Westard bound and a homesick 'roo

He's back.  After our visit to southern Florida we headed north and our bouncing little mate caught up to us after his unfortunate encounter with Orlando's finest.  Understandably, he seems a little homesick for Australia.

We're on our way west and hope that our little roo perks up with a change of scenery.

The Everglades were really good, not somewhere originally included in our plans, but we're glad we spent some time there.  Of course we loved the balmy Florida weather.  Today we are in Louisiana, and we've been back in jeans and warmer clothes since Alabama.  There is a lot of swamp on the drive here.  Yeah, everyone knows that this is a wet area, but there is really some serious swamp.  It is a relief that it is not mosquito season... sometimes cooler weather can be a good thing.

Although we have missed the huge Mardi Gras celebration, we're all looking forward to trying some of the famous cajun/creole cooking in New Orleans, not that any of us are starving.  The other night Phil and Chris made some delicious wild pig ribs on the weber with Sweet Baby Ray's sauce.  Yum! 

Hmmm...looks like that 'roo wants to box, I've  got to find somewhere to hide again.

Miami Boat Show

Wow, what an enormous boat show.  We spent three days at the show and didn't even get over to the on the water power boat section or big boat area.  The trade display in and around the convention hall is seemingly endless, and of course our main interest was the on the water sail boat display.

The sail section is just full of fun things.  Really fun things.

There were talks by sailing authors too.  We met Jimmy Cornell and went to one of his cruising seminars.  Now we are off to buy our lottery tickets.

Florida, beyond Orlando

We departed Orlando and drove west to Tampa and St Petersburg, stopping along the way to camp at a few quiet parks.  We were able to tour the Catalina Yacht factory one day where they make a large selection of sail boats.  Great tour, it is so interesting to see how well these boats are constructed.

We spent an afternoon hiking at Honeymoon Island where there is a Bald Eagle nest and some armadillos, driftwood and a playground.  They keep trying to encourage the exercise thing with me, and I enjoyed the slides, I think gravity is in my favour.

Once again we admired the prices of alcohol here in the US and wonder why the American's aren't all alcoholics.  Check out the price of the rum!

Sorry, it looked clearer on my screen...the big 1.7 litre bottle is $19.99.

We caught up with Chris's cousin for a few days and one morning we got to go hunting for wild pigs.  The part where Phil and Chris eagerly arm themselves and go running around trying to shoot things always worries me.  Why aren't they content with buying the meat from a butcher or supermarket like other humans?

 Alas, there were no pigs to be seen on the day. Lucky for them.

Next we headed down to the Everglades on the way to the Miami Boat show.  There is water everywhere it seems, but not that you'd care to go for a swim.  There are plenty of aligators lurking around, and while they don't seem as aggressive as a salt water crocodile, none of us cared to test the theory.

 The wildlife isn't limited to gators, but there were more birds than I'd ever seen, plus lots of mosquitos and snakes. We met plenty of the mosquitos, but none of the snakes.

While Phil and Chris ran around chasing after wildlife in the swamp, I had time to do what I do best, contemplate life.

A conundrum

We are still enjoying ourselves in Florida.  We're about to head into the Everglades again after a few exciting days at the Miami boat show, and the blog is once again slightly behind.  Phil and Chris are always complaining to me about the blog being behind, and I've expressed my wishes for a smart phone.  We saw some great portable Wifi gadgets at the show, but they wouldn't get them for me either.

We have an observation to make.  One day walking through a shopping mall we were stopped by a fellow selling skin care products, and each jar started out at $59.00.  By the time we explained that we weren't interested and walked away a few times, the price for a set of 2 jars was $29.00.  Nice discounting.  Now why doesn't that seem to be the case with boats or RV's???!

Miami was really interesting, water everywhere, canals and boats and islands.  It is just great for water loving bears and people, and of course there are palm trees which are a welcome sight to those of us that shudder at the mere thought of snow and freezing temperatures.  We tried some of the Cuban food and enjoyed it, rarely do we find food that we don't like.

I will be back with more news when I can get my paws on some photos and if they don't feed me to the 'gators.

Orlando, Florida

We had a busy few days in Florida.  Phil and Chris had tickets to some of the Disney parks as well as to a Jimmy Buffett Concert.  I was in charge of trying to locate our bouncy little puffed up friend, but I didn't try too hard. 

The first park they visited was of course the Animal Kingdom.  I hoped they wouldn't come home with another pet for me to look after.

 This park is sort of an amusement park with animals, but really well done.  There is an African area complete with a safari adventure, up close with the animals.

 There is an Asian section that includes more animals such as this sleepy tiger that I readily identify with.

 Wonder if this guy likes wine as much as I do.  Perhaps he needs some.

There is a really fun roller coaster called Everest Exedition.  Not quite as cold and exhausting as the real Himalayas, but the artifacts and decorations around that section were very much like things in and around Kathmandu. 

EPCOT and The Magic Kingdom were the other two parks Phil and Chris visited. 

 There were fun rides and interesting things to see here also.

The good old Space Mountain...this roller coaster was here in the early '80s and still whizzes around in this big structure. 

 Disney wouldn't be Disney without Mickey.  Lots of them.

Finally, one more elephant photo just because you can't have too many photos of elephants.

Bad 'Roo

 I knew he'd tangle with someone less tolerant than me.  It was just a matter of time.

To tell you the truth, the little fellow was beginning to grow on me.  I hope we see him again.

Ships in Baltimore

I was still busy dodging and weaving around the RV with that crazy 'roo.  Bouncing and boxing, that is all he seems to know, what sort of charachter is this?

Phil and Chris went to see a few ships in the harbour.

 The USS Constellation

 A former Light Ship and the USS Torsk ( the sub)

A fleet of little dragon boats that can be hired to paddle around the harbor.

 Phil at the helm

 The crews quarters were far from luxurious, nor was there a lot of head room down there.

 The sick bay was the scariest part, with a diagram of how to do a simple amputation on display.  That seems to have been their most common "fix", and one can only imagine the horrible conditions down there in which it all happened.  Below is a bunk in the sick bay.

 The Torsk

 Cozy seems an understatement...

 The Sub is also open for visitors to spend as much time as we wanted to crawl around and fiddle with all the dials and things.  Winter is their quiet time so we had things to ourselves.

This sign just needed to be photographed. 

Can you think of anywhere you'd like to post a similar notice??!

This is my second time preparing this post, I totally lost the first one...where does it go???  I will stop here to avoid another mishap.

Baltimore B&O Rail Museum

Trains and planes...well, it was actually a day of trains and ships. We had a brief stop in Baltimore Maryland after leaving the wonderful hospitality of the Virginians. Perhaps we should have planned for more time in Baltimore because there was a lot to see, but we've saved a few sights for next time.

Phil and Chris went to see the museums. They are a little worried that I'll misbehave again, so I had to stay in the RV with the 'roo. All he ever wants to do is box and spar, and they won't let me have a pin.

 This museum has one of the largest collections of locomotives in the US.  They were nicely displayed and we had to rush a bit to try and see as much as possible as we only allowed half a day here.  You are all wondering why we have time constraints on our long holiday, right??

 Here is a small sample of the sorts of trains we saw in just on of the buildings.

 Outside there was a caboose, an appropriate place to stop our discussion of trains today.