From there see the neighborhoods, talk to shop owners, stop off at the local police station, fire houses, maybe even stop people on the street. Listen to the sounds, smell the air (sounds freaky but are there objectionable odors in some area around here in East Egg), walk along some side streets and what have you. And who knows, meet up with a few people I know from FB.
Of course stop at one or two tourist atteactions, gotta have some fun.
This way I will know more about the areas and get a better feel about leaving NY for the Keys and make the Keys our home.
But the first thing is to get there. My wife refuses to fly so that is ruled out. So we will need to go overland.
One method is to take Amtrak to Miami, rent a car and head to the Keys. Problem here is making sure that we make all the connections. The train gets into Miami after the car rental places close so that means a hotel stay when we arrive. Unless they will meet us at the station at 6PM. And since the train leaves in the morning, another hotel stay the night before. And the pray that we can drop off the car and make it to the train on time.
Plus getting through Penn Station is no fun at all no matter what.
We could drive the entire distance. But 1,400 miles is a long drive. If I push we could do it in 24 hours non stop. But we are not up to that. It would be brutal. So we could make it in two days with a stop over in South Carolina. If we do three days and take our time but that would add two more hotel stays.
So I figure a two day trip would fit the bill. And we really do not need a fancy hotel since it is on my dime and not the companies.
Next I need to decide if should we take our car or rent one. If we rent one that is less wear and tear on our car plus break downs are the responsibilty of the rental company. That would add extra costs to the trip by $400 right off the bat.
Or we could take the autotrain but that is very expensive. In fact that is the most expensive way to go and we again have to bust ass to make it to the station in Virginia and in Florida for the return trip on time. Sorry but I am tired of rushing around.
So driving will be the way to go.
Logistically the trip is straight forward. Get off of Long Island which can be a feat to begin with, jump onto the NJ Turnpike which is I-95 and stay there until south of Miami where we pick up US-1 which will take right into Key West. Relative easy. No GPS required for the most part.
Doing the trip is going to be brutal no matter what especially since we have never done such a long haul before. So to make it easier on us I figured take a break every two hours to stretch the legs. Not knowing where we are going to take these breaks I need some sort of plan as to what is available.
I looked at the I-95 Guide on the internet and they give some places but not many. In some states they have nothing listed. So I am doing a very painful method of using Google Earth and Street View to locate 'bail outs' and potential rest areas. I travel I-95 to each exit and locate places like McDonalds mainly for bathroom usage, gas stations, and hotels that are not too far from the highway. I have even spotted a few truck stops that will do. A few truck stops have great food BTW.
From there I am putting push pins on each of the places. From there I am going to see if I can migrate them to my GPS on the laptop. I like to use the laptop with a GPS receiver for it gives better data than my Magellan and the screen is a lot larger too. That makes navigation easier.
My wife balances it on her lap with it resting on her pocketbook. She has even fell asleep like that and the laptop never moved. To power it I have an inverter that I plug into the cigarette lighter for 120VAC power and that has worked very well for us.
With the bail outs entered into the laptop, we would have a constant reference as to where to jump if nature makes a call or to walk off a few highway miles.
Along with that I am creating a spreadsheet with the more critical stops and listings of the tolls. That is also going to be on the laptop and PDF copies on my iPad for quick reference.
In case of break downs, I have some tools but with the way cars are today I would need to have a full repair shop in the trunk which is not happening. So I am going to have to join AAA for road side assistance. I just hope they are a lot more honest than what we have here.
I worked at a service station that was AAA many years ago and they guy that owned it was a crook. When he towed a car in, it was dinner time on the poor driver. So I have to be very careful.
On the spreadsheet I am also going to make a list of hospitals and emergency services. You never know if you need their help but hope that you don't. With the traveling we have done in the past only once did a highway car stop for us while I changed a flat. He gave us the protection of his roof rack flashing while I worked.
So when we are ready to make the trip, and I hope it is soon, I will have all of my ducks lined up ready to take the plunge to leave NY for paradise.
'till next time
No comments:
Post a Comment