Dixieland

Trip to Florida - 22nd Dec - 26th Dec 2010

Dixie, Dixieland – (from the Mason-Dixon Line of latitude, the northern limit of legal slavery). The eleven Southern states that seceded and fought against the USA in the American Civil War: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia; still used affectionately by Southerners. Now you know why I chose this sobriquet for Florida.

It was time to gather the Yellowstone trip gang again, this time to Florida. December is the best time to visit Florida, since it is the dry season and mosquitos are minimum (yes, not non-existent). I missed the last trip to Florida (the gang comprised of Ashok, George, Priya and Sreshta then, in 2008), since I headed to the Big Apple. This time, I wanted to make it. Ashok did not accompany us this time. And so here we are (George, Issac, Satya and I), our trip all planned out (almost, actually) and in Miami on 22nd night. Here is a gist of our itinerary-

23rd - Biscayne National Park

24th - Big Cypress National Preserve

25th - Everglades National Park

26th - Everglades National Park + Keys

The above is a very good summary of what we essentially did, and what I am describing below are my own recollections, including somethings which did not go according to plan. I had borrowed Somenath's camera, a Canon Powershot SX10 IS, which had remarkable zoom, (so called 20x zoom and 4x digital), which essentially meant zoom from 28- 550mm and the crop factor is not applicable here (it is valid only for DSLRs). http://www.dpreview.com/news/0809/08091703canon_sx1is_sx10is.asp and http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/cameraDetail.php?cam=1277. Armed with a great compact camera, binoculars, Sibley's bird book (Audobon's bird book would be a addition later on), I hoped to capture quite a bit of wildlife on camera and binoculars.

So here I was, at Miami Intl airpot, on 22nd night, having claimed my baggage (boy, it costs to check in 1 baggage these days, ie 25$) was waiting to secure an airport shuttle to the car rental center. It turned out that all the car rental offices were grouped in the same building, and the shuttle basically drove us there from the terminal to there. I had booked the car with EZ car rental. Things were smooth, met the trio in front of the car rental office. As it turned out, 565$ was the base cost, and the insurance was not included. So with basic insurance (no insurance for people or third party) it came to 700$. Well, there was but little choice to go for it. I had also printed out maps among all planned destinations. So I pulled out my first map from Airport to South Beach Hostel, Miami beach. As it turned out, I printed the instructions from the airport, and not from the car rental centre. So here we were, doomed to follow either the GPS that I possessed or the GPS on Issac's phone. We also had a local map from the car rental place, where the guy showed us how to drive out of the area and head east towards Miami beach. But the trio had other plans. They wanted to go to Walmart to buy supplies. Tired as I was from the journey, I basically wasn't prepared to think too much, and just tried to follow directions as Issac was giving me. Now he is a pretty cool guy, and he tells you 'you can do this, or you can do that'....and is not really bothered about keeping up with any 'plans' as such. Well, when he sat in the front, he tried to give me directions, but his phone was being a bit slow and soon we found ourselves proceeding in the opposite direction (west) we were supposed to be on. And by then, I was against the idea of going to Walmart and so said that I would rather go to the hostel than search for directions to Walmart at that moment. Being the only driver, I had quite a bit of leverage, and they had to consent. We turned around, and headed towards the east and finally reached the hostel. We then found a CVS pharmacy nearby which had quite a number of things we needed, for instance, bread, jam, cookies (note: I voted for Macadamia nut, and Issac voted for chocolate chip and at the moment, ended up buying the latter), cutlery etc...was I glad that we did not have to go to Walmart the next day morning. Having had a light dinner of 1/4 pizza and a spot of dessert, I hit the bed, since we had planned to catch the sunrise on Miami beach the next morning at about 7am and needed to pack up and head out by 6.30am.

