25 - Homeward bound
The day that we left Key West was hot and sunny, typical weather for setting
out for or coming home from holidays. As we drove away from the campsite
the next thing I noticed - after the weather - were the flags in people’s gardens
and outside many of the businesses too. Americans seem to be obsessed
with them and we saw them everywhere we went during our 13-week trip.
Perhaps they are worried that tourists will claim territory while on vacation, so
they remind everyone that the country is theirs? Given the track record of
European visitors to the continent this seems to be a reasonable fear.
The journey was fairly uneventful as we cruised up Route 1 through the Keys.
When we got to Homestead we stopped at Denny's for brunch (obviously),
and then Kinko's for emailing, just for old times sake. After this stop we
changed to the I95 to make better progress, and immediately (and ironically)
hit traffic. While Emma drove I sat on the bed and sorted through my
treasured collection of souvenir leaflets, or as Emma called it 'my three carrier
bags full of crap'. I managed to reduce this down to two bags, while avoiding
smashing my head open every time Emma had to brake and I was slung
forwards off the bed.
We had to return Harvey to West Palm Beach the next morning, cleaned and
full of petrol and gas, and empty of unpleasant ‘waters’, so we were very keen
to get settled on a campsite and start this process. Well, ‘keen’ is not really
the word, as we knew it would be a laborious few hours. ‘Anxious’, that is the