving was ridiculously early, so I ended up being dropped off at the airport at midnight, and found a vaguely comfortable seat to curl up in until 4.30am. Two other girls were in the same area and staying, so we got chatting and huddled together for warmth, taking it in turns to be lookout for scary people. I managed to get some sleep, and also wake up in time to check in. My connecting flight from Newark to Fort Myers was delayed, so I ended up being either in airports or on planes for a full 24 hours. I could have got to Australia quicker! A few beers and some pizza sitting outside by the pool made me feel a lot happier though.

Coming back, my first flight back to Newark got cancelled, leaving me sitting there for five hours whilst they faffed around trying to get things organised. I got an extra night in Florida, which was good, but a huge waste of a day. I was feeling stressed anyway, as Joe was waiting about ten foot away, but I couldn’t get out to see him and apologise without losing my place in the queue, and I wasn’t sure I could even re-enter Departures. And instead of just sending us home immediately, Continental gave us the bad news in stages - which just dragged it out. The children who started screaming and crying when their dad said they’d have to wait another day to see their mum didn’t help either. And the women behind the desk who just kept phoning up for coffee for themselves, drawling at people to just ‘take it easy, honey’ were neither making people’s lives easier nor less stressful. Though I am glad they didn’t try and take off without the de-icer, I have too active an imagination for that! To top it all, my final flight back to Europe from New York was a 6 hour and 20 minute roller coaster. We didn’t even get any water, the air stewards also had to stay strapped in for the whole time. So that was fun, as I assessed my little life so far, bucketing through the clouds. We did land safely, everyone’s face streaked with tears. I see it as a sign. Of what exactly, I’m not sure. I’m sure it’ll all become apparent in time.

Anyway, back to my actual time in America. It was really good fun. We went to the Everglades and took an airboat through the mangroves. Felt kind of like the Crocodile Hunter, except there was no jumping off the boat to give the alligators a good old hug. It was just beautiful, none of the swampiness and mosquito-ness you find in Queensland, Australia. The driver was a bit nuts, totally showing off his airboat skills with the 180 turns. The other two on the boat were from London, and left with not even an acknowledging tip to the captain. It’s embarrassing being English sometimes, I felt really quite responsible.

We also went to the beach, and I tried to learn to bodysurf. I’m not quite the type, apparently. There also may have been a few too many Coronas involved. Plus the chance of being munched on by big, ugly sharks kind of put me off balance. That’s my excuse, anyway.

Apart from that there was a lot of hanging out by the pool, a lot of eating, a lot of talking, and a lot of drinking beer and margaritas. It’s such an outdoorsy place, lots of cookouts and people just living their lives outside. Mostly eating. It’s great. I did go to the gym a couple of times, and am super-motivated now. I have a weekly schedule and all. Just have to actually do it now.

Florida’s a funny place. I was on my own for a few mornings when everyone else was at work, and while it’s nice to walk around the ultra-manicured estates, there’s nowhere really to walk to. I did hike to the 7-11 one morning, and got beeped at about twenty times as I mooched along the side of the highway. So I decided not to do that again, and stocked up on sufficient quantities of saltine crackers to do me for the week. So, lovely quiet meanders through the golf courses and along the shores of man-made lakes, with the occasional distraction in the form of a Golden Girl with a fluffy, boneless shih-tzu puffing in the heat (one very special one was called Molly, her owner invited me back for lemonade, but I was wary of the famous “little old lady scalps victims to make teacosy” stories). But, if you drive for half an hour outside of these idyllic developments, that sometimes look like crop circles made of houses from the air, you get into real Hicksville. Dusty trailer parks full of big rusty trucks, complete with married cousins in the back looking at you along the barrel of their shotguns. We stopped for some amazing Cuban food at a little café, fresh snapper and tuna and amazing spicy dip. And I couldn’t understand a word anyone said. Apparently it was Spanglish. But if you don’t understand, you probably don’t belong there!

My Saturday flight being postponed to Sunday had one major silver lining. Joe got tickets to go to an American football game that evening. Though, be warned, it isn’t real American football, it’s arena American football. Which is more bonkers, if that’s possible. It was so much fun - it really is entertainment for everyone. Sport, pretzels, beer, cheerleaders, singing and shouting, music, and even a mini-blimp dropping envelopes of cubic zircona into the crowd. And people don’t follow their teams around, so all spectators are for the home team. Which makes for a very fair response to scoring, as you can imagine. And if the ref makes a decision the crowd doesn’t agree with, the song ‘Shut Up’ by the Black-Eyed Peas belts over the tannoy. One of the team is a 6 foot black guy, proper built, with dreads down to his waist nearly. He was called Britney. When your biceps are as big as his, you too can carry the name Britney with pride!

I eventually got to New York, only a day late. Emma and Neal picked me up in their funky wheels, and we went for lunch. More eating, more talking. Little bit of shopping. We went to Nobu for dinner that night, which was really unexpected, there’s a month waiting list. The food was amazing, absolutely wonderful. My mouth’s watering just thinking about it again. No more travelling for, oh, nearly four weeks now…

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Comments

[Kieran]

Nani
Hey Erin, good to read up on you again, but what are you doing in America and for how long? Drop me a line :) K.