Stuck in Florida

I know it’s been almost a week since I wrote. We spent Thursday and Friday nights in Coral Gables and here’s what I had written on that:

After two nights at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables we’re finally back on the road again. It turns out jazz festival is going on in New Orleans so we picked a good time to go. Leg two of out trip has officially begun and I can’t say I’m sorry to leave hot HOT Miami.

We did get to see beautiful Daphne and awesome Rony for brunch and we’re on our way to meet with Ryan who’s a good friend of six. We also got to hang out with Jake’s family so it was a well-worth two day stop.

On the way to Ryan’s we got off the highway to get gas and some guy rearended us. Which meant that our brand new car was smashed and we had to wait here till Monday to find out what we were supposed to do with the insurance. On Monday we took the poor car to a shop and the guy said it would take a week to fix it so we’ve been stuck in Lantana, Florida for the last five days. Lantana is in Palm Beach County which isn’t the worst place to get stuck but we’re both so bummed about the car that it wouldn’t matter where we were.

After giving our car to the shop and renting another one, we decided we might as well have some fun. We went to see the Lion Safari and watched both X2 and Bend It Like Beckham which were both really good. Though I would completely have prefered not to have crashed the car and to be in New Orleans now. Major bummer.

More updates will come as soon as we’re back on the road by Friday, if all goes well.

MA-FL – Day Five

My friend Ashlie was staying at the Ritz Carlton so we ended up going from camping it to the Ritz, quite a change! After a delightful night of chatting, showering and charging up all our electronics. We awoke fresh and recharged. We ate from the delicious buffet, hugged her goodbye and we’re on the way to the Everglades and then to Miami.

As soon as I opened the AAA tourbook for Florida, I realized that our everglades plan was badly made. We drove around for 45 minutes, saw some really neat grasshoppers, and then scrapped the plan and went right through the scenic route 41 to Shark Alley and walked around. We saw alligators, turtles, gar fish, a cormorant and a snake. It was indescribibly beautiful.

We are now back on the way to Coral Gables, at this point less than 30 miles away. After last night’s fancy hotel today’s famous Biltmore might not even look that fancy.

We’re officially in Miami now which makes this leg of the trip over. The next leg is Florida to New Orleans starting Saturday morning.

Gas: $9.32@1.61
Miles on the car: 2144
Breaks: 1
Valet: $7.00
Toll: $1.50
Camping: 0!
States: FL
Sites: Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park, Coral Gables