theDIBB - Going Out in a Blaze of Glory - Summer of Sorcery 2019 -DAY 26- South to sunshine at Doral

Welcome back, you made it:thumbs-up, I hoped you would.

A day on the move once more:cool2:

If you missed our Clearwater cloudburning experience it can be read here

The whole index if you have missed all of the previous days, years, trip reports - are a click here away.

Welcome to Day 26:wavey:

Sunday 18th August 2019

We got up early and kept our fingers crossed that the weather had improved, it was cloudy and warm, but the forecast was for much of what we had experienced so far.
Conundrum set!

Stay and hope for the best or just move on and see what heading South brings!

My basic skills. that recognised a flight detour to Chicago instead of Washington (just check out the map!)
In December 2010 was not a good manoeuvre by the pilot.

Today, I was driving and going South made sense for the same reason you don’t fly North in December!

That trip report – remains unpublished, yet has the title “From Despair to Where…”

It was intended as our first, but a certain Volcanic eruption happened and being snowed out of Washington, quickly seemed somewhat irrelevant.:erm:

Today, we decided to hit the road and start that journey South, that turn southwards we had all dreaded, it meant a realisation that all of this was coming to an end, something we really did not even want to contemplate. :(

We all hoped that moving South meant for some better weather!

It was a slow farewell to Clearwater, I have to admit that we have grown to like this place, having avoided it so much since our first visit in 2013.

Yes, there are so many beautiful places to stay in this area, Anna Maria Island especially and Treasure Island too.

However, Clearwater is so close to Tampa and has so much to offer anyone coming here, it seems to lure you back!

As we drove towards the interstate, We stopped for one final quick Super Target check for a Tampa Bay Rays baseball tee shirt for Joe- persistence finally paid off!
As we found one that was reasonably priced and has since proved a well worn addition to his vast array of sporting shirts!

It also meant that it felt as if we must have visited nearly every Walmart and Super Target in the state of Florida:pgig:

We also got some sandwiches and wraps for the car to save having to stop again- when we started all of these trips the thought of buying a sandwich or a wrap from a supermarket was never an option, it seems that a little bit of UK snack marketing has crossed over the other way!

The journey South was long, boring and one which saw so many minutes snipped off the ETA that we were on a roll:spin:- I was being careful not to put the foot down too much but to watch the ETA time reduce it made for vigilant driving with eyes fixed for those lovely highway patrol people!

Alligator Alley (what a great name for a road) was quiet and in the heat of the day you felt the car slowly melting into the road surface as you drove.

It did give those in the passenger seats the opportunity to catch up on some sleep though!

Enough time for the Sat Nav to end it’s little moody and add another hour onto the ETA time:erm: – which made for an interesting conversation when everyone woke up! They really did feel as if they had snoozed for a matter of minutes!
It also meant my driving could no longer be deemed as being worthy of Smokey and the Bandit!

We had decided that a final night stopover was going to be the best way of getting to Miami Airport without allowing the blood pressure to rise as the traffic or an accident causes a long delay to your journey.

As big golf fans we had booked a great deal at the golfing mecca that is Doral, we then later found it was a bargain because the courses close in August to avoid them getting baked in the Miami sun!

A golf resort with no golf:omg: , but all the same we got some photos of an incredible place that you could just dream of staying if it were in prime golf season. Might need to start saving up now!

We arrived into Doral just after 2-30, our room was ready – we were in the Arnold Palmer Villa. There were so many amazing photos and memorabilia it was a wonderful tribute to Mr Palmer himself.

With the weather here decidedly better than further North , and better than at home too, we changed quickly and hit the pool for some sunshine.

As we found on our arrival 26 days ago , planes landing at MIA travel overhead at Doral, as we used the poolside free Wi-Fi to use our PlaneFinder and Flight Radar apps watching and hearing the aircraft that flew overhead and finding their origin was great fun, yet it brought a sudden realisation this magical adventure was all about to end, we would be Transatlantic and One Step Closer to Home, this time Tomorrow.

We lapped up the sunshine and having brought the beer and soft drink remnants of the fridge from Clearwater with us, avoided the bar prices in the hotel!

The water in the room fascinated us all - with the boys being told no matter how thirsty they were not to even think about it!

Around 6.30 we explored the hotel – there was a Jewish celebration in the hotel, it was such a lavish occasion and the sheer decadence of the outfits was somewhat enchanting, especially since we were in tee shirts, shorts and pool attire!

The golf shop proved a popular stop as Josh got a golf rain jacket, half price as they don’t have need for rain jackets and to be honest the boys resisted the temptation of buying stuff badged with a place we had not played golf.

We found a local Millers a few miles away and got an Uber there.

We enjoyed such a good chat , just looking back on everything that had happened is the past few weeks, all the amazing things we had planned that had come to fruition and the many, many things that had happened that will make for so many happy memories that will live in perpetuity in each of us.

We chose the steak tonight and as always the food in Millers was good.

Our server was less so! They were ok in the serving bit but just kept getting things wrong

Beer instead of cider, Water instead of lemonade amongst others!

Thing is it mattered not one iota, the conversation shared took centre stage tonight and as a result I'm sure if they even forgot the desserts we would not have noticed. We might have missed this doughnut creation though!

We got an Uber back, soaked up the beauty of the place from the balcony of the room, overlooking the dark golf courses and with thoughts turning to home.

Day 27/28 and more is here