November 6, 2020: Our First Pandemic Symphony
	September 6-9, 2020: San Antonio Birthdays
	Return to the Index for 2020

Fred and I think that we can sequester just as well in Florida as we can in Dallas, and so the pandemic won't keep us from going down there as usual. We drive, and so we can control who and what we interact with, and we have a good supply of disposable plastic gloves for use at filling stations. And continuing to wear our masks along the way make the trip very low risk. So on Sepbember 25, we started out.

Getting to Fort Lauderdale

If you've been through more than a year or two of this photo album, you are undoubtedly familiar with our route to Florida. Years ago we used to fly, but that has gotten to be such a hassle (and a good deal more expensive) that now we drive. This allows us to take all kinds of things with us- including, on this trip, our two youngest cats, Bob and Cole. Both of them are good travelers, and we are pretty sure that they keep each other company- not just in the car but when we are there in the condo.

The trip is routine and the route is clear; we stop at the same places to eat and to stay- almost without exception. Getting out of Dallas is easy if a bit congested, sometimes. We usually leave about nine, and by nine-thirty or so are on I-20 heading east towards Shreveport.

We usually turn southeast on I-49 about twelve-thirty in the afternoon, reaching Lafayette and I-10 east along about three. Baton Rouge can be very slow if we don't get through there by four-fifteen or so (if it is a weekday). This is one reason why I prefer to leave Dallas on Saturday or Sunday, although on the last couple of trips during the pandemic, the traffic has been lessened no matter what the day of the week.

From Baton Rouge, it is another 90 minutes to get across Louisiana to the Mississippi border. Mississippi and Alabama are an hour each to cross; each is about 75 miles wide, so we are heading east from Mobile about six-thirty or seven. This puts us north of Pensacola- seven miles inside Florida- right about dinnertime about eight. After dinner, we have a choice to make. If we aren't tired, or if we are a bit ahead of schedule, we drive through to Tallahassee, which is about 190 miles east of where we have dinner. If it is late, or if it's raining, or if we are just fat, full, and happy, we'll stay about thirty miles further east.

As it turned out, we found ourselves quite willing to continue on to the Red Roof Inn in Tallahassee where we arrived right about midnight (remember, there is a time change and we lose an hour between Pensacola and Tallahassee).

We usually get away from whatever hotel we overnight by nine or so. It's nice when we are already in Tallahassee, for it cuts a full three hours off our second-day trip. This morning, we had 150 miles to go to get to the outskirts of Jacsonville, which, on days where we started in Tallahassee, we reach well before lunchtime. Then we take I-295 around Jacksonville to the south, going through Orange Park.

On the I-295 Buckman Bridge in Orange Park

This 14-mile stretch is kind of neat, mostly because of the long bridge that crosses the St. Johns River as it opens out into a large lake southwest of the city. (It narrows as it approaches and flows around downtown Jacksonville to eventually empties into the Atlantic.)

I-295 connects up with I-95 south of the city and we simply take that south for a final long, boring stretch of some 300 miles down to Fort Lauderdale. This is another boring part of the drive, but it gets us to the condo around 4-5PM, depending on traffic in Fort Lauderdale on I-95 (which can be horrendous if we are on this stretch on a weekday).

We have a routine when we get to the condo. First, we unload everything, get whichever cats are along situated (and fed); set up the laptops and make sure the Internet is working, and then retired to the dock for a celebratory frozen drink. The final element of our routine involves a walk from the condo down the street to the Floridian Restaurant for dinner (which is almost always sharing a large salad and their huge turkey burger and fries). I wish we had transporter technology, but the drive is not a hard one- although sections of it can be boring.

Bob and Cole are young enough that they are still good travelers. Bob, for example, will come out of his carrier every hour or so and walk around the car and sit up front for a while. But then he goes right back in and curls up. Cole stays out of his own carrier more; he usually curls up behind my seat where I usually make a flat space on top of my computer and duffel for him. I like it when they come up front, and it is especially nice when they will stay in one lap or the other for a while. As the driver, I'm OK with that; I just try to ignore them and concentrate on the road.

We have been here to Florida so many times that we have pretty much photographed everything worthwhile anywhere nearby. The pictures we take now are just candid shots around the condo, at the dock or perhaps at an Art Fair or other event that occurs while we are here. So I've begun the practice of just grouping the pictures for these Florida trips by topic.

Boat Traffic on the New River (Installment 50)

As I have probably said on just about every page devoted to a trip to Fort Lauderdale, one of the best things about where the condo is located (right on the New River) is the almost constant stream of watercraft of all types that go up and down the river all day, every day (although weekend days are, of course, the busiest).

