November 21-26, 2018: Thanksgiving and My Birthday in San Antonio
	October 22-26, 2018: A Hiking Trip to New Mexico
	Return to the Index for 2018

Usually, Fred and I come down to Florida in late September of early October, but since we were going to take a trip with Guy out to New Mexico, we put off our trip until the week after we returned from out west. Although the timing was different, this trip was much like many others. Again, we brought two cats with us- Bob and Cole. Again, we did many of the same things that we always do on these trips. So, once again, I am going to organize this page by activity, rather than by day.

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.

The trip is routine; we stop at the same places to eat and to stay- almost without exception. And it's an easy route, too. Getting out of Dallas is easy if a bit congested, sometimes. We usually leave about nine-thirty, and by ten or so are on I-20 heading east towards Shreveport. We usually turn southeast on I-49 about one in the afternoon, reaching Lafayette and I-10 east along about three-thirty. Baton Rouge can be very slow if we don't get through there by four-fifteen or so, and then it is another 90 minutes to get across Louisiana to the Mississippi border.

Mississippi and Alabama are an hour each, so we are heading east from Mobile about six-thirty or seven. This puts us north of Pensacola right about dinnertime about eight. After dinner, we have now developed the habit of staying near Pensacola so we don't have to do a lot of driving at night. We have two hotels here to choose from; this time we've chosen the La Quinta hotel about ten miles further east from dinner along I-10.

We usually get away from the hotel in Pensacola about nine or so for the 350-mile drive to Jacksonville, which we usually reach about one in the afternoon. Then we take I-295 around Jacksonville to the south, going through 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 empty into the Atlantic.)

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

The drive each way is so routine that we rarely take any pictures at all, although on this particular trip, Fred did take a few worth including here. There are four interesting points along the drive down. The first is the 20-mile bridge across the Atchafalaya Basin and Henderson Swamp between Lyfayette and Baton Rouge. The second is the Mississippi River Bridge at Baton Rouge, and here Fred too two pictures as we crossed the span:

This picture was taken as we started up the bridge approach. There is often a lot of congestion here, as the design has a lot of traffic coming in from the right that has to cross all the way to the left on the bridge itself if it wants to go to downtown Baton Rouge.

This pictures was taken almost at the top of the bridge. I know enough to get in the right lane on the bridge; it turns into an exit only lane on the descent, and so lots of vehicles move out of it. What they don't know is that the lane continues past that exit, becoming another lane that continues as I-10.

Incidentally, the other two interesting portions are the tunnel and long bay bridge at Mobile, and then the I-295 loop around Jacksonville that has a very pretty bridge when it crosses the St. Johns River.

We had both Bob and Cole with us, but Bob tends to stay in his carrier most of the time (although the doors to both are propped open so the cats can come and go). Cole comes out more often, and can often be found in Fred's lap or sometimes in mine. Both cats just wander around the car if they want, and come out to get some water or nibble on some food. But they tend to be really quiet for the entire two days; they are very good travelers. Here are two pictures that Fred took of Cole:

We unloaded everything at the condo, got Bob and Cole situated and the laptops all set up, and then retired to the dock for a celebratory frozen drink. Then, as is our custom, we headed down to the Floridian Restaurant for dinner. I wish we had transporter technology, but the drive is not a hard one- although sections of it can be boring.

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.

Bob and Cole in Fort Lauderdale

This is the first time we have brought two cats with us to Fort Lauderdale. We were a bit apprehensive about having two of them in the car, but they did very, very well, and it was a pleasure to have both of them in the condo for the two weeks of our stay.

We spend a lot of our time when in the condo sitting at the high table by the living room window. There are three high chairs at that table, so one of them is always open for one cat or another, and they take their turns.

At left, of course, Cole is in the chair. When he is in it, oddly enough, it is rarely to sleep; he is either playing, using it as a steppingstone to get up on the table itself and over to the window, or, as in the picture at left, grooming.

On the other hand, when Bob is in the chair, it is almost always to sleep. The chair is out in the middle of the living room, of course, so there is lots of light, and sometimes, when Bob is trying to sleep, he has to block out the light (just as you or I might do in a similar situation). I wonder sometimes if they make little black sleep masks for cats- like those you might have seen old-time female Hollywood stars use in various movie scenes.

