On the Road again!

One last goodbye to the beautiful birds of the Everglades. This is an Annihinga drying her wings.

Below is a tree full of Comorants. They acted like they were posing for us... didn't even try to fly off.

Well here we go, we're off to Miami to see our friends the Arriettas. We are planning on going to church with them on Sunday and then we will stay overnight a couple of nights. We were staying in Florida city, which is just south of Miami. I guess it isn't a really great area, but we felt very safe. We were right next to a Walmart and a Golden Corral. Bry doesn't think it can get any better than that! Our room was upstairs, with no elevator so we hated hauling all our junk up and down the stairs. Our room was clean if not a 4 star... it was barely a 2 star actually.

When we went to church it was mostly latins. In Gulf port it was mostly blacks. I told Carmita that I had never been hugged and kissed that much in church in my life! Everyone we met had kiss and a hug for us. Carmita says it is a latin thing. It was kinda nice. No one would ever feel left out, as I didn't see anyone that escaped! jAfter church we went to their home for the most delicious dinner! Black beans over rice that was so yummy I could hardly get enough even though I was stuffed. Then they had a pork roast, cuban bread, a cuban salad, Avocados that were larger than softballs, peeled and cubed then covered in salt, vinegar and olive oil. Then the most delicous rice pudding. They cooked fried plantains that were incredible aslo. I got recipes for everything. Then we went out on their pier and talked and fished. Bry caught several big cat fish, that they just released. This is a picture of us with them and their son Leo who is just leaving for a mission.

In Maimi we went to the acquarium and then were going to find a beach. The traffic was so horrific that we decided to bag the beach, and bag the keys, and bag Miami. I was a little fearful on the bike with all that traffic. They have 3 million people in Miami, and everyone of them has a car and was on the road that day! We left and were very glad to have Miami and her traffic behind us. We were planning on stopping at the Orlando temple, but the traffic there looked as bad as Miami, so we decided to skip that one. We would stop again at Baton Rouge. A much easier stop. We stopped for the night near Ocala, then were off for our next stop of Panama City. When we got here we loved it so much we extended our stay for 3 nights. Right on the beach.