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

Every time we come down here, we take pictures and movies of this traffic- sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on how enthused we get about doing so. We have seen 200-foot mega yachts going upriver to the numerous boatyards that are west of downtown; we've seen hundreds of 100-footers owned by the very wealthy who live in Sailboat Bend go out to the Intracoastal or return from the ocean; we have seen thousands of typical family craft, 30-60 feet long, with groups of passengers large and small go up and down; there are many hundreds of smaller craft, used just for fishing or sightseeing that go by; there are jet skis, kayaks, canoes, wave runners, paddle boards, water taxis, and even a floating tiki bar that pass by all the time.

These can easily become part of the background for frequent visitors and certainly for the people who live here year round, but, even so, we take a good many pictures on occasion. We took quite a few this time, so I've put them in a slideshow.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

I also took some movies of the boat traffic, and you can use the players below to watch the two best ones:

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

At the Riverview Gardens Dock

Many of the boat pictures above were taken from the condo dock on the river, but I also took my phone down there are couple of evenings when we were having our frozen drinks. Here are a couple of pictures taken at the dock after the sun went down:

Bob and Cole in the Sunshine State

It is always a pleasure to have a couple of our cats with us, and I am sure they don't mind a vacation from the two older cats, Lucky and Zack. Also, Bob and Cole are related, in that Bob is Cole's uncle, but I wouldn't guess that they know that. In any event, we did take a few pictures of the cats during our trip; I want to put a couple of them here:

Here is Cole lying on the living room rug. If you look closely, you'll see that he is lying pretty much on his back, and you can see that there is actually a fur pattern on his tummy.

Bob's absolute favorite place to take a nap is on the seat of my exercise bike. Undoubtedly, it's the attraction of the scents on the towel and pillow that I sit on for an hour or so every day.

There will be more pictures of the cats on the Pets Page for this year.

A Visit from Brent

One morning while Fred and I were in the condo I got a call from Brent. He and his two housemates were nearby on Brent's jetski, and they wanted to stop by the dock and see us.

A Visit from Brent and his Housemates (Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Our friend Brent has a pretty spacious house over off NW 21st Street. He has had roommates in the past, and now has two of them- a young guy who works in video production and his wife. This arrangement is good for Brent, who is often away for extended periods, and now there's someone to feed the birds and take care of things. And, there is usually someone to do things with- like riding around the Fort Lauderdale canals on his jetski.

Today, they've stopped by the Riverview Gardens dock, and we of course went down to say hello to all of them. It was nice to see all three of them today, and in addition to the movie that I made of them (which you can use the player at left to watch), I took a few still pictures- and these you can see if you click on the thumbnails below:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Our Trip Home

We had a good time in Fort Lauderdale, as we usually do, spending a good deal of time with our close friends Ron and Jay, but on October 13th it was time to head home.

We had to do something different on the way this time; we had to stay somewhere other than our usual LaQuinta hotel in Lafayette. Four or five days before the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana had been hit with a tropical storm, and many people from the Texas Gulf Coast had found it necessary to move inland, and as a result hotels west of the Mississippi along I-10 were full. With the two cats, I had to hunt for a LaQuinta or a Red Roof Inn as both chains are pet friendly. The closest hotel I could find was a Red Roof Inn in Baton Rouge, about 60 miles east of where we would usually have stayed. So I made a reservation there, and we got to the hotel about ten-thirty.

Driving onto the property we were immediately a bit worried. There seemed to be many people, most of them young and black, that were standing around in the parking area, and going in and out of ground floor rooms. But we didn't have a great deal of choice, so I went ahead and checked in. We parked in as safe a place as I could find, and we carried the cats and our overnight bags upstairs to the room.

The room was a disaster. It looked for all the world as if it were currently being repaired or renovated. Carpet was coming up, baseboards were lying on the floor, and a number of lights had no bulbs or didn't work. There were no towels and no supplies. And the security latch on the door was broken. Knowing we had little choice, I went back down to the front desk to get a different room assignment. You really don't need to know that I was propositioned by a couple of working girls on the way. I found no one in the office, but a few people standing around.

I am not usually a person who has to have everything just perfect, but I got the distinct feeling that staying here would be a mistake- even if we could get a different room. So I turned around, went back up to the room, and told Fred that I thought we should just continue on and perhaps find a motel in Alexandria or Natchitoches. He was as worried as I was, so we turned around, carried everything back to the car, and got back on the road. I'd already paid for the room, but intended to call Red Roof the very next day to ask for a refund (which I did and which I got).

An hour later we were turning north on I-49 at Lafayette, having not seen a "Vacancy" sign at any of the few motels we passed west of the Mississippi. By the time we got to Alexandria, and still hadn't found a place to stay, I suggested to Fred that we just continue on. I used to make the drive in a single day, but hadn't done so in many years, but with someone to help me drive, I thought we should just drive straight through. We switched off the driving duties a couple of times, and arrived home, in one piece but extremely tired, about 4AM- after the worst return trip ever.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	November 6, 2020: Our First Pandemic Symphony
	September 6-9, 2020: San Antonio Birthdays
	Return to the Index for 2020