On the Road Again!

That's about it. TomTom decided not to take us on any toll roads but on the 997 and 27 that I have expected. Since last time they have dualled 997 part way but the bit to the north of Homestead is still single with road works. Still better than I75 and US1. Stops? One at a Dunkin' for breakfast and one at a t-shirt shop where Claire bought some fancy Skecher shoes for $34. Then back to Flamingo One. Lunch? Cereal! I watched Barcelona show Man Utd how to win without breaking sweat and Claire had a nap.  Now at Starbucks in Weston. Tried the app on my phone that I use at home. I expected for it to register two drinks but not take money... It did the latter. Have no idea about the reward star!! Coffee in the sun Weston Town Center

Apartment sorted. We were rather longer than half an hour and we are in a smaller resort called Flamingo One down the road. We are second floor overlooking a small lake. You can just see it through the trees. This actually better than the main site as it is very crowded and in a more quiet area away from the freeway. View from Balcony Once the cases were lugged up we were out again to a Publix. Sadly no beer for gout foot Devall.  And another salad. . Salad from Publix And tomorrow's adventure? Maybe stay locally. We will be due our "usual" visit to the Flamingo Gardens -  https://www.flamingogardens.org  - and it is only a few blocks away. Monday we are off to the Keys.

Up early. Only one bagel today. Cutting down... Packed and car loaded. Dishwasher on and we were checked out of the Vistana and on the way.  Last pic before leaving. Even though the Sonic is a small budget car the boot takes two large cases! The 192 to I95. Gas stop filled up with $15. This time the right side of the pump... Same shitty budget conscious pipe. Stopped at a Target and picked up some supplies. The idea to get to the sea and have lunch. Got to Deerfield Beach. A quarter per five minutes to park and I had only four on me. Machine "green" button effed so couldn't even spend my dollar. Back to I95 and I595 to Weston. Found check-in. No apartment allocated. Very unusual. Will definitely mention that to RCI. Receptionist did all the paperwork and asked us to wait for a room to be cleaned and added to the computer!! So here we are in Weston Town Center having a coffee. Back soon...

With the second week of the trip ending with the Easter holiday; our flight home is Good Friday, everything ramps up price wise and with RCI, points wise also. What might be 13 to 15 RCI points the week before becomes 23 to 25 or more with exchanges starting 13th April. So I have booked the apartment in Weston near Fort Lauderdale for the second week. We have stayed in a different resort there before. Weston isn't on the beach or the Gulf and I find it difficult to see why it was built at all. The centre is laid out in the usual block system but has curved/circular roads..... like a spider web in places.  There's not a lot there but it should be plenty relaxing. Plus of course this is a "short week" for us as we have to leave on the Friday to get to the airport rather than the Saturday. It also means we aren't licke dput at 10am and have 8 hours to find something to do to fill the time. That leaves 23 RCI points to spend on another week elsewhere. It looks like a ...

The day started off a little lame and bumped along lame street all day. We had decided with the Keys trip tomorrow for a few days that we'd have a quiet day. It started with a timeshare breakfast. Yep. We knew we'd not be spending a penny and there was a little subterfuge as we were supposed to be checking out a new apartment and the change to RCI system. The pay-off for us was a prepaid Visa card with $75 loaded on it, $20 being mine anyway. Two hours later we escaped as our home resort doesn't use the new RCI system and I didn't want to spend money. I activated the card immediately we got back to our apartment.  We went out again to Sawgrass Mills outlet mall. The name seems familiar. Bedlam. Memorial Day seems to be celebrated driving round and round the massive car park. I found a space relatively quickly by Avenue 1 entrance. Lunch was Asian Chao. I guess a play on chow? We had a walk about and checked out the stores. Bought nothing. A little stressed as TomTom kee...

We were up early. Most of the packing was the night before and so it was a quick job to load the car. The Mustang trunk was able to take one big case and the little hand luggage one. So where was Air Canada delayed case going? Back seat. Problem. How? Roof down and then hump it over the side onto the back seat. Then roof back up!! Sorted. It was just before ten when we set off. First stop in TomTom was the Triumph dealers on US41 South of Fort Myers.  A bit of a cold atmosphere once they realised we weren't buying. Friendly on entry but no time to chat with a foreigner and Triumph owner. Sally was down to about 114 miles to empty and I wanted to fill it up. Once again the pump refused to accept a zip code. Then it was over to the cashier and  guess how much gas I could squeeze in. I guessed $50. Pre-pay and then go and fill. Click. Click. With only $40 to fill it to the clicks I had to go back and get my $10 refunded. In the UK most petrol stations let you fill or make pay at ...