Wednesday morning 11am - we left Key West for the drive back North, we were going to stay for a few days at one of the other 'Keys' on the way back up – perhaps Marathon Key or Key Largo, but we had driven through/past them on the way down, there were loads of speed boats and cruisers up for sale alongside the highway and several tatty looking redneck trailer parks, the trailer parks did put us off a bit. These particular Keys looked good fun if you are into camping, fishing, boating/diving and stuff like that but as we don’t do any of that we passed; perhaps we pre-judged them but nevertheless we decided against it and changed our plans.
So after Kew West we were looking at an apartment in Fort Lauderdale for 10 days or so – we’re a bit sick of the sight of hotel rooms and wanted some stability for a week or so with a bit more space - 'hotelled out' is the phrase I believe. Fort Lauderdale holds a place very dear to my heart - I spent 8 sunny days there in January 1990 on a job - and Uncle Sam paid.
We found out to our cost that a there is not a lot left available as this is peak season here and a the majority are up for rent for a minimum of 30 days, picking one up for 10 days is a little bit more challenging and in any case, our agent here was having trouble contacting the agents for the one apartment she found that was was available.
She couldn’t reach the agents to book it by the time we left Key West so realistically we had nowhere to lay our heads on Wednesday night. We didn’t want to stay in Key West another night so, whilst our agent tried to get hold of the agents for the apartment in Fort Lauderdale, we said we’d drive up to Miami, its on the way to FL anyway and the 4 hour drive up would give her a bit more time to sort things – confused . . . so was Tre . . . .
At 4pm we were at Miami Beach and we called her but still no joy with the condo - so thats confirmed - we were officially homeless vagrants, 4 great big Samsonite suitcases, a car that costs a fortune to park (in Miami even the meters take credit cards), and no bed for the night - and there was certainly no room to sleep in the car, not that Mrs Waterman even considered that . . . but I suppose there are worse places to be stranded than in Miami Beach - and it was hot.
Sue (our agent – she has been good to us) rung around and rescued us, we managed to avoid the vagrant shelter and the YMCA and she got us a bed for a few nights at the Shelborne Hotel on Collins, (WWW.Shelborne.com) - it’s a pretty cool Art Deco type hotel we've got an Ocean view for a change, and the hotel backs right onto South Beach and it's just few blocks away from the ultra sexy Ocean Drive and Lincoln Road where all the restaurants and bars are.
Where we go from here on Friday morning is still being worked on – I guess there’s always the beach !!
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