TAMPA (June 7th 2009)

We wake up bright and early AGAIN, whats with that, anyway, off we go. We have the GPS set and we know where we are going. Well that is except for the fact that we are driving on the wrong side of the road!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Driving on the right is a very strange feeling to say the least. As a passenger you are in constant fear. While driving on the freeways, you start feeling like you are drifting into the lane beside you and ohhh you are! As the driver, you feel the white line should be on the other side of you so your brain automatically starts leading you that way. It tales time to relay to the brain that at the moment it is okay to be where we are. It all very weird and unless you have done it, its hard to imagine. So we are driving down the road and Im going " a hmm, ahmmm Dave!!!!!!! Get in your own lane!" He goes, "oh yeah" Not so comforting! After time he thought he was getting better, I didn’t think so. We did however make it in one piece and no one was killed or driven off the road.

The trip to Tampa was very interesting as there was so much to see on the road side. It is so different to our landscape. Well there wasn’t a whole lot to see actually, lots of the same thing for miles, but it was different and that made it interesting to us anyway. We went off the freeway and headed off on the I60 across to Tampa. This road is similar to the road between Christchurch and Oamaru. For those of you who have driven it you know how long and extremely straight it is. Now imagine that but multiply the length by about 4 and you get an idea of what the I60 is like. If you have not been from Chch to Oamaru then let me tell you the road in loooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng and straaaaaaaaaaaaaaaight and feels as though it will never end. We got a couple of pictures of the road but they don’t do it justice. On each side of the road for as far as you could see were orange groves. You could see people with ladders leaned up against the trees picking the fruit. It was quite beautiful. Every now and then a huge open trailer truck would roll by loaded to the brim with oranges, very cool, and very different to the trucks full of cows and sheep in NZ.

While travelling we pass these towns with the weirdest names, we were cracking up laughing trying to pronounce them, try these : Okeechoobee, Thonotasassa just to name a couple. This one made me laugh, Yeehaw Junction!

This whole area is flat, flat, flat. Canterbury Plains got nothing on this area! Quite unbelievable.
Finally we get off this road and are back on a freeway not far from Tampa.

As we drive along Im looking out to my right and what should I see? A huge assembly hall of Jehovahs Witnesses! Not only that, but there was an assembly on and there were brothers and sisters everywhere. It was lovely to see them all going about their worship as we whizzed by. I quickly tried to get the camera but was to slow and missed that Kodak moment. Never mind.
We made it into Tampa at about 12pm and weren’t sure what to do with ourselves as we couldn’t go to Dons sisters place yet. They were going to be out until about 3 in the afternoon. So we decided we would see if we cold find Busch Gardens so we knew where to go in the morning. We found it no trouble and my memory jumped into play. I remembered from my hours of research, that if you buy a ticket you get a second day for free. So we decided on the spot that we would go right then and there. Hows that for spontaneous? The park is open until 9pm so we had plenty of time. We called Lyn and told her where we were and that we would not be home until late. She was not worried and said to go enjoy ourselves which we fully intended to do! Lyn loves Busch Gardens and the roller coasters and couldn’t wait to hear our stories.

If you have never heard of Busch Gardens, which you probably haven’t if you’re a kiwi, then check it out online. It’s the coolest place, often recommended over Disney and Universal Studios! www.buschgradens.com I think is the link. Here they have kind of a zoo amongst the thrill rides. The park is in sections based around particular African themes. In each area are the wild animals related to the theme and then rides that are just as scary as the wild animals. The rides here are among the tallest and fastest rides around!

They have done an incredible job of making you feel like you are in a different country. They also have done a magnificent job of the animal enclosures and the way they string the place together is marvelous. We have tried to capture in on film but again, you just have to be there.

You can take these safari rides through the African jungle. You actually get into a four wheel drive and head off on a trail through the Rhinos, Giraffes, Water Buffalo, Antelope, Elephants, Zebra and so many more. If you want to you can even have an animal encounter! While in this area, you can hardly even see the rides in the park. All there is around you is, Africa, it really feels like you are there.

Our plan was to spend the rest of the day checking out the animals and the park in general and then we would come back the next day and do all the rides. This we did and then at about 6pm there was a massive rain storm. The storm lasted ages and many people left. This was great as it meant that there were heaps less people waiting for the rides and in lost cases you could just get straight on. Yay.