23rd- We made it to the beach, it was only a couple of blocks away. And what a beauty! I think the shot with the sailing boat silhoutted in front of the sun was a good stroke of luck. We saw quite a number of sea gulls, in particular the Black-tailed gull, and maybe a couple more. Having taken in the sunrise to the fullest, we left the beach around 7.30 towards Biscayne National Park HQ (Convoy point). I grabbed a couple of sandwiches and suggested that the rest eat on the way, since we had atleast an hour's drive anyway (and there was a unanimous nod). I pulled out my second printed map from South Beach hostel to HQ and hoped that we would not have to take any detours. Satya decided to sit in the front this time, and for the most part, he navigated pretty well. The journey was surprisingly smooth, and we actually reached there around 0850! well, 10 minutes ahead of schedule! That has not quite happened in my life so far. Giving myself a pat on my back, we proceeded to enquire about the reef cruise we had booked (starting at 1000). We could rent wet suits for 10$ or so. Issac, Satya and I rented suits, and George decided to stay behind and therefore, take care of our stuff on the boat. Biscayne NP is the largest marine park and fully underwater park in the US, with mangroves shorelines, a shallow bay and living coral reefs. Well, the current agenda of the reef cruise was to target the coral reefs. We practised putting on the snorkels and the masks beforehand, and I practise breathing solely through the snorkel for a few minutes. It seemed alright, till I actually got into the water. The first few seconds were panicky and I did manage to swallow some sea water (yuck, how salty it is) before I got control of my snorkel and relaxed enough to breathe normally through my snorkel, constantly reminding myself to NOT open my mouth however awestruck I may be while looking around in the sea. The boat had been parked in an area with deeper sea floor and we had to wade through the water to get to the reef area. Once you get over the inital fear of going away from the boat, you forget any sense of what time is like. Each coral, each brain finger or staghorn coral, is actually a colony of thousands of tiny, soft bodied animals. These animals called polyps, are relatives of the sea anenome and jellyfish. Rarely seen in the day, the polyps emerge from their hard stony skeletons at night. It is then that they feed, catching drifting plankton in their outstretched tentacles. Corals tend to grow in shallow waters, maybe in a depth of about 10ft or so...this was an advantage as far as viewing is concerned. I definitely did not want to dive, and did not how to, anyway. So closer it is to the surface, the better. Among the magical stuff that I saw, there were not only the corals themselves, but also the fish! Here is an excerpt from the NPS website, that summarises the reefs part -

"Corals aren't the only reef dwellers though. Sea whips, sea fans, and other soft corals sway back and forth in the current, giving the whole reef the appearance of movement. Bright sponges feed by filtering small plants and animals from seawater. Christmas tree worms burrow directly into the stony coral skeletons, adding tufts of red, orange, and purple to the grooved surface of brain corals. Algae and other plants growing in and around the reef provide an important food source for fish, shrimp, crabs, and a myriad of other animals. For most people though, it is the fish that give reefs their magical qualities. "

