Familiarity helps when jet-lagged

The Alamo guy dangled the usual carrots to persuade us to upgrade from "the smallest car on the planet" ( obviously he's never seen a Smart car or a "sin carnet" in Spain).  We insisted that a Fiat 500 would be fine.  On arriving at the parking lot we could choose between 3 cars: 2 500's and........a Nissan Note!    Result!   So we're driving an up to date version of our own Spanish car.


The journey to Port Charlotte was easy.  We swapped from our original plan of Interstate all the way when we hit heavy traffic and road works near Disney World, striking off cross country down the " back roads".  There was still some traffic at first but that petered out as we hit the rural stretch between Winterhaven and Punta Gorda.  Almost 100 miles in ranching country whith big herds of Herefords, Aberdeen Angus and mixed cattle with occasional long horns.  The settlements are small with many shacks, often failing to meet "ramshackle" status.  Presumably these are the homes of the local Hispanic  farm labourers.  Nearing the West Coast these are replaced by vast RV camps.  Some are luxurious with golf courses but others feature park homes, rather like Nissen huts, crammed closely together.  These are the winter  quarters for cash-strapped snow birds.

Our villa on the lake is just as we remembered it.  We were welcomed by our "Go -to -guy" Steve followed shortly by the resident  gator swimming slowly by.  We felt instantly at home!

Day one has dawned -at 4.30 for me -with thick fog over the lake but the sun is already breaking through.