Today was pack up and move day. We are very quick and organised at this by now and so despite still being in breakfast at 8.45am we were packed and in the car by 9.30am.
I put the address of the villa into the Sat Nav and set off. It wasn’t until about 15 minutes later than I realised we were heading in a completely different direction to that I was expecting. Instead of heading south initially then joining up with the I4 around Tampa we were heading north. Now I know to normally trust the route set and so followed it and although we were not on Interstate roads the route was fine and took up through parts of Florida we had not seen before including Clermont. We did join up with the I4 eventually but actually at Orlando and then headed south on it. The drive took about 2 hours. I assumed it had routed us this way due to congestion around Tampa on the I4.
We had an interesting discussion driving along about the pride the Americans have in their flag whereas in the UK our flag seems to have been hijacked by the far right. Many houses and businesses over here even in the smallest of places display their flag, I believe this is regardless of their political persuasion. Karen thinks in the UK we should do so as well. What interests me as well is that over here people will also fly local state flags at the same time. This shows they are proud to be Floridian and proud to be part of the USA. That just would not happen at home. I don’t believe you would get many English people who would say they are proud to be English and fly the St George’s flag at the same time as same time saying they are proud to be British and flying the Union flag (even fewer Scottish or Welsh). Brexit has polarised positions even further.
As we knew we were going to be too early to get into the villa we first made our way to Premium Outlets to do some shopping and get some lunch. As usual the close car parks were chaotic and so we just parked at the annex and walked the short distance to the shops instead. We both purchased a couple of items at the Old Navy outlet before wandering across the road to the food court. Karen queued up for drinks for us at Starbucks whilst I went and got us a couple of pieces of Pizza for lunch.
We spent another hour wandering round the shops before moving the car to the close-by Publix supermarket to stock up before driving to the Villa.
We had booked the same Villa that we stayed in from when we were here in May so it was like coming home. Even the cleaning materials we had hidden behind the boiler were still there waiting for us. We unpacked and sat outside for a hour enjoying the fine weather. I managed to catch up with the reports from another fine victory I had missed at Carrow Road.
Normally on our first night back in Orlando we go to Disney Springs, but Karen was feeling under the weather with a cold so we thought we would leave that until tomorrow. Instead we went for our first Outback of the trip and mighty fine it was too. The steaks and flavourings coupled with the Idaho Baked Potato are unbelievably good. The server tonight was excellent too. We nipped in a couple of shops on the way back to get them out of the way before the boys arrive.
In the Villa we opened some wine and I set up the VPN on the laptop to allow Karen to watch the Halloween Strictly Special on the iPlayer before retiring for the night.