I could swear that I counted atleast 15 different kinds of fish, obviously I could not identify them at that point, but I was just awe-struck by their grace, beauty and effortless lives in water. And the diversity in their shapes, sizes, colours and movements! Before I describe anything else, Satya spotted a nurse shark, and he had the fright of his life. He in fact was in a fit that the diver did not mention the possibility of seeing sharks in the waters. On the other hand, when Issac saw the shark, he did not know that it was a shark, and actually started following it! Well, I am sure how I would have reacted with a predator species in front of me. Apparently nurse sharks are harmless and they do not care about humans. Good for Satya (and to some extent, Issac)! I took about 15 minutes or so to get used to the water, and later on when I did reach the coral reefs area, the next 15-20minutes felt as though time suspended itself for me to just float and watch this fragile ecosystem going about its daily life. Some of the fish(images of which I searched online) include the Barracuda, blue tangfish, angelfish, atlantic needlefish, rudderfish etc..(there are 512 species listed in the NPS website- http://www.nps.gov/bisc/naturescience/fish.htm and I am better off listing a few that I speculate to be the ones I saw). Anyhow, that being said, the 1 hour in water turned out to be more fruitful than I expected. On hearing the hoot of the boat, we returned to the deck. I was a little cold and a bit shaky from all the drama in the water. I was also thirsty, and little did I realise how dry my throat had become from the ingestion of salt water and breathing through the mouth. We got back to the docking area around noon. Well, having successfully carried out the first part of our agenda for the day (I had not even expected to reach there on time, hence expected to take the tour in the afternoon), we had the afternoon to ourselves. Close to the parking lot, we saw quite a number of birds- Turkey Vulture, shiny cowbird, Red-winged blackbird, House sparrow and some more which I have forgotten at the moment. We decided to canoe, since we had an upcoming canoe trip on the morning of 25th and needed some practice anyway. As fate would have it, George decided to take his camera, I did not, and instead took binoculars and Sibley's in Issac's bag along with our waterproof cameras. Misfortune set upon us, and thanks to our lack of experience of canoeing and the existing staff personnel's ignorance on general techniques itself, we were not seated correctly. This, coupled with an angular push into the water by that personnel tipped the canoe into the shallow water. Luckily enough, we could immediately stand up, and the first thing I did was to pull out George's camera bag out of the water. I was sure that George could manage standing up and walking out of the water. This turned out to be not quick enough, and soon we discovered that the lens and the body had imbibed a bit of water. The camera bag and other items, including George's cell phone were completely wet. A dim moment, it was. We decided to dry the equipment as much as we can in the trunk of the car. That signaled the end of any canoe ventures, and had decided that 25th morning canoe trip was pretty much out of bounds for our capabilities at present. Sigh. So much for our adventure spirit. We did have another option for the afternoon, which was to peddle. We took out a 4-person peddling boat and this time, wisely enough, just took the binocs and Sibley's. Satya took his pocket-camera though. It was a very good afternoon after that, and we spotted quite a number of birds (of which I have no pictures, again because this time I intentionally did not take my camera) - Little Blue Heron, American White Pelican, Brown Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Cormorant, Great Egret, White Ibis, Laughing Gull, Mourning Dove..for a few. It was about 3.45pm when we returned to the dock area. Having had an eventful (ahem..) day and with some more time on our hands for the evening, we decided to go to Walmart to get some supplies for the next couple of days (since we would be camping etc). This was Super-Walmart and what a place. Never go to one, if you can help it. I just got completely lost in it. It was around 6.45ish when we were back on the road to South Beach Hostel for the night. That night we went to the "China Grill", a 'global' cuisine restaurant, which means that the menu though supposedly chinese, has mix-match of cuisines from around the world. For instance, there were Sushis, Madras curry(err..) ! Anyhow, I went for the only veg entree on that menu, a Chopsuey dish. I did order the vegetarian sushi and discovered that it was definitely not one of my favourites (that is putting it mildly...I tasted one, and gave the rest to my companions..:)) The chopsuey was alright for the moment. We returned to hostel, and decided to do laundry. As it turned out, there was only one functional dryer, and two washers. So Issac, George and I decided to play cards. We started off with George's usual, "O what the heck" game (a bidding game), one which we (Ashok, George and I) also played at Salt Lake city airport on our last trip to Yellowstone Lake. I had forgotten most of the rules, but I caught on soon. Issac left me and George far behind (I mean really far behind, by being ahead with points with George and I put together)..and it was left to be seen as to how close George and I were to each other with every 'trick'. We had a great time, with George and I admiring Issac's confidence with every bidding. Soon we had finished two rounds ( I managed to stay a little ahead of George), and then decided to play in the laundry room itself, so that we could keep track of when the last person's dryer would get done. There, we decided to play Uno, a game I suggested. It was much less brain work, which was better, since I was getting tired. This went on for another hour or so, till about 2.30am...when I called quits and went to bed. Issac and George stayed up till about 3.30 till the dryer got done. I was worried about my sobriety next day and wanted to have my 6-7 hours of sleep..that meant missing the sunrise next day at Miami Beach. Well, this or that. I slept peacefully till about 8am or so.

