Click on a photo to enlarge it.
On Monday, we drove to Hanna Park which is just east of Jacksonville. We paid the $2 entrance fee which was well
worth the money. It´s a really good park and we spent 4 hours walking along various trails, round a lake and along
the beach. We saw a little turtle on the path who posed for a few photos for us. Then we saw an armadillo who didn´t
even notice us because he was hunting for food. We also saw alligators, egrets and lots of other birds. We even saw
some turtles sunning themselves on the bank of the lake - they stretched out all four of their legs and their heads,
making themselves as large as possible to get the maximum amount of sun! (See photos). Later on we walked along the
beach but it was so windy we could hardly breathe as we battled our way back to Winnie.
On Tuesday we drove south along the coastal road to St. Augustine. We walked along the cobbled streets of this old
town which is a bit too touristy for our liking but still a lovely little town. Helen even got a new job as a school
bus driver!! Then we drove Winnie over the bridge across the water and waited in the queue because the bridge had
been raised to let a boat through. After a quick visit to the lighthouse, we drove down to Palatka, not far from
Jacksonville, to meet up with Barry who we met in Baja California (he took us out in his boat and we discovered the
dead body on the beach). He was staying at his brothers house and we enjoyed being taken out in their boat to go for
a meal. Later, Barry showed us a video he´d taken at the Blue Ridge Parkway, when hurricane Francis hit. Amazing
shots of the raging waterfalls and the visitor centre virtually covered in water - only the roof could be seen!
After talking politics with Barry on Wednesday we drove south to Titusville. There was supposed to be a rocket launch
from the Kennedy Space Centre and Barry had told us where we should park in Titusville to get the best view. We parked
up and waited as the start time came and went. We knew there was something wrong because we were the only ones waiting
and there were airplanes flying overhead - they´re normally re-routed on launch days. So we drove to the library and
found out from the internet that the launch had been delayed until the following day. We parked up at Walmart and started
sorting out Winnie to make some space for Andrea who will be arriving on Friday.
On Thursday we checked on the internet and found out that the rocket launch had been delayed until Saturday. So we drove
across to Orlando (too much traffic and too many red lights!) and went to a campground. We spent the afternoon cleaning
the corrosion from both our batteries and spraying anti-corrosion protection on them.
On Friday we finished cleaning and sorting Winnie out and drove to Orlando airport at 6pm to pick Andrea up. We had to wait
so long for her that we thought we´d missed her. But it gave us time to buy tickets for Kennedy Space Centre for the three
of us for the next day, when, hopefully, the delta rocket would be launched. Finally Andrea arrived. Orlando had a very
complicated system where the arriving passengers have to pick up their luggage, go through all the x-ray machines and
security, hand over their luggage again, get on a train to the arrivals hall and then go through more security and x-rays
before picking up their luggage for a second time!!
We drove back to the campground and got Andrea settled in. She had been up since 03-45 that morning which meant she had been
travelling for 24 hours (she had a 6 hour wait in Amsterdam for the main flight to Orlando). So we went to bed early as we
have a jam packed 3.5 weeks ahead of us!
