The last leg

One night left in Miami, one night left in North America, One night left of a year long trip. It's been a long and ever eventful journey.
Our last night was spent in South Beach Miami in a boutique hotel that bore little relation to all the other cheap motels we'd stayed in America. A bit of luxury for our last night.
Although the majority of Miami is dull sprawl, spending a couple of nights in South Beach is great. We're in walking distance of everything, including the bars along the front near the beach. It's a good, and rare, place to be in America where you can sit outside sipping cocktails in the balmy weather of a an evening. The art deco buildings surround the few streets around our hotel and the beach front with their neon glow at night. Starting with a free bar for an hour at our hotel we're merrily set up for an evening of reflection of the previous year and anticipation of going home the next day. Sipping Mojitos in South Beach is a classic way to end it all.
Another truly American experience was had in the morning of our last day, eating a full breakfast at an American diner. These places are fairly few and far between, a lot more so than I'd thought, but many chain diners exist. It was excellent to get into a proper independent diner and have 'the works'. Even more typical was the foreign owners, Cubans this time, as the majority of films would have you believe that America is run by middle class white folk.
We stroll the beach in the blazing sunshine and wonder if Manchester will be this warm, of course not! Still, I don't know what people are talking about when they say everyone around here looks like models, maybe they mean hand models because the majority are damn ugly.


Just before we leave a guy with designer clothes, brand new trainers, gold chains and a bag full of stuff asks us for five dollars, I tell him to sell his shoes.

On the way to the airport we stop off to have a look at the odd looking Bacardi building, I'm not even sure this has any other purpose than just looking square but it's decent either way. I didn't realise this was the base for Bacardi but it makes sense being so close to Cuba and the Caribbean.
So that was it. All that's left is getting our flight and wondering whether British Airways would massively charge us for getting all our luggage on board, including two snowboards and boots. Luckily for us they didn't. In fact it turns out that BA was probably the best airline in the world we'd flown with. They make American Airlines look like the Wright brothers on their first crossing.
Miami is an odd place, I like it and I thinks it's terminally dull at the same time. I couldn't help thinking of the tv series 'Nip Tuck' and wondered if it might have been better if it'd been shot in Clitheroe. But that's America. They paint an amazing picture of what isn't always an amazing place. Us Brits are better at saying how bad everything is and how much worse it's getting when the real truth is that we're living some of the best lives in the world.
I've got butterflies in my stomach with nervous tension about coming home. Back to the real world, working weeks, wages and the end of constant travelling. What lies ahead?

Miami without the vice

How do you sell a car in America? Good question. A couple of well known car sales chains offer to buy used cars but for ridiculously knock down prices. As I find out, local car sales firms aren't interested in buying cars unless you're buying one of theirs. When you don't have an American phone number or permanent address advertising the car can be difficult. Luckily there's a free classified ad website on which we advertised the car and hoped for a response. It was just at this time when a loud knocking noise developed whilst driving. Oh good.
We decide to spend the last few days of the trip around the Miami suburbs and hopefully sell the car. Miami and it's districts is absolutely huge. It's a shame that the only real good bit is so incredibly small at South Beach.


We spend a few days visiting car dealerships whilst stopping in the infamous Miami-Dade area. Infamous because during the rather dodgy Bush election of 2000 the whole country, and some of the world, had it's eyes on this county. Why? Because of the refusal to recount the votes or even finish counting the votes cast in this district.
Pretty much the whole of Miami is complete and utter dirge but there are a couple of bright spots. We spend an evening in Coral Gables which is an area of upmarket restaurants set within and around Spanish Colonial buildings. We actually get the opportunity to sit and eat outside somewhere in this country, which is very few and far between. Luckily our food isn't complete tripe either, unlike what we see on everybody else's plates.
We're having no luck with the car sale and consider that an auction may be our only way to get rid of it. Not that we can find the car auction. We spend a couple of hours trying to follow internet directions to no avail.
Upon returning to our motel we find that a couple of people are interested in our car from our web advert. After a few phone calls and an eventual meeting, we sell the car and collect the cash within a couple of days. With 3 nights left of a year's trip some people would consider this complete lack of planning to be somewhat fortunate. Me too.
With a hire car sorted for the last couple of days we drive towards West Palm Beach for yet another complete fluke, the chance to see one of my favourite bands at the first gig of their new tour. The timing is beyond jammy.