So it happened, folks, a surprise trip for her to the Universal Resort for our final day in Florida. Booking last minute, as per the nature of our trip, cost more than it would just several days later so that really sucked. I thought we would end up at Universal Studios but instead, we ended up at the park next to it known as Universal’s Islands of Adventure, essentially a large theme park. Admittedly the separation (or expansion as they would put it) started over 20 years ago so my rant is a little belated. That’s when Universal Studios Florida became the Universal Orlando Resort and when the cash rocketed further, I’d imagine.
Orlando is an excellent base to venture out and visit places, however, I’ve had to concede that we won’t be seeing the extended places we had wished to and for once, the cost was secondary. You see, some months back I lost my driver's license ID card. This hasn’t proved to be a problem, until now. Despite having a passport and a colour photocopy of my driver’s license, this isn’t sufficient to get us a rental car. So with profound sadness, we’ve had to write off the Kennedy Space Centre, Tampa, Daytona Beach (and Speedway), St Augustine, Savannah, and other non-touristy cities on route. Then there’s the freedom and convenience a car would bring for just 3 or 4 days but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
We’ve landed in tourist Florida and Miami of all places! If we were better prepared and researched like we normally are, we likely would have not come here. I say that as if there’s an abundance of choices for countries to visit. There really isn’t. I had a friend guess that we were off to Venezuela as it's a neighbouring country to Colombia, blissfully unaware that international flights have been blocked there for some time.