Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Ft Lauderdale, Florida

The weather forecast last night was for severe thunderstorms, rain, wind and hail for the keys. Nothing happened.  This morning, Tuesday, the forecast was for severe thunderstorms, rain, wind and hail in the Miami-Ft Lauderdale area. Nothing happened. Until this afternoon about 4. Whew!

We left Jolly Roger RV Park on Grassy Key and headed north on US 1. A bit of jigging and jogging got us to the Florida Turnpike, where the highway is great, the traffic is manageable, and tolls are calculated by photo surveillance if an electronic pass is not present. I can't wait to see what that bill will be! A hundred and thirty miles north, and we've settled into a Broward County Park called T.Y. The complete name is Topeekeegee Yugnee Park and the name means "gathering place". Appropriately enough, the county has built a beautiful park with miles of walking and biking trails, a huge pond, a water park, outdoor fitness center, and RV park! Nice place, but very difficult to get into with a large rig. The main entrance is through a narrow payment station that says that it's 11' 6" wide, but with the angle of approach, we just...and I mean just....skinned through, with a 1/2 inch on one side, and some tire scraping on the other. Oh, well, we made it! After such an ordeal, we decided to go out to dinner!

A mistake in locations led us to Flip Flops Dockside Eatery in Ft Lauderdale. I say mistake because the review I saw was for a restaurant with an identical name in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Only a few hundred miles off! Nonetheless, we enjoyed a nice relaxing lunch/dinner while we watched the thunder, lightning and rain that had finally arrived.



The restaurant is located on the Inland Waterway, so we were treated to the sight of a couple of nice boats.



We were sitting at a table a few feet from the edge of the dock, with a narrow canvas cover over us. As the rain settled in (read that as "hard rain"), we got a little damp, but with the temp in the high 80's, it was welcome!


We took highway A1A south to our home in Hollywood, past the ocean front condos and hotels that cater to easterners.

Just offshore, a number of container ships waited to offload. This area is the busiest shipping port in Florida, with commercial shipping and cruise ships sailing pretty much on the hour.


Back at T.Y., our site, number 51, is just across the street from the county lake. The utilities are good here, with paved roads and pads to park on, and good wifi.


Its the best I could do for a sunset!


It's about 9 pm, local, so I'm going to wrap this for today. It's 81 degrees, feels like 89, with 86% humidity. I hope the AC holds out tonite!


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