Orlando

My rental car, with only 900 miles on the odometer. Because this is about the distance from Louisiana, I suppose I was the second person to rent this car.

On Thursday, April 1 I picked up a pre-booked rental car. The agent advised me to upgrade to a car with Global Positioning System navigation, and I took his advice. In retrospect, this was probably the best advice I received on the entire trip - it sure saved a lot of stopping to read a map, and many kilometres of wasted driving.

Early afternoon I visited the AAA for maps and discount annual pass to KSC Visitor Complex. I did some shopping in nearby almost deserted shopping malls. Although this was the day before Good Friday the shops had more shop assistants than customers. This was to be a continuing feature throughout my month's stay in Florida, be it large department stores like Macy's or small shops. I also saw large numbers of abandoned or poorly tenanted shopping malls.

Driving through Orlando I felt I was trapped in the 1980's computer game "SIM City." Yet another Taco Bell or Wallgreens or Dixiebell looking exactly like the dozens of others I had driven past, surrounded by identical nearly deserted vast car parks. Just like "SIM City", choose a module and repeat it endlessly.

Previous page Diary Contents Next Page The Space Show Southern FM