Wednesday 3 August 2011

A Very Modern Grand Tour - Day 9, Monday

Hot and sunny again but the early break to the store was a good idea, especially as the Tadpoles were still in bed when we left. Fully restocked we set about what was the down day and pottered about getting ourselves straight. Mrs T was right when she said that we'll not be doing the grand tour with the Tadpoles in tow again, it's just too much work keeping everything ship shape in such a small space, especially when that small space keeps moving around. Tours will be for Mrs T and I, we'll park up and stay put when we're accompanied in future. We are trying to instill the value of travel into the little blighters, constantly telling them about routes and relative positions, but they're not really interested; Harry Potter World could have been just down the street from home for all they cared. It's a bit dispiriting, though, when you've just entered your fourth US State of the day and they have to be roused from their DVD players to be told. Actually I was a really nerdy kid and always looked out of the window when travelling with my family way back when, which is how I can still find my way around Cornwall 40 years later, which is most useful when in Cornwall!

I did take the Tadpoles to the beach in the afternoon, where we spent two hours in the green surf, digging bits of fine weed out of our nooks and crannies. The wind was keen, which kept the surf up, but the water was still warm and the air temperature didn't seem to be affected. There weren't very many people about, which is of course a good thing, I suspect they were all sat in front of the hotels and apartments further down the beach.

The clouds were streaming in, as they were the day before, although the beach was still sunlit. I took a peek inland and saw the black clouds and lightning so thought it best to head back. Sure enough, not ten minutes after arriving back, the rain came and we retreated inside again to the cool air. This time, the rain only lasted a couple of minutes so we took the opportunity to head out to Wal Mart in an attempt to solve the Internet access issue (why Wal Mart? It's a long story). I then spent the next couple of hours failing to get things sorted whilst Mrs T went to try and get some washing done at the solitary machine in the bath house. There was a bit of an international incident at the washing machine where Mrs T sort of jumped the queue a bit, albeit that there was no one around when the machine needed to be loaded. Having set the thing running, an irate woman came over to remonstrate that she was next in line, not my dear Mrs T. It was too late to do anything about because the cycle had started but I'm sure the irate lady wasn't best pleased. On later retrieving our washing for the dryer Mrs T, ever the peace maker, apologised and immediately made friends with the now not so irate lady and her daughter. It turned out that they were a family from the Netherlands, posted to Texas with the Apache Helicopter Programme so the Europeans united and spent a while talking of Holland, Germany and things of an Old World nature. Big Tadpole, who has some pretty rampant hormones at the moment, took an immediate liking to the daughter (blonde and pretty) although in his immature manner failed to obtain even a name of said Dutch Delight. He did, though, spend the next few hours (this was 9pm!) trying to stalk the poor girl!

International incidents resolved, we headed to bed with thoughts that as the next leg of our trip was only 250 miles, we wouldn't rush about in the morning. I don't even remember going to bed that evening, but as I woke up in it, I suppose I must have gone!

A Very Modern Grand Tour - Day 8, Sunday

We must be getting used to this itinerant lifestyle because we were packed and rolling out of the campground before 8 am. First stop, though, was McDonald's for an Internet breakfast and to sort out some iPhone access for Mrs T. It took a tad longer than we'd thought but by 9 am we were back on the road and heading for the I75, northwards this time.

The trip over to Grayton Beach was quite uneventful, thank goodness. North to the I10 then west past Tallahassee (State capital Florida, you know) and then south to the coast. The roads were good, if a little switchback in nature, which was surprising because I though this State was flat. Two stops for gas, awful consumption figures (not sure why) and frequent stops because it was so hot, the car showing 36 and 37 degrees Celsius for most of the trip. We did run into a little rain, well we had to, but as we arrived at Grayton Beach State Park it was still dry, albeit that there were big black clouds to the right and to the left of us.

We'd crossed over into the Central time zone and gained ourselves an hour, which was handy, so we were looking forward to getting onto the white sand and swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. The camp site was small but neat and it didn't take us long to get set up and ready to head the mile or so to the beach. The heat by now was amazing but, given the big storms that looked to be raging on the coast either side of us, we decided not to get the awning out.

The beach was lovely, white sand as far as the eye could see and this part of the coast at least, not spoiled at all. The sea, though, was a curious shade of green, the weed hereabouts having been stirred up by quite rough sea. The water itself, though, was warm; much warmer than the pool at home and considerably warmer than any sea I'd ever been in before. OK, so the pockets on my swim shorts filled up with fine green weed, but it was just great all the same. What was noticeable was that we were in a little oasis of unspoiled coastline, with major development on both sides of the State Park but this little bit remarkably free of anything but sand dunes.

Back at the camp site it was hot and humid, the inside of of air conditioned toad palace being a much better place to be than the steamy outdoors. I'd had visions of sitting out under the awning in the evenings, beer in hand, winding down the day. The heat and humidity, though, make sitting outside a real pain as you break into a sweat just sitting still. I appreciate that this is not a really hot place as we're still far from the equator, however, having never been south of Florida my poor northern tuned body is struggling a bit!

Supper that evening was at Angelina's Pizza and Pasta, a nice if chaotic restaurant on the beach road. On the way there we passed through some really cheesy beach side development, which put me in mind of some of the slightly better places on the Spanish Costas. There's very little public access to the beaches here because the bit between the road and the beach is solid housing; not my thing at all. Anyway, we found Angelina's on the second pass, enjoyed the frenetic activity in there as well as the food (all home made), before heading back to Towed Haul for the night.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a wind down day although I note that we are slated for an early run to the supermarket to stock up on supplies. Mrs T has some cleaning up on her mind whilst I am to be lifeguard at the beach. Let's hope the weather holds!