24th- Getting up at 8am in a public hostel is not the best plan. The bathrooms were full, a bit messy and I had to go to the second floor to have my bath. I had to have a head bath to get rid of the salt water and make it less 'wild'. This took time, and by the time I was ready, it was 9.45. We had complimentary breakfast in the hostel, and after adding some time to the parking meter till about 10.30 or so, we had our breakfast, packed our stuff and headed out to Big Cypress (BC) National Preserve, Oasis Visitor Center. BC is located in Southwest Florida between Miami and Naples. US 41 (Tamiami trail ) is the main road that traverses the site. By now, I knew some of the main expressways in Miami, including 836 E, W, 95 N, US 1 (also called S Dixie Hwy) , Florida A1A (also called MacArthur Causeway. which continued as 5th st on the east side, and 395W, 836W on the west side and was part of bridge connecting the mainland and Miami Beach area) and as long as I stuck to a middle lane, I could easily switch to the right or left lane, depending on where the exit appeared. Dolphin expressway looks intimidating on the map, but when you are on it, if you follow directions, it is true to the word, and I enjoyed driving on it. It was only about 60mile drive and we reached the center area at around 11.30 am or so. We decided to go the campground straightaway, since we could set up the tent and then go around. Midway and Monument Lake (ML) were both FCFS, and Midway came first. Since we were not sure about existence of a lake in the Midway area, we drove further to ML. Supposedly, there was supposed to be a campfire program that evening. So we headed to ML. Once we set up our tent around noon, we decided to do the Turner river loop (about 17mi) that afternoon. The drive starts at H. P Williams Roadside park. This is a boardwalk area, and we saw plenty of wildlife here itself- Alligators, turtles, fish and wading birds (Little Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Limpkin, Green Heron, Anhingas, Cormorants, white Ibis) and Black Vultures, Turkey vultures . The sharp beak of the Anhinga contrasts with the hooked beak of the double-crested cormorant, otherwise in many ways they look alike. The Anhinga is also called the 'snake bird' because it swims with only the head and neck visible like a water snake. Apparently both perch with their wings spread. Apparently this posture allows a combination of wind and sun to dry their wings and removes water parasites. As we drove on, we saw ourselves stopping every few hundred feet to spot more birds. These included more egrets, the black-crowned night heron, wood stork, American bittern (of which I do not have a pic), belted kingfisher, Osprey (yes!), American Coot, Common Moorhen and more vultures. There were also many field birds, but we (mostly George and I) have little experience with flight patterns or sharp eye for identifying features of small birds, and so we had to be content with looking and identifying bigger birds that time. Soon it was around 5ish when we were close to completing the loop. We also decided to do the Kirby boardwalk, since it is a very short one, about 1/2 a mile or so. It was close to dark and I could capture sunset in the parking lot area of the boardwalk. We took one flashlight and starting walking. Towards the end, I spotted an owl perching on the edge of the boardwalk. It was a barred owl, and did we feel lucky! I had not seen an owl that upclose, and it felt good. I wish I could have heard it hoot, though. :) . There was another large wading bird in the water, but being dark as it was, could not make out what it was, looked like an Egret, maybe. It was about 6.30ish by the time we got done, and decided to head back to ML, in time for the campfire program, supposedly at 7.30pm. As it turned out, the ranger at ML told us that it was to be held at Midway that evening, but when we drove out there, we did not see anything indicative of a campfire program, leave alone a campfire, or any arrangements remotely pointing to it. Well, so much for the research online. We headed back to ML. That night, George and I had a good chance to experiment our star-gazing skills. I searched quite a bit for my star map, but no luck. But I still had my compass and the astronomy handbook. After changing spots a couple of times, we consented to sit on a picnic table close to the entrance, where there seemed to be less trees and more open space. Clearly, our sense of direction was not still right, and we were not seeing stars in the expected positions. We had confusions about the horizon on the map, and as to the directions pointed by the stars. Added to this, the moon was coming up on the east, and brightly. It was creating enough light pollution that we could not make out the usual stars to a lesser extent and so decided to call it a night after that (also there was some rustling in the bushes behind us, that spooked me out first, the reaction which I passed on to George and also spooked him out). We would try again next night, at Flamingo campground.

25th- I slept fitfully, thanks to the opening on one end of my sleeping bag and my feet being constantly cold. I did get up finally in the morning before sunrise. Satya awoke with me and we decided to go and capture the sunrise (I also wanted to do some birding). I only took my camera and no binocs or bird book. Over the lake, it was a very beautiful sunrise and I tried to capture the 'mist' over the lake with my camera. The birds were all coming out now, and were they active!! They hardly sat for a couple of seconds. Capturing them was no easy task, and pretty soon, I was zooming in and out without many clear shots. Among some of the birds that Satya and I managed to observe together were- Broad-winged hawk, Northern Mockingbird, Red-bellied woodpecker, Killdeer and many smaller ones. We returned to the campsite, and after freshening up a bit, I went for a second round of birding with George, this time he carried the binocs and Sibley's. Now the birds seemed to be more 'stable' and perched longer than just a few seconds. That enabled me to take some pics of the above mentioned birds and also others, like Gray Catbird, Eastern Phoebe, Yellow-rumped warbler, perhaps orange-crowned warbler, northern mockingbird and some others which I have not been able to identify yet. Anyhow, having spent the better part of the hour on birding, we returned to the campsite, packed up everything and started to Everglades National Park (which is south of BC). Our initial plan had been to go to Gulf Coast Visitor center from where we had planned to take the Ranger-led canoe trip. Now that our canoeing dreams were destroyed, we decided it would be better to proceed towards the direction of the campground for that night, which was Flamingo campground.