We spent the rest of the day on the Sheikra coaster. This coaster is very cool. This is Americas first dive coaster. It takes you 200 feet into the air and then slowly tilts you to 90 degrees over the edge so you are looking straight at the ground and holds you there for 4 seconds. You are literally relying on the safety braces to hold you in as you are hanging from them. You cannot feel the seat at all! You can not even see the tracks of the coaster and the track inverts under you slightly before in plunges you to the ground. Yeah that was cool! Dave screamed like a girl!!!!!!!!! As there was no line we went on this a number of times and then went and did some of the others too. We left the other big ones for the next day.

We wandered around the park until it closed and then jumped on the little shuttle back to the car. Off to Lyn and Eddies place for the night.

On arriving at Lyn and Eddie place, we were greeted with open arms. What a lovely couple they are. If Don is anything like Lyn then he is treasure too. Experience with Don so far tells me he is. We were encourages to make to home our own and to be comfortable. We were so tired we spent a few hours with them and then headed off for some much needed shut eye. Tomorrow was to be another full on day and we didn’t want to miss any of it.

Dave slept like a baby and I got up the next morning feeling like a zombie. I had not really slept for about 4 days at this point and was death walking. The last thing I wanted to do was walk around for another 12 hours! I pulled myself together, slowly but never the less did and off we went for another wonderful day at the Gardens.

This time we rode every ride in the place and did so over and over again!

At one point it started to rain again quite heavily so we went and bought two ponchos to keep us dry. They are sun yellow and you cant miss them! The rain eased off after a while but again, heaps of people left the park, yipeeee for us again. Today was not that busy anyway so you really didn’t need to wait that long for anything. Another bonus over Disney etc. Oh yeah then there was the survey thing I did that they paid me $75 usd to do! Thank you very much Busch Gardens that just paid for one of our tickets!

These are some of the other rides:
-Kumba, 100 foot plummets and 360 degree spirals all at 130 kmphr
-Montu, you dive and loop in and out of darkness on one of the worlds longest inverted coasters.
-Scorpion, 60 foot drop and three 360 degree loops on after the other.
-Gwazi, the Southeasts largest and fastest double coaster. Its wooden and has 7000 feet of track.
-Tanganyika Tidal Wave, A jungle journey that ends in a drenching 55 foot plunge. Be prepared to get wet.
-Stanley Falls Flume, A splashing trip that ends in a 40 foot drop thats sure to get you soaked.
-Congo River Rapids, Brave a 12 person raft ride through swift white water rapids. (you can pay to try a surprise drenching on people on this ride)
-Rhino Rally, An off road adventure filled with up-close animal encounters and unexpected twists and turns.

There are many more but these are some of the ore exciting rides. We did them all, again, and again.

While on these rides our ponchos came in very handy, everyone came of saturated while we were quite comfortable and dry. What we did get wet, was quite nice as it was a very hot day again. Floridas temperatures were in the high 80’s to low 90’s most days, that’s about 26-32+ degrees Celsius, high humidity, made it hotter.

Overall we loved Busch Gardens, in case you cant tell and would recommend it to everyone. We had so much fun and laughed and screamed our heads off. It was great. We had missed out on a number of other things we would love to have been able to afford to do, but we decided that this one we would folk out for and so be it. It was worth every single penny! We would love to go back there again. There is still so much to see and do, we simply did not have the time to see it all.

We stayed with Lyn and Eddie for only two nights, but we enjoyed their company very much. We would also love to be able to go back there and see them again. They were so welcoming but we really could not spend a whole lot of time with them, that was a real shame. Much love to you guys if you are reading! Thank you Don for arranging that one too!

Just remembered, while at Lyns place, Eddie was telling us about these two alligators that had been living in the pond in the back yard. The pond is quite large and the gators measured approx 8 and 5 feet each. They had to get rid of them as it was believed they ate a neighbors dog!!!!! True story!!! There is now a new alligator in the pond.

Back home to Javiers it was for us. Leaving us just three days in Delray Beach before we leave for Belize, yay!

Here are some funny things we saw on our trip to Tampa:
-There were fire hydrants all along the freeway.
-An alligator living in Eddie and Lyns pond!
-Raccoon road kill.
-Alligator road kill, for real!
-State Prisoners working on the roadsides (there were signs announcing it)
-A sign that read "child swap" ??????
-A house with the street number 20405!!!!! and they kept going!

A useless piece of information for you all: While in the water you can only see an alligators nostrils and eyes poking out. You can tell how long the alligator is by guessing the distance between the nostrils and the eyes in inches. Each inch is a foot of body length, ie nose to eyes = 5 inches = a 5 foot alligator. You just never know when you might need to know that!