Welcome to Miami, Buenvenidos a Miami!

So after a local tip from some friendlies in Indiantown, we speed packed the tent and gear just before the rain started to fall. Seeing as how we didn't want to sleep in the car again we high tailed it to Miami. We arrived at our destination around 9:30 and were greeted by the ever majestic Luis Nassar.

We were happy to taste the newest batch of Nassty brews and grab some showers before we passed out for the night. During the next day we relaxed by the pool and waited for Luis to come home from school. That night Nadine threw a rager for her friend who was turning 50! The party was awesome! Lets just say some Nassty brews and a few munchkin games later and Danny was crushing the salsa out on the dance floor for hours. 

 Gaia looks over the pool area

Got the boats out for a bit

Big man back flips

On Friday night Dan flew into town. Cue best weekend ever!

The next few days were filled with friends, food, laughter and football. We got to see our friend Emma and for the weekend we were all a happy family. Cant get much better than that. We would like to thank Nadine, Luis, and Dan for all of the hospitality, and the police for keepin' it real.

We left Miami today and the plan was to go straight to Alabama but unfortunately our car was having some questionable lights come on so we decided to stop back in Orlando for the night and fix the car tomorrow. 

Things I Learned Camping in the Everglades

After leaving Orlando we spent a night on a beautiful beach South of Tampa at a bougie lil campground. Danny and Eric had a jam session as the sun went down and we watched some movies in the tent using the provided power outlet.                                                                                                                                                               

                                      

 In the morning we found a free campground in the Dupuis Management Area, East of Lake Okeechobee. It is one of the Northernmost points on the "Everglades Trail," according to the pamphlets, and was set to be closed for hunting only a few days after we arrived. It was one of my favorite areas we've gotten to explore since we started the trip and I learned a lot about life in my time there:

-Alligators don't want to wrestle
-Snakes are everywhere
-Every single spider looks terrifying
-Screaming from excitement scares away wild piglets
-Egrets are always in the way
-Things go bump in the night
-Palm fronds burn really well
-Trust the locals for weather reports

 

   Danny's loves of subway and small talk with clerks earned us a hot tip on an incoming rainstorm. We packed up after two days and headed for Miami..

Our 500 mile journey

Our early morning started at a fresh 11 am, in the beautiful Potomac Maryland region, at the lovely home of my (Danny) aunt and uncle's Naomi  and Johnny.  The provided us with a quick breakfast and then it was off with us to the Smithsonian zoo in D.C.  Along the way we called upon an old camp friend Jane Johnston to come and join in on the the amazing deal at the zoo.  FREE.  We actually were able to make it to two zoo's since the first one we went to looked a little bit more like a man in a lawn chair in front of his house than a zoo but that's what the gps told us.  Then we made our way to the second zoo which looked a little bit more like a zoo and less like a rural neighborhood. We then met up with Jane at the zoo and spent the afternoon seeing some beautiful animals here is some of what we saw.


After the zoo we spent an amazing evening at Luke's mom's house in Virginia for dinner. We had some delicious Thai soup and a party for his sisters birthday.  In the picture to follow you will see Luke and his beautifully carved pumpkin.  After dinner we headed back to D.C to meet back up with Jane and meet another former camper in Ben Kessler.  We ended up at a bar in D.C with some great live jazz band playing just for us.  We ended our night with see you laters and headed back to my aunt in Maryland.  The next morning we woke up bright and early (11 am) to head out on our next leg, the 9 hour drive to see Kellianne in Kentucky.