Today was Halloween, and my first in America. I didn’t feel very scary when I drove down to the wreckers yard to pick up a spare wheel and some parts for Miriams car which had been canabalised by her mother. It was a complete waste of time, I ended up getting parts for a ’97 Honda not her ’96 which didn’t fit. Of course when I was there I was thinking ‘I should have taken some photographs of the needed parts’ but by then it was too late. I didn’t even take my phone in so couldn’t ring to ask what they looked like. I did get one part for my van though, the part that holds my new battery in place so at least it wont be rattling around under the hood anymore. The guy who checked out my useless parts was so unhelpful with my enquiries about a spare wheel I didn’t bother (and it would cost me another dollar to get back into the yard…). The spare wheel I have at the moment is a little useless 30 mile donut that can’t be relied upon and rather rusty as it is.

» Continue reading “Coral Springs : Climbing over rusty metal.”

I found a cool place to hang out and did nothing all day but surf, drink coffee and send emails. I took Miriam out to a Karaoke bar at Boca Raton since she fancies herself as a bit of a singer but it wasn’t on that night. My plan of doing ‘Dammit Janet!’ from the Rocky Horror Picture Show would have to wait for another time.

Taking the most random route I could I made my way back up to Miami beach, looking for a beach with a shower on the way and failing miserably. I was driving through some of the most expensive and exclusive property in the US and public facilities were just not there for hobos like me. I had to be at some club for 6pm for a couchsurfing gathering where there would be a drag show and fancy dress was encouraged. Seems like the North Americans love to get dressed up at lot, perhaps I should sort myself out with a costume… Hopefully I would find somewhere nicer to sleep than my minivan but in the meantime I needed to get a shower. Eventually I found a public beach near Miami Beach and went off for a swim, sunbathe and a shower. When I came back there had been a break in….

» Continue reading “Miami: Something stormy comes your way.”

It really rained all night this time, and then rained most of the morning. I couldn’t even take advantage of the free washing machines Still my neighbor had gone, I wonder how nice a night they had, I bet their tent leaked everywhere… I grudgingly paid my $46 (should have just thrown $20 at her and driven off) and carried on to Key West. The weather improved as I slowly cruised down and by the time I was there the sun was shining and all was well. I really didn’t want to pay for a hotel down here (and in hindsight I wouldn’t have found one) so I planned on just having a look around and then heading back north. Little did I know the sick perversions that would keep me there longer than I wanted…

» Continue reading “Key West : Tonight you’re living in a fantasy, do you think Im a nasty girl?”

The keys are Florida’s holiday capital it seems and there are loads of them all connected by concrete bridges down to Key West where you are then only 90 miles from Cuba. The Weather was pretty crumby, here I was ready to get a tan and it rained on and off all day. I’m sure lots of people have seen True Lies, indeed I saw it the first time I was in the States, we watched it in Virginia Beach and nearly died walking along the highway to the cinema from all the traffic. The bridges in the keys were where they filmed the sequence where Jamie Lee Curtis is pulled from her car as it drops off the bridge. You can see where they repaired the railings to make it look used as further down the bridge was in very poor condition. I now have the urgent desire to watch it again

» Continue reading “Florida : Hey Markey you’re in the keys”

Security or not I managed to get a good lie in, even sleeping on a raised platform in my minivan wouldn’t stop me from doing that. The back windows have privacy glass, which means they are quite dark, but not really dark enough. Maybe I would have to make some curtains… But later, I picked up a few things from Walmart (its so handy) and fired up the beast…. click… click… click… Uh oh. My battery was flat! Maybe I was charging something the night before and left it on a bit too long, but this wasn’t a good sign. I asked some helpful guy for a jump start, grateful for my foresight of parking away from the main entrance so he could get in near enough and left it charging up for a while. Maybe it was time for a new battery….? I had a look at what I had and went back in the store for a look. I came out with the largest one they had and a $2 adjustable spanner and proceeded to swap them out… Um, rather I stood there cursing as the bolt that locked the battery in refused to budge as it was rusted shut. I went back in and resisted the temptation to buy a $40 toolkit but opted for a can of WD40 and $4 set of cheap spanners. This was better but try as I might it still would not move, even after a good drenching of oil….

