01.09.2012 – 01.09.2012  32 °C

Our last day of our road trip.. Yep 20,000+ miles and seven different rental cars later and the Ultimate Road Trip of North America has come to an end for three of the members of the Dunham clan… 🙁

Our drive today was a short last hop from Orlando to Tampa. We drove via the Disney parklands on our exit to Orlando. Disappointingly, we couldn’t actually see any of the parks from the main fwy. We did almost end up inside the Epcot parking lot though, when we missed our turn-off. It must happen regularly because they have a designated turn around bay before you get to the park!!

Not too far out of Orlando and we stopped to do some of our chores for the day. Firstly, we had to offload most of our picnic-ing equipment at the Goodwill store (I’m sure the guy who took the stuff off our hands pocketed the little BBQ that we handed in). We also did a stop at the pharmacy to find some seasickness tablets (for the cruise boat) and a stop at the local coffee shop to recharge the batteries.

We did see the funniest thing about 40mins south west-ish of Orlando… There is a long stretch of road that was once prime real estate development area (plenty of half finished estates still trying to be sold).. We found one particularly place where they are selling new 3bd 2bath homes for high 20’s!!! That’s not 200k it is 20k!!! I’ve decided that if you want to buy yourself the cheapest house in the first world than you need look no further than Florida.. Here you can live like a King on a Pauper’s salary!!

Lunch today was back at the place where we first had lunch at the start of our second leg of our road tour. Lunch was back in Lake Wales, at the same picnic table but not the same meal… Chinese take-out for the three of us for lunch, not a lamb chop BBQ! The takeaway was pretty all right if I do say so myself!! Back at our nice stop, plenty of sunshine (and plenty of wind), underneath the big oak that is covered in Spanish moss, looking out over the lake enjoying some Chinese take-away… does it get any better for our last meal on the road??

We arrived in Tampa, mid afternoon and checked into our hotel (which is pretty close to the cruise ship terminal). After checking in, M&D drove the car out to the airport to the rental return place and I spent the evening hard at my computer trying to organise the next phase of my trip (which is up to Nova Scotia in Canada).

A very quiet way to end our five and a bit month long journey across the length and breadth of North America.

Song of the Day– The Beatles, Long and Winding Road