Delray Beach

Tuesday 3^rd November

Headed out along 192 east towards Melbourne. The first 1.5 hours was stop start at the traffic lights which seem to pop up every half mile. Then it was into the country. Two lanes of bliss. Didn’t have to contend with the lane swapping brain dead that we seem to have gotten used to on the Orlando roads.

 

Then it was onto the International 95, four lanes of madness. The Kamikaze drivers were the heavy trucks, weaving from fast to slow lane, cutting people up. In fact there isn’t a fast lane, there are four or five fast lanes.

Managed to get to Palm Greens resort unscathed and into Ellens condo in Delray Beach.

You don't realise what effect the humidity, heat and bugs have on a property.
We worry about keeping a place warm and stop it from freezing. But here in Florida it's totally the opposite.

 Insects manage to get into everywhere and the place gets mouldy, both inside and out if you don’t keep your air conditioning on, walls crack, plaster flakes and it smells. Fortunately Ellen had left the ac on, but the bugs had piled up and mould had taken hold in certain areas.

Nevertheless, the area is green and plush. All the houses and condos wrap round the golf course and leisure complex.

  

Wednesday 4^th November

Went over to the clubhouse and into the condo management suite. Can’t say we found them very accommodating, it was like pulling teeth to extract any information from the girl on the desk. She wanted to know what we wanted!

There was no warmth whatsoever, we were an inconvenience in her busy schedule. Eventually got a form that we took to the manager of the club house, who duly filled out the security passes.

 

Utilised the free Wifi to check out the car hire situation and contact our friends in Fort Lauderdale. Then it was onto google map to locate the library, hairdressers, food shops and Thrifty the car hire company.

Temperature first thing is 110 degrees, and humid. Starting to sweat from all over. Pleased when the AC  kicks in.

 

Thursday 5^th November

Up early, breakfast of porridge, it’s a fast day, and then walk to the club house to use the broadband to request quotes for cruises and rental car. Then it’s on the phone to sort out the cable TV. Two phone calls and an hour later and they still have not got it sorted. Eventually get through to a girl with her computer working, who finds the account and tells me it’s already switched on. Explain its not working, so she tells me to go to the box. But l can’t, l’m in the club house. At which point the phone goes dead. That sounds familiar.

So it’s back to Judith and we head out to Thrifty. Car hire in December had us returning the car on 1^st January. But would they give us a lift to the railway station. The answer was quite succinct. Firstly, they are not open on the 1^st and they do not have a drop off facility. But we can take it back on the 31^st, as long as it’s before 2pm.Only difficulty is getting back to the apartment on the 31^st and then getting to the railway station on the 1^st. Sure we will be able to resolve it. Bus back to the library on the 31^st and walk back.  Then taxi on the 1^st if we can find one! Sure we can.

 

We drive to the beach and along the coastal road up to Boynton. Most of the accessible beach has parking meters. Just before the bridge at Boynton we found a national park, with free parking, toilets, covered picnic area and various places for fishing. Great.

 

Reverse our route and head South past all the amazingly expensive houses with either intercostal or sea views.

Once back in downtown Delray Beach, the town section, we drive up and find 8 hour free parking. Walk down to the beach, which was glorious, although well used, before returning past the beach and then the town shops, all of which seem to be suffering from lack of trade. Possibly due to the lack of parking. Nearly every shop had large handwritten signs proclaiming discounts, end of season sale.

Friday 6^th November.

A day sorting out the broadband, which we did to a fashion. Go through all the kit home quotes, which now require further investigation. Eat a giant pizza for tea. In fact we only cooked half of it and froze the rest for another day, and it was still too much. But delightful. Not quite as good as ours in France, cooked in the wood burning pizza oven.

 

Saturday 7^th November

Into a set routine now, up early and walk around the golf course . Back for a shower and then breakfast. Down to the inlet and fish, relax, read and picnic out. Then later in the afternoon, back home for coffee and then the library. Use the internet, read some and take some DVDs out. The library is amazing. You can take 50 items out at a time. But DVD’s have to be returned within 7 days.

Manage to extract all the major releases that we had missed over the past year. Great opportunity to relax with feet up, vodka martini in hand and sit back and absorb.

Fortunate really as we still don’t have any TV, although l have phone twice more.

 

 

Sunday 8^th November

Go to the club house and catch up with the blog. It’s taken some time to get the photos off the camera. In the past l have just put the card into the computer, but we decided that it would be easier to just bring the tablets. But my Microsoft Tablet would not accept the reader. So we buy a card reader for the ipad. And then Judith’s ipad is full of the cruise and Disney photos.

I won’t tell you how difficult it is to get them into the blog. The blog is Google. Say no more. Apple, Microsoft and Google all hate one another, and therefore try to make it impossible to share information. But we manage in the end.

I am going to tell you. It’s also to remind me in the years to come.

The ipad  automatically transfers the photos to my iphone. I can then email myself 5 at a time to myself.

I open then up on my Microsoft surface and save them. I can then open up google and add them.

I KNOW YOU DIDN’T WANT TO KNOW HOW DIFFICULT IT IS.

Then its lunch after which we go to the library. Yes in the States they are open on Sundays after 2pm.

Do our evening walk, another couple of miles, and then dinner followed by another martini and another movie.

Days roll together in a simple route, although on Tuesday we head over to Fort Lauderdale and see George and John for lunch in their new home by the side of the canal. Fantastic time.

On the way home we travel along the A1A, down by the shore, passing hotels, condos and of course the big ostentatious faux Venetain mansions. Then it went dark, the clouds filled the sky, and it rained. The temperature was well over 100 degrees, and it was steamy. The lightening came and within five minutes the rain had stopped. But then Judith noticed a Tornado reaching down to earth. WOW. Never see one before.

Get home and the air is cooler and its only 92 degrees.

From all accounts the weather is all upside down. Summer should have ended and winter taken hold. But it hadn’t. The birds love it and the grass grows and grows.

 

Twister forming as we drive back along the A1A

 

Wednesday 11^th November

Veterans day here. And the club commemorates it with some WW2 veterans attending. For us, it’s another day, same as, same as. Walk, eat, swim, walk, eat. Drink and another DVD. BUT THE TV IS NOW WORKING. 500 channels of adverts. Most of them about drugs and there side effects.

Judith is getting boarded here, perhaps due to the aged community that we are embroiled in. So its onto the internet and the lookout for good cruise deals.

Plus we walk round the boardwalk and see many birds and the odd alligator.