InvictaMoto's Family Travels

The end of another holiday in the US. In the end the flight was only about 15 minutes late leaving Tampa and we made the usual headway over the Atlantic with strong tail winds and the estimated arrival time was about thirty minutes early and then before we got off the south of Ireland the turbulence increased and the plane bucked about quite a bit. For about two hours we had to sit through it and then we were ready to land. Unfortunately, a heavy storm had preceded us and when we landed we had nowhere to dock, and so we spent the best part of 45 minutes on the ground, waiting and crawling along. The tolerance for us was that the parking finished at 0916 and we'd have to pay another day.  By the time we got through passports, even with our chipped passports, time looked to be running out. We collected our bags and made it to the bus stop for the shuttle to the parking just about 0855.  The bus arrived a few minutes later and we made it in time not to get charged! ...

Had a little lie as we didn't have to check out until 11am and that would give us four hours at least to get 50 miles to Tampa International. In the end we were packed, had coffee and a yogurt and then loaded the car. Checking out in good time. The idea was go go north and find somewhere to sit and maybe read for a while then have lunch before filling the car and taking it back I dialled in St Pete's Beach. This took us over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. The way we had come down a fortnight ago. Sunshine Skyway Bridge Sunshine Skyway Bridge Again we stopped at the North rest area to take in the view. It all went a bit pear shaped after that as St Pete's Beach seems lined with hotels and apartments and no public car parking or beach access. We wasted ages before setting the TomTom for Clearwater where we know there is a Perkins for lunch and places to sit and read! Should have done that first!! Perkins. "Three Little Piggies" - scrambled egg wi...

Our last full day in Florida so we decided that after a day lost to the rain yesterday we needed to get out. I checked on Tripadvisor and found the Burroughs House in Fort Myers. It has RSVP tours and I guessed that might be you asked and they replied. I emailed the coordinator early. By the time we finished breakfast we'd not had a reply so we decided on the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota. The run up US41 was a bit busier than usual but not a problem. The gardens cost a curious $19 for adults. The gardens specialise in bromeliads and orchids feature highly. Sadly, today is the first day I didn't cover my exposed parts in Off! and within minutes the mozzies had found me. It got so bad we went to Publix and bought some more spray. Before we left the car park we had covered ourselves. It worked. We spent a few hours around the gardens looking at all the orchids and trees. The gardens have a pond full of koi carp. https://...

Today we planned to drive to Naples. In the end we stayed local as it was lashing down. When it rains here, so wisdom tells us, it doesn't last long and it soon dries up. Wrong. It's no accident that the drains are massive! It was raining before we got up and it lashed down until well into the afternoon. Naples off. As we sat in Starbuck's watching the rain and checking "things to do in Venice" on the fre wifi, we decided to have a rest day. There's no point driving about as their is not much else to do! Even though at times the wipers could barely cope with the rain, it was still 77F! Most of the "things to do" involve outdoors!! Out of the question. In the end we had a lazy day. Lunch was at Perkins!  Once it stopped raining and dried up the sun made an appearance, we had a walk up to Venice Beach shops and had an ice cream.  It's not far up W Venice Avenue but there are loads of interesting monuments along the m...

The days seem to be going quicker now as we are deep into week two of the trip. The other night we looked in the window of a local estate agents to look at prices. A decent sized villa, three beds, two baths and a pool.... £145000! Our house in Hythe is valued at about £200000 with no pool and adjoined to a neighbours! Anyway I digress.  After breakfast today we decided to go back to Sarasota and visit the Ringling Estate .  What used to be the circus wintering grounds now hosts a massive theatre and entertainment center, plus the art gallery that John and Mabel Ringling accumulated, plus their house on Sarasota Bayside. We lucked it as the art gallery was free today. but the house Ca' d'Zan  and the circus museum  weren't. We decided the large gardens and art museum for free outweighed the other two at $25 for each of us. At the visitor centre we met a lady from Surrey working as a volunteer, She has been in Sarasota for eight years and she said they ke...

After breakfast we decided to have a lazy day. Firstly we went to look for the restaurant we couldn't find last night. Success. After a frappacino and wifi catchup at Starbucks we decided to head up to Sarasota. In Sarasota, we found the statue we had seen on the way from Tampa last week. After lunch and a walk around the harbour area we decided to head home.  Claire paddling One pic taken with AV the other S. Can't remember which! One pic taken with AV the other S. Can't remember which! TomTom decided to have a little loon and then we corrected that.   Once back in Venice Beach called in at Publix to buy some stuff for dinner and then had a walk along the beach.  The plan to come back and watch the sunset. The D50 kep erroring with [r07] and then finally worked in time to see the last of the sun as it went down! Once the sun was down, it was time to go back to the "eff...