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After three days in Miami we hired a car to go cruising for the rest of the trip! Because the Yanks use a different date format to our own, I lied about the birthdate printed on my driver's license (saying it was January 6 instead of June 1) so they thought I was over 25 and hence didn't charge us the additional $25/day insurance cost for an under-25 driver. Good scam! What's more, the guy's birthday at the rental agency is January 2, so since he thought we were both Capricorns he gave us a free upgrade (standard car instead of compact) - hahaha better scam! Anyway, this was our ride for the next week and a bit: a Chrysler PT Cruiser! After immediately getting hopelessly disoriented and lost, we eventually figured it out and were on our way!
Over the next week we saw some interesting stuff on the road. Our first destination was Key Largo in the Florida Keys, 60 miles (100kms) south of Miami. A ludicrous number of cars on the road had bumper stickers with American flags, "Support Our Troops" ribbons and so forth all over their arse.		Bareback!
Every car yard, and I do mean EVERY car yard, has several American flags around the lot. We quickly saw first-hand how self-obsessed the Yanks really are!
Our accommodation for the night had a hammock right on the beach - ahhhhh!		After being bombarded with American flags all day, we decided do like the Yanks and have a really unhealthy dinner of fried chicken, and to top it off with Mo's new favourite food - Key Lime Pie (which is bloody nice!).
The next day we gave the arms a good work out and burnt some of that fried chicken off by canoeing through the mangroves of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo for a couple of hours.
We got sick of sticking to the map towards the end and started venturing off into narrower sections of canals (and getting stuck hehe).
Later in the day we started the 100-mile (160kms) drive south through the Florida Keys to Key West. Along the way we stopped at Sandspur Beach for a break from driving, a bit of a paddle, and to sort out accommodation for the next two nights in Key West.

When you're on holiday you kind of lose track of days of the week, and we didn't realise it was already the weekend hehe. Of the places we called that were listed in the Florida guide book we had with us, the only accommodation we could find was around $200 a night, and there was no way we were paying that. We decided to just head there anyway and hope we could find something cheaper. On the way we passed a visitor centre and went in to ask if they knew of any available accommodation. They didn't, so it was looking as though we'd be spending the night in the car. But then the fella at the visitor centre (Mike) started ummm'ing and ahhh'ing and having a good think about something, before finally asking us where we were from. When we said New Zealand he said, "Ahhh ok, I've only ever heard good things about New Zealand". After a little more thinking and scratching his chin he told us that a mate of his has a house 11 miles down the road that is currently unoccupied since his mate had just bought the place and wasn't moving in until the following week some time. He said since we were from NZ, he'd trust us with the house for a couple of nights for $100/night! It was either that or the car, so we took it!

And this is the house! Decent size, good sunny deck out back, all the mod-cons, cable TV, enough stuff piled up in the cupboards for us to cook with, perfect! We made ourselves right at home :)
Since we'd arrived in the Keys yesterday, we'd been hearing a bit about Hurricane Wilma that swept through here in late 2005 and messed everything up good and proper, and while here Mike told us a bit more about it. Everything you see here was completely flooded, the trees are half dead, and the shot on the right is a deck surrounding what was once a swimming pool before Wilma washed it away.
Wilma also took care of the previous owner's beloved car, and this is all that's left of it. Wilma was a real bastard. It was a category-5 monster, setting numerous records for its strength with some of its most destructive effects felt in Florida. A mandatory evacuation of residents was ordered for the Florida Keys, although media reports suggested that as many as 80% of residents may have ignored the order. Damage from Wilma was extensive and widespread over South Florida due to winds and flooding. After the hurricane had passed, a storm surge from the backwash of up to 8ft from the Gulf of Mexico completely inundated a large portion of the lower Florida Keys (where we are). All up, Wilma was responsible for at least 63 deaths (35 of them in the US, all in Florida) and over $28.9 billion in damages, ranking it among the top five costliest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic and the third costliest storm in US history - ouch!

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