Shark Valley (SV) visitor center was on the way and we decided to stop here for a while and then just proceed to Flamingo. Apart from waiting at the entrance of SV (because the entrance booth ran out of printing paper...haha) we got there in time for a tram tour around the valley. The tram tour is 15miles long and it was to last about 1hr 45 min. The tour turned out to be better than we thought. We spotted alligators (all along), cormorants, great egret, pied-billed grebe, wood stork, roseate spoonbill, little blue heron, great blue heron, green heron, purple gallinule ( did not take a picture of this till we reached the Anhinga trail), common moorhen, turtles, male and female anhingas, glossy ibis and black vultures..We got done at about 3pm or so, when we decided to go to the Anhinga and Gumbo-limbo trail (if possible) near the Royal Palm visitor center in Everglades. The Anhinga trail is only 1/2 mile, but it is rich with wildlife. There we spotted Anhingas(ofcourse.....I had grown tired of it by now..its like watching crows in chennai), black vultures, purple gallinule, alligators, all the herons, egrets, wood stork, possibly grackle, american crow...I am not sure if I have a complete list...there were other small field birds which we obviously saw, but could not identify. It was almost dusk by the time we got done with the Anhinga trail, nevertheless, we decided to walk a bit on the Gumbo-limbo trail. It is much more wooded and longer. It grew dark quickly and we could hear some bird calls, but did not stick around for too long, since mosquitos also started making their appearance. We drove over to Flamingo campground, which was 38 miles south of Royal Palm visitor center. It is a much more 'posh' ground, with shower facitilites and some electrical outlets in the bathrooms. I took a good shower and had some lentil soup for dinner(cold). The tent was up and ready. It was around 8pm and George and I decided to give star-gazing another shot, this time following our theory of 'local directions', which is that since we were having our maps down, the directions were all opposite and we went by what is called 'local directions'. The Milky way was visible, for starters. For the next 1 1/2 hours or so, we made quite a bit of progress, and identified, starting with Orion and Cassiopeia by George and then onto Perseus, Camelopardus,Andromeda, Pegasus, Ursa Minor, Ursa Major in the vicinity of Cassiopeia and Taurus, Gemini, Canis Minor, Canis Major and Monoceros. This was quite a bit of achievement, considering how confused we were the previous night. I strongly felt like we had done our 'school homework' properly and all said and done, the feeling of wanting to go out and play surfaced and we had a good laugh about that. :). George then decided to take a shower and I decided to curl up with Sibley's and Audobon book to recall some of the birds that morning and make notes of some features to watch out for next time. George did some more star gazing after he took his shower, but now the moon had started coming out, and he was soon losing the clear skies. We had also stopped gazing earlier because of a big sheet of clouds moving across the sky. Well, not too long after, George joined us in the tent, and went to sleep.

26th- About 4am or so, Satya woke us up. It was very windy and raining outside. Water was seeping in between the fly and the tent thanks to the wind, and was dripping at the center. Issac and I were at the center and George and Satya were towards the ends. The corners of the tent had started accumalating water and judging by the ferocity of the wind, we decided to be ready to run in case one of the clamps holding a corner gave away. I packed all the papers into George's bag and kept only the flashlight with me. After a few minutes, 'bang'...it was the tripod head (Satya's I think) that rolled over and hit my head...that's it. One of the clamps indeed had given away, and it was time to get out, fold up the tent and run to the restroom area for shelter. We put our sleeping bags in the car, and rolled up the tent and the fly. For the next 1.5 hours or so, we were standing in front of the restrooms trying to play '20 questions' posed by the rest to guess a movie thought by one of us. I decided to go first, and thought of 'Twister'...well..it is not my fault if I thought the movie was made after 2000? I remember seeing it in theatre during college..which is after 2000...hmm..Issac was pretty mad about that. (It was made in 1996) So finally they did not get it....(heheh)...and then you know, the usual nitpicking started...saying..you misled us...etc..etc..thankfully it was nearly daylight by then.The rain had stopped and it was just slightly windy. We felt that most of the water that came through the tent might have been from the water dripping from the leaves, since we had set up the tent under a tree. We decided to walk to the shore or the bay area where we can capture sunrise by the water. On the way, we saw some birds- Ibis, brown night heron (I do not have a picture of this, since my camera batteries had run out and I had to wait till we got to some visitor center), vultures, a flamingo (I am almost sure of this, since I saw the very long neck, and sharp beak as opposed to the spoonbill)....sunrise was gorgeous. It was around 7.30am already and we decided to pack up and leave soon to catch the boat tour from Flamingo Visitor center. There were 2 boat tours, one was a backcountry cruise in the bay area among the mangroves, whereas the other was on the open sea. I chose the former, since we did not canoe the previous day and hadn't seen much of the mangroves at all.

