Road Trip

Firstly thank you to everyone for the stars and comments on the white heron a few days ago. I'm not good at commenting on Blip at the best of times, let alone while travelling.

We said goodbye to the Cleveland gang this morning - they are off home, and we are off on a bit of a road trip for 8 days. It's been a rewarding (and tiring) week with young C.
Note to self...never rent a car through Thrifty (USA). You think you are booking online direct but you've been shunted off to an outfit called "cartrawler" in Dublin Ireland. We should have suspected when we couldn't find any insurance details online (a sign of 3rd party involvement), but there was no URL indication to alert us. So at the pick up desk we find that the minimum insurance charges are more than double the actual rental fee. The only way to get our deposit back was to ring Ireland...really !!  Fortunately the payment was still pending, so our bank managed to stop the transaction and we cancelled the booking. Another company gave us a car for a price including rental and full insurance far less than Thrifty's minimal insurance costs alone. All's well that ends well.
Headed south through fairly continuous built up coastal areas. First stop Fort Myers, staying in a room overlooking the Caloosahatchee River. A better outcome than our initial expectations, having started the drive feeling rather tired and a bit fractious. Excellent meal at a nearby restaurant and a good nights sleep. Hopes for good experiences to come.