From around the world people flock in their millions to Florida, or Orlando to be more precise, to visit The Mouse (or The Duck, or the Frozen girl, or whatever this week’s Disney-fad happens to be). That’s all rather splendid, but we’re here to visit friends… friends we haven’t seen in a loooong time! We love life on the road but if there is one thing we miss, it’s spending time with old friends. Florida is our rare chance to put that right. And as we happen to be in the neighbourhood, we thought it would be remiss of us not to do a teeny bit of Florida overlanding stuff too. So we explored the ‘panhandle’, kayaked the creeks, saw some space stuff, some race stuff, and turned north at America’s bottom.

Anything but The Mouse

Last time we came to Flor’da (the locals seem to casually drop the ‘i’ 😊) back in the 20th Century, we came to visit The Mouse in his theme park. We had a fabulous time then, and we’re certainly not belittling his charms. But this time we wanted to see pretty much anything… except The Mouse.  

North Florida has amazing State Parks, with beautiful, atmospheric sub-tropical forests. The wildlife and natural warm springs are not the most internationally best-known treasures of Florida, but we parked-up in the woods by the river and marvelled at the many deer, racoons, tortoises, squirrels and a huge array of birds. Everywhere… nature. The Suwanee River (yes… the very same of the famous song) and its tributaries are perfect for our Boaty McBoatface’s first outing in the USA.

Over to the east coast, Cuthbert was back at the Atlantic for the first time since leaving Georgetown, Guyana over two years ago. Daytona Beach is the speedy place where many of the early crazy speedy-guys broke records and Sir Malcolm Campbell did his early trials in Bluebird. At the nearby Speedway Circuit we got lucky and stumbled upon a race warm-up day, watching the cars blasting around the track. They’re fast (as long as they’re turning left 😉) and loud, but not ‘fast and loud’ in the league of ‘Formula 1 fast and loud’. After our day at Daytona, the only sensible thing to do was find a local cinema to watch Matt Damon and Christian Bale in the new ‘Ford -v- Ferrari’ (well worth a watch, even if you haven’t just enjoyed a day at Daytona speedway!!).

A quick jaunt down the coast from Daytona is the Kennedy Space Centre… very cool and massively changed since we lasted visited there over 15 years ago. Jaunting on south, is the Treasure Coast around Vero Beach – a super museum about the ancient Spanish galleon ship-wrecks off the coast and the vast treasure that have been found in them. Scooting even further south… we have a game of ‘spot the gator’ around the Everglades. There are plenty-plenty around and… here’s a lesser-known little factoid… there are crocs there too (if you can tell the difference).

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Finally, we reached America’s bottom – Key West. Here, on account of Cuthbert not (yet) having been converted to an amphibious capability, we feel it’s sensible to turn around and head back north. From Key West as the most southerly point of mainland USA, starts our leg to the farthest north we can drive – Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. By the most direct route it’s around 8,800km, but what’s the point of doing that? We’ll take the scenic route… any idea how many kilometres it’ll be for us?😏     

Fabulous Florida Friends

Now… for the real highlight of our time here… those friends we mentioned. It is a curious coincidence that from various stages of our former lives, we have six different friends, none of whom know each other, but who have each made the decision to settle in the Sunshine State. For a start, it’s (usually) sunny; that’s one good reason. An even better reason for US citizens is that it’s tax-favourable too. Add in the laid-back vibe, the beautiful coastline and the (mostly) reasonably priced properties… what’s not to like?  

Phil and Adele in Vero Beach; Dani and Beth in Cape Coral; Leon, Nicole and Olly (aka The Moolies) in Venice; Bernard in St Petersburg, Mike and Sue in Crystal River; and David and Chis in St Agustine… we had a truly fabulous time and it was so, so, sooooo great to see you all. We absolutely love our life on the road and of course we make new friends as we go along, but missing our old (or not so ‘old’, let’s say… ‘longstanding’ 😊) friends, is the price we pay for being nomads.  Our ‘friends time’ in Florida has been a very special part of our overland round-the-world journey.  

So now continuing the Deep South, we’re on our way into Georgia. Driving around Florida might justifiably be challenged as lacking the qualities of ‘real overlanding’ (‘Florida is not real overlanding’, discuss… 🤣). It might be easy-going, but there really is much to explore here if you look. Next time you come here… we highly recommend that you don’t restrict yourselves to Orlando. Say a quick ‘How do you do?’ to The Mouse, then get out and explore!