May 4, Sunday – Across

Again it was an early haul up the anchor before the rest of the inhabits were stirring and out onto the freeway. Because it was Sunday morning, traffic was tolerable. The truckers seemed to be taking a day of rest. I had made the decision yesterday to not take the interstate (Alligator Alley) but to drop down to old highway number 41. It was basically deserted. Interesting country, low land, wet swamps, dry swamps and burns here and there. Careless cigarette smokers?? An hour and a half into the Everglades I stopped at a National Park Visitor Center and attended an excellent movie. Dry lightning strikes – natural burns; part of the lifelong ecology of the area. All these waters are moving at glacier’s pace to the sea. Because of the sluggishness of the water, it supports an abundance of wildlife. It serves as a nursery for a broadband of creatures. Again the native population drew my attention but I failed to act on it as I drove by places of interest.
Getting around Miami was the usual. I write out my directions before I start the rig so when panic time hits, I’ve got my cheat sheet. I had one slip-up this time with the freeways and turnpikes entering and leaving but I finally pulled into the golfing community of Woodlands in the suburb of Tamarac. Everywhere you looked there were fenced in golfing communities and this one was no different with the greens and the twisting streets. I backed into Alix Foster’s mom’s house driveway and shut everything down. It was nice to know that I was here for a few days. I had some housekeeping chores to do so googling Lowe’s showed me on a map that there was one located eight minutes from where I had dropped anchor. A quick trip in the Jetta and back made me content. Best of all I had made it safely across Florida without hitting anyone or anything (alligators)
Before leaving La Conner Alix said that I could stay at her mom’s house in the suburb of Miami called Tamarac. With great appreciation I took her up on the invitation. Because there would be no one at the house, arrangements were made with the Woodland Golf Community section president about my checking in with him upon my arrival. Checking in with him was no problem because his house was directly across the street from where I was staying. We chatted and he asked how long would I be staying. I told him the earliest that I would leave would be Friday, May 9th and the latest would be Saturday, May 10th. I also told him that was going to leave my RV at the house and take my small tow vehicle down to the Florida Keys for a few days to save on gas money. I noticed that several screens had been blown out of the porch at the back of the house and was able to fix one. I notified the folks back in La Conner about the situation and volunteered to try to fix the others upon my return from the keys.
Woodlawn community is a huge complex but was just one of many “golfing communities” in Tamarac. I settled into the neighborhood.