No regrets on choosing the backcountry cruise. I had still not seen any manatees and hoped to see atleast one that day. Luck was not to be on my side. The naturalists on board were most informative, telling us quite a bit about the vegetation around us. They pointed out 3 types of mangroves (one of them being 'walking' type possessing 'prop' roots that aid in this), an invading species (forgot its name) and the Manchineel tree, one of the most toxic tree. It is said that if you sleep under the tree and it rains, you will be bathed in battery acid, and ingestion is fatal. Well, not a good way to die, eh? Here we spotted some of the birds we already saw- yellow-crowned night heron, blue heron, american coots....as we entered white water bay, coots were present by the thousands! Oh my. There were in all directions. I must admit it was rather amusing to see them bob up and down with the waves and some of them smashing into the rising or falling waves rather clumsily. We then entered an area where migrating manatees come year after year traveling hundreds(?) of miles. The captain on board said that we humans often lose our way in the bay area but the manatees never fail in their sense of navigation. Something to learn. We came across dead mangrove trunks that were almost 300 years(?) old...and also make out the difference in the level of water between the dry and wet season. The captain also mentioned the devastating effects of hurricane 'Wilma' in year 2006 (?) and how the ecosystem was under threat ever since. It was about a hour and half cruise. The captain mentioned that manatees are shy of the boat motors and stay away from them, else it is common to see them near the docks. We returned around noon. We were yet to visit the keys. Driving all the way down to Key west would take us about 4 hours and more time would be needed to get back to South Beach hostel. It was going to be a long drive. We decided to drive to the nearest key, Key Largo and then decide from there. But as we drove down US 1S, it was nearly 2.30pm and I was getting tired. We decided to stop at Curry Hammock State Park where there would be beaches and can capture the last sunset of the trip. An important difference between the seas we had seen so far and the one on either side of US1 S was the colour...my god...this sea had absolutely stunning clear green colour seen nowhere else so far. And it stretched to miles and miles. I literally felt like we were driving up into the sky on some stretches when the flyover kept rising! And the wind...it was pretty strong and kept giving a strong sideways drag on the car. I was driving at about 55 mph, but we could easily feel the push on the car, as it swayed sideways. George and I took a short walk around the beach area and saw many birds here too- Pelicans out in the sea (diving and flying), Cormorants, Wilson's Plover, Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone, White Ibis, Little Blue Heron, Royal Tern and Egrets which were aplenty in the nearby mangrove areas. This was not unusual, apparently especially in estuary areas where confluence of mangrove and hardwood and sandy beach vegetation is common. We stayed on till sunset and then set back to the hostel. It took us about 2.5 hours non-stop. I was quite happy with myself, for making good time.

My last night on the trip, I wanted to make it to the Italian restaurant that the trio had eaten on the 22nd. As it turned out, being sunday night, it was crowded,and we had to wait about 1.5 hours till we were seated. But it was worth it. I actually enjoyed my spaghetti(it was quite flavourful) and also my red wine and quite a bit of hearty conversation ensued. It was nearly midnight by the time we got done, and I had a bad feeling about the next morning, since George and I were supposed to start at about 3.00am to get to the car rental on time and then for George to catch his flight at 6.00am. I had to get up at 2.30am...after essentially 1 hour of sleep...:(...I was not quite sober..but kept talking to George to keep myself awake. Anyhow, we reached the car rental quite easily, following directions on the highway and I felt proud of myself in keeping up with the directions. :). Finding the correct place to park became a bit of problem, and it was nearly 3.55 by the time we parked and got done to the EZ rental office. Phew. Just in time. George later made it to his flight alright and I to mine. I managed to sleep wherever I sat down (1 hour in the boarding area in Miami, on both the flights, and on the bus from Milwaukee to Madison). There I was, back in Madison after a good time in a warmer part of US, and enjoyed wearing sandals for 4 days (inspite of this, I managed to get my shoes thoroughly wet, when George left his and my shoes out in the open in the Flamingo campground and it rained in the night; shoes were not completely dry when I wore them in the airport.) Arios till next trip!