» Continue reading “Florida: Mark and the Mechanics”

Thanks to the power of the Internet I found out holding down some buttons on the dash would put my van into a test mode and at least allow me to have cold air blowing so that was good. I also splurged $80 on a cooler in Walmart which was pretty big but seems to work ok. Wednesday was when the weather changed though and after a sunny morning it rained most of the afternoon. I had a fun afternoon looking for a place to wash my clothes. The area I was driving through was very posh and all I could see were dry cleaning places. Eventually I found somewhere and got myself sorted out, seemed to cost a fortune though. I got off highway 1 and went a bit closer to the coast, it was raining when I went past the Burt Reynolds museum and state park or I might have stopped for a look. The weather picked up after a few hours though so I pulled into another park and went for a swim with my new camera. The Pentax Optio w30 is really quite cool especially as its waterproof. I think the people on the beach thought I was mad going in the water with a camera but where better to test it out. Still seems to work… I found a Walmart to sleep in that night which was ok, but got quite paranoid by the security that kept cruising past and had trouble sleeping as it was so damn humid. But at least there were no mosquitos…

When I woke up I was surrounded by cars and the fans were making a slight noise. My battery was dead but I had made it. The skies were slightly cloudy but it was sunny, warm, and looked pretty good to me. However Im not a rocket scientist! I said ‘hi’ to the 3 retirees in the car next to mine ‘um, can I get a jump?’. Thank god I had bought some leads for $8 the day before. ‘Sure’ said the guy and pulled forward, popped his hood and …. no battery. It was under the back seat for some reason. The guy in the big SUV saw what was going on and jumped at the chance to help out, despite nearly losing his spot to some cranky woman as we got connected. It fired up ok which wasn’t my previous experience at jumping cars (last time I was messing around in the work car park for 2 hours getting the damn thing going). I left it charging and put on the radio, seemed like there was some ice build up somewhere which might cause a problem. I chatted to my fellow viewers for a while ‘no Im not from London’ and made myself busy tidying up my car. There was stuff everywhere and it was going to be annoying if I couldn’t find something. I sorted out my cameras, set up my point and shoot on the roof on 10 second interval mode and watched the sky and the now rapidly filling grass verge.

» Continue reading “Titusville, Fl: We have lift off”

A usual I ignored my alarm clock that I set for 7am and got up about 10am which wasn’t too bad. I was still alone in the car park but there were a few more cars about. Luckily I didn’t get busted, but it would have been just another fine to ignore. Back on the road I just drove all day. Stop for coffee, refuel, keep going. Mum texted me to say the shuttle was still on schedule, Britni kept me updated when the UK went to bed. I ate up the miles but had a break when I saw a walmart to get some supplies. If I was going to be sleeping on the road for the next year I would need quite a few things, cooker, inflatable mattress, pump, pots and pans so I started stocking up on those things when I could find them. It was a warm day and by the time I got to Georgia I was ready for shorts and sandals. The temperature seemed to keep creeping up and at 4pm it was 28 degrees according to the cars sensor. The car had a cool little panel that would tell you the temp/direction, mpg, distance travelled, stop watch etc which you could reset as you went. Hours of fun :p According to that I was getting about 22 mpg at 75 mph, which wasn’t that great. At least the broken AC meant I wasn’t tempted to make it worse.

» Continue reading “I-95: The road goes ever on and on….”

After the excitement of the previous night we weren’t up until late, Marie went out to buy a new phone while I lazed around. We went out for bagels in a cool little store nearby and decided what to do with the rest of the day. I wanted to go to a legendary camera store which was closed the previous day so we set off to walk most of the way there. It was hot and sunny again and, despite my protesting feet, another perfect day to spend in one of my favourite cities in the world. I was really going to be putting the miles in on those shoes, new or not. We took a subway a few stops since the store was going to close reasonably early and its a good job we did. The place was a mad house! Its jewish owned and run, which means its closed on Saturday so it was full of local shoppers who packed the place out. It was a huge store anyway and they stock everything. I got given a catalogue on the way in which was 3 cm thick and despite the masses of staff still had to queue to ask questions. I had wanted to buy a big telephoto zoom but I was still waiting on my last pay cheque so decided to hold off. I did pick up a nice point and shoot though which will now live in my pocket when I need something convienient to take with me. The store has a set of tracks that deliver the items to the assistant within a couple of minutes that is a wonder to see. They didn’t have the elusive backpack I was after though, that will be a job for ebay I think…

» Continue reading “New York : Tensing for the sprint south….”