Alan's writing this blog entry, albeit a little late. If Sarah has anything to add it will be in purple.
Our 4 and a half hour flight from Las Vegas to Orlando passed by quickly as we both slept through most of it. We arrived in at 5.45am, which was 2.45am Vegas time and made our way to the car rental place after picking up our bags. We were second in line but unfortunately at that time of morning there was only one person serving at the counter and the person in front of us took over 30 minutes to complete his business. Eventually we finished there and ventured outside, at which time we were instantly hit by a wall of humidity. Once again, we asked for a compact vehicle and were again given an upgrade because they had none left. Actually he offered us an upgrade for US$9 a day and we didn't want it. It would appear we got it anyway. This time we are driving a Mercury Grand Marquis, which is big and very luxurious.
We made our way out onto the streets just as it was getting light. We quickly found that Orlando, or probably all of Florida, have the ridiculous habit of naming their main roads and freeways by 3 or 4 different names as well as a number. This makes it pretty darn difficult for someone who's never been there before. After driving around for ages we finally found our hotel and were very lucky that they let us check-in early in the morning. Actually, I had detailed instructions including the fact that we needed to get to the 192. He thought it should have been I-92, so he took the 92 NOT the 192. Had he taken the 192 we would have made it here a lot earlier. We were desperate for a shower before we hit the road again to Kennedy Space Centre.
A quick phone call ensured that our places were still reserved on the tour as we didn't fancy driving a 3 hour round trip if we weren't going to get in. Despite being barely able to keep our eyes open we headed off toward the Atlantic Ocean, including a 37 mile stretch of dead straight road. We made it in one piece and made our way inside.
Sarah decided to have a clumsy attack once again and managed to somehow hurt her foot making walking very diificult for her and at a snails pace. Hardly a clumsy attack. It happened whilst I was sleeping on the plane. I thought it was just a cramp but it got worse over the day to the stage where I really couldn't walk. Luckily for us the tour was by bus and we only had to get off now and then to look at something. I can't really go into too much detail about the tour as I fell asleep every time we got on the bus and was pretty much sleepwalking when we got off to view bits and pieces. The tour was really interesting and I enjoyed it.
I was actually awake on the bus ride returning to the main entrance when we saw a big fat turtle making it's way across the road ahead of us. The driver tried to stop, but came to a halt with the turtle under us and it took about a minute before he thankfully came plodding out the other side seemingly oblivious to the danger. There were a few more things we could have seen and done but we were too tired and Sarah's foot was hurting too much. And Alan was in grumpy sleepy mode.
After getting back to our hotel we went straight to sleep for a few hours before waking up for dinner and an hour of television and then it was back to bed for a decent nights sleep. The hotel is brilliant. It is in a very quiet area and it is a totally non smoking hotel. Another plus, it has a laundry, and we needed it!!
Trivia for the day: There sure is a lot of rainfall here for a place called The Sunshine State. Jacksonville is currently underwater and rain is predicted for every one of our 10 days here in Orlando.
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