Sarah drove the first leg of the trip as I got to enjoy the remnants of the ziti she'd saved me. I recorded a couple takes of her discussing our reasons for driving to Miami and then took to watching the scenery. The suburbs slowly melted into exurbs, orange groves replacing the groves cookie-cutter-housing that litter the landscape of central Florida. We soon reached the gently rolling hills of Lake Wales and as pasture land made way for swamps we were
treated to a glorious sunset-in the rear-view mirror. Given more time I imagine we would have stopped, but the darkening sky meant our drive was already impinging on precious sleep=time later in the evening. And so we pressed on and I managed to snap a few out-of-focus, faux-artistic shots of a distant electrical storm. Think I can sell this one to Trent Reznor? Once the light had completely faded, most of the rest of our trip consisted of random outbursts of intellectualism, marveling at the island cities in the center strip of Florida's Turnpike and trying to listen to CDs above the din of my car. After reaching the South Florida metropolitan area and Sarah capturing me launching missives at the city of Miami, we pulled into the hotel ready for a good night's sleep.
Sarah and I set about our business early the next morning: I the chauffeur, she the neatly-coiffed executive with an appointment to keep. I am still unclear as to what exactly took place in her meeting as those without an appointment were not allowed access to the inner sanctum of the consular offices, although I heard it was conducted in both English and Spanish, presumably to keep the possibility of mutual understanding at a minimum. For me, it was forty-five minutes of staring at a wood-paneled corridor punctuated with the occasional check of my car which had been illegally parked across the street at a Publix but was easily visible from the window.
After breakfast and a quick nap at the hotel it was time to get back on the road. We had a four o'clock appointment to keep in Ft. Lauderdale, so we first did a little shopping to kill sometime. My first glimpse of the Miami skyline in the daytime was an eye-opening experience; I had not expected it to be the wall of gleaming high-rises stretching across the horizon that it was. It was for me an awe-inspiring sight as I had believed Miami to be a larger, more sprawling version of Tampa. It reminded me more of Chicago though, and coupled with it's elevated train system the city served as a stark reminder of how far my hometown must go to attain my aspirations of greatness for it.
We decided to take US 27 back home. I figured I simply had to see the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee before we left for Spain since I had embarrassingly neglected to do so for the past 35 years. It was a beautiful drive along the East Coast Buffer, a piece of land the state purchased and set aside as part of an Everglades restoration project and while I can't tell you how well that project is coming I can say it makes for lovely scenery along the east side of highway 27. The afternoon sky was painted a brilliant cobalt that I can only recall having ever seen before in the high desert and neatly decorated with cotton ball clouds that were more typical of a Florida afternoon. The emerald fields provided a nice contrast and the effect was reminiscent of an over-saturated photo. We pressed on through the sleepy agricultural community of South Bay and into the bustling sugar town of Clewiston (pop. 7173), where we had the best Mexican food I have ever tasted. Happily, we managed to finish our meal with enough time left over to catch the sunset on the big lake. The cobalt melted into lovely soft-focused pastels, pinks and oranges were strewn across the clouds and I barely had time to notice that the lake truly began on the other side of the island we were looking at across the waterway upon which the park was situated. In retrospect, the eastern shore of the lake may have yielded a prettier sunset, but I was pleased nonetheless with the one to which we were treated. And we wouldn't have had the delicious dinner on the other side.
Then, it was back on the road for the final leg of the return trip. A distant thunderstorm treated us to a glorious light show on the horizon. Sarah managed to capture quite a few minutes of footage that came out surprisingly well, considering we were traveling around 80 for much of it. All-in-all, our quickest, easiest trip yet.
