minute we sat down.
'Well, what have you heard?' Came our cautious reply.
They knew more about her than we did.
We spent the rest of the morning driving to Clearwater, via a stop at a
roadside sunglasses stall. As Emma drove I tried to find us a camp for the
night, normally a fairly simple task as most places only have a few campsites
to choose from. On this occasion it took a lot longer, in part due to
indecisiveness and a plethora of sites to choose from, but also because lots of
camps were booked up - an omen of difficult times to come.
We settled on Indian Rocks Beach, a nice site with a heated pool and
five minutes walk to the beach. It was also the dearest camp that we had
stayed at yet - two and a half times the cost of the previous camp, and no
doughnuts!
We made the most of a sunny day by staying outside until dusk, first on
the beach but then retreating to the pool due to windy weather and noisy
seagulls. The birds were actually quite entertaining, regimented by one who
controlled their 'attacks' on our lunch, and survived several attempted coups
by the other birds following his failure to secure our food.
Another short drive took us to Bradenton near Sarasota and a second relaxing
day in a row.... it was starting to feel like a regular holiday! The journey
involved crossing Tampa Bay on an impressive (but unfortunately toll) bridge.
We were treated to a sunny view of the bay on one side and the Gulf on the
other.