Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Day 26 - Everything's Orlando






St. Augustine, Florida:

Went to the ice machine to scoop a bucketful of ice...for a very special root beer. I'd been wandering the streets of St. Augustine, appreciating the narrow streets, and impressed at the many historical markers in the city. I'm a huge fan of walking, but the humid weather makes me sweat bullets. Not good to outshine mirrors.

Breaking it down, there's a fort, a lighthouse, the oldest home in America, a super old school house, and rows upon rows of shops. The shops I avoided like two-day old oatmeal. That was the problem, because the town's groomed for tourists...rich ones. Red caterpillar street cars filled with tourists wearing shorts congest the roads and give it a Disneyland feel. Ah well, I'm a dork anyway. Disney owns half of Florida, and most people like that stuff so I shouldn't complain.

My favorite part of today would have to be the alligators I became acquainted with at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. They were more massive than I’d imagined. I once had a fantasy of wrestling an alligator's maw open, but seeing those 15-foot long creatures up close and personal killed whatever Tarzan joy I was thinking.

My funds are close to depleted so I better get a move on. I'm going to Kennedy Space Center tomorrow and drive straight to Miami. Then one or two more stops and I'll be on to Louisiana. I've been waiting for New Orleans my whole life. I’ll try to take a haunted house tour, and we'll see if I bail out on account of I'm chicken.

1 comment:

thescry said...

There's very few places where I have been in my life where I can honestly say I feel I can live in, be myself and be happy. New Orleans is definitely one of them. I can't wait until you get there.