The Golden Van: Florida

Thirty six hours in Florida, three flights, and getting a lot done is what I have been doing so far this week. As I write I am awaiting my return flight to Buenos Aires which for some reason known only to American Airlines first delivers me to distant New York where I transfer to a 12 hour overnight flight landing in Argentina on Thursday afternoon. That’s the summary of the past couple of days and the next 24 hours. Layne stayed with Rusty as a cold front swept Buenos Aires and our magical cabin heater stopped heating.

The failure of the SIM cards in both our iPhone 12 minis was the proximate cause of our sudden decision to send me, the account holder of our Verizon account, to Miami. Apparently changing the batteries in the phones prompted the connection to Verizon to be lost. The sales woman in Homestead told me we could have called Verizon (using WiFi) to have the connection re-established so next time I’ll know before I buy airline tickets.

However after six years it was time to improve our vital communication tools so I suppose it’s no bad thing to have iPhone 18 telephones not least because the screen’s larger and my eyesight is weaker…envy those youths!

I have been flying in commercial airliners since before I can remember. I was born in England and I was baptized in Italy and my parents got divorced when I was 12 so three times a year I would fly from London to Rome and back on school vacations from Hogwarts in England where I was educated. I have no fear of flying but I hate the process especially in these fear filled days of inspections and intrusions and bionetrics shd suspicion and furthermore switching cultures and climates in the time it takes to travel 5,000 air miles is disorienting to me, so I suffer the process to achieve a goal.

I prefer GANNET2’s cabin to the tube I sat in for nine hours Monday night on a Boeing 777. The ravioli dinner was gloopy and the one screeching infant did not help life aboard the fully laden aircraft as we labored north against strong headwinds. Layne had organized the car rental which got me a tall Jeep Wrangler to drive around in on Tuesday.

One of the great pleasures of GANNET2’s front wheel drive is the low floor of the Promaster van which with running boards requires no agility at all. I did Tuesday inserting a leg into the Wrangler and then hopping my right buttock up onto the seat and wiggling to get fully aboard. Stepping out absentmindedly threatened to spill me face first onto the pavement as my foot flailed in the air.

It got the job done with strong a/c for the 90 degree humid day. It was quite the trick to pick up the car at six am in the dark, remember to lay out my Google mapping to Homestead using Hertz’s free WiFi and then not touch that phone lest I lost the route after I lost the signal. No SIM card is a curse.

The food I miss most from the states is biscuits. Sam’s were highly reviewed but I found it not great but it got the job done with a fillet of catfish and endless coffee. Ah, America! I miss you.

It wasn’t busy at dawn but a conversation drifted over from a nearby booth, a man with a loud voice preaching to a soul in distress which made the nostalgic homecoming complete even for an agnostic like myself.

Best of all the diner had WiFi so I entered the highly rated Russell Verizon store at 2929 8th Street in Homestead and steered the very high ground clearance Wrangler due east on some nasty torn up asphalt worthy of Ruta 40 in Argentina.

They opened at 9 and at 9:01 I was talking to the manager Lizbeth. I was done with two new phones, accessories and a fully functioning Verizon account less than two hours later.

I know this is is routine but after three years of coping with the vagaries of businesses south of the border to be able to walk in and get it all done easily and efficiently was a joy. It’s also a healthy reminder that we are aliens as we drive through foreign lands.

Up next a visit to the bank to sign some papers only now I had a working phone with full 5g capabilities. It was five years it’s five years ago almost exactly when we passed the sign shown above when we set off on retirement. October 25th 2021 leaving the Keys:

When I got to First State Bank in Key Largo an enthusiastic customer was showing off her new puppy to an appreciative clerk. It’s September and this low season and I enjoyed the pace, not least because people who appreciate dogs can do no wrong.

I had a honey do list from the boss so that involved Publix (Marmite) and Trader Joe’s (Taco Seasoned Beef sticks..?) on carefully laid out instructions. We tend to think of supermarkets in Argentina Chile and Brazil as being pretty comprehensive but even a relatively modest Publix in the Keys is a thing of choice and wonder by comparison.

There is no doubt I am ready to return. We’ve been gone a long time and I wonder if we will have the energy to drive back this far south Simone last turn around Patagonia seems like a good idea. Brazil has some beaches we need to check out but I figure in six months or so we will be pointing due north.

We’ve driven far and wide across the States but there’s lots more to check out and I am ready for a change of pace. Simple things such as described here have taken on the freshness of the new and believe me I noticed the creative smoothness of the roads even as I negotiated the sometimes heavy traffic.