But on the other hand, the way he uses his paw to block the light is pretty endearing.

So what to the two of them spend their time doing? Sleeping, mostly, but that's the same as at home. They do play a good deal, chasing each other from room to room. And they also like it when we open the window by the table and they can get up on the window ledge to look out, listen, and sniff the outside air.

Bob and Cole Have a Moment (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

We think that Bob and Cole, particularly, are very comfortable with each other. Zack rarely plays with Bob, and Lucky rarely plays with anyone, but Bob and Cole are pretty active with each other. The movie at right catches them in a quiet moment that just goes to show how they interact with each other.

Here are some other pictures we took of the cats in the condo on this trip:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Boat Traffic on the New River (Installment 44)

Fort Lauderdale is known both as "The Venice of America" (because of all the canals) and as "The Boating Capital of the World" (as there are more boats here than anywhere else on the planet). Being on the New River, we always see boats of all sizes and descriptions going up and down the river.

Watching a Large Yacht Head Downriver (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

We are very much jaded, though, having been here so often and having seen so many boats on each visit, and so don't take nearly as many pictures as we used to. But we always take at least a few. This time, I made one movie of a yacht we hadn't recalled seeing before heading downriver (use the player at left to watch), and the two of us took some good pictures of that yacht and some other boats as well (and one odd picture of the neighborhood just northwest of the condo).

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Lunch with Susan

If you have already been through the album pages for our cruise earlier this year, you've already met Susan Swiderski, the very engaging woman who played bridge with us frequently and who, along with her family, became friends of our by the end of that odyssey.

We Say Goodbye to Susan After Lunch (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

When we got to know Susan on the cruise, we found that she and her family live in Deerfield Beach- only about fifteen miles north of where we are in Fort Lauderdale. We have stayed in touch with her, and on our couple of trips down here since the cruise have wanted to get together with her.

But Susan and her family are inverterate cruisers, and the last two times have been away when we've been here. This time, though, she just returned from a cruise a few days before we were to head back to Dallas, so we arranged to meet her for lunch at a restaurant in Wilton Manors. Susan was down in town for some other purpose today, so rather than meet in Deerfield Beach is was more convenient to meet at Rosie's.

We had a very pleasant lunch with her, catching up on what she and her family have been doing since last May; Susan is what I might call a "force of nature" and so always has interesting stories to tell. She is very engaging and fun to be around, and I hope we will get to see more of her on subsequent trips. She did mention that she plays bridge on Thursday afternoons and would like Fred and I to come play as well, so we have put that on our list of things to do next time we are here (so long as she is in town, of course). I wanted at least one movie of her, and the only opportunity I had was right when we were leaving and the valet had brought her car around. It's short, but you can use the player above, left to watch it if you wish.

During lunch, I had our waiter take a couple of pictures as well, and these are below:

The Trip Home

We left Fort Lauderdale on the morning of the 17th, and followed the reverse of our route down. It takes us literally all day and almost 700 miles of driving (Fort Lauderdale to Jacksonville: 320 miles; Jacksonville to Pensacola: 360 miles) to get out of Florida. As a matter of fact, when we finally enter Alabama, we are over halfway home.

On the way home, we were prepared for the damage that Hurricane Michael caused here in the Florida panhandle early last month. Its high winds did a huge amount of damage within the fifty-mile stretch where it came across Interstate 10; it seemed as if whole forests were denuded, and, certainly the number of trees down along the Interstate was incredible. Pictures of the damage were hard to come by as the car was moving so fast, but movies turned out better. So here are three different movies we made as we passed through the damage corridor heading west:

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Following out normal schedule, we ate dinner in Slidell, Louisiana. This leaves us a manageable 160 miles before we stop for the night in Lafayette, Louisiana. In the morning, we have a comfortable drive home- 200 miles up to Shreveport and then another 200 miles over to Dallas. We arrived back home at 3:30 this time, and were happy to be back.

And Bob and Cole were happy to see their brothers. And, by the way, we should very much thank our next-door neighbor, Cynthia, for doing such a good job of looking out for the cats we left at home.

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

	November 21-26, 2018: Thanksgiving and My Birthday in San Antonio
	October 22-26, 2018: A Hiking Trip to New Mexico
	Return to the Index for 2018