Everglades - here we come!

Today we had the longest stage of our Florida road trip on the agenda: 220 miles from Key West to Everglades City. Before heading north on the Overseas Highway, we quickly admired the 'Majesty of the Seas', one of the large cruise ships of the Royal Caribbean fleet in the port of Key West. The drive through the Keys towards the mainland took a bit longer and reached its peak with the crossing of the '7 Mile Bridge'...a truly impressive structure. After that, we made our first stop at Robbie's Marina in Islamorada. Here we could observe (mini) sharks, tarpon, and pelicans fighting over the fish scraps that the anglers threw from the dock. There was also the opportunity to feed the tarpon by hand. Brave as we are, we even watched this from a safe distance. Cool!

Slowly but surely, we approached our destination for today. Passing the smallest Post Office in the USA, we enjoyed the impressive nature of the Everglades. We all practically pressed our noses against the car window to finally see a wild animal - after all, alligators and panthers are warned about at every corner. Unfortunately, we were not granted this experience today (apart from monster mosquitoes), but if we succeed tomorrow, we at least already know that we should keep a minimum distance of 4.5 meters to these animals. After a six-hour drive, we reached Everglades City, a very very very charming little town, to put it kindly...but well, I chose it myself! It got entertaining when we tried to check in at the Everglades Motel. The colleague at the reception desk asked me kindly if we had made a reservation. Confidently, I affirmed this and gave her my name...her reaction did not bode well. Her empty gaze and a hesitant shake of the head, coupled with the words 'not with us', should probably make it clear that something was not right here. Well...here it was again - the aggravation of the day! The motel was actually fully booked and without us. Fortunately, our reservation confirmation in black and white was able to motivate the lady to solve our little shared problem. After about 45 minutes, we were already in the room of our alternative hotel, 'The Ivey House'. We share the room here with two geckos, which can be found either on the wall or under the bed. The rest is quickly told...the curbstones are folded up here at 9 pm, which means that we are high and dry tonight...it happens. ;-)

Tomorrow, we will see wild animals...hopefully!