12 March 2023, Orlando USA –

Besides checking out rockets, our main reason for spending time in Florida was to catch up with our friends, Carla and Bob.  Back in 1997, when we rode our bicycles across the USA, we’d pulled into a roadside stop somewhere in Montana.  It was blazingly hot, my ankle was killing me, and we were seriously considering pulling the pin – a really low point of the ride.  Two cyclists pulled over and sat down with us.  Bob was riding a recumbent, while Carla was on a regular road bike.  We soon got talking, and compared notes.  We spent about 2 hours chatting away like old friends.  That meeting was a turning point for us  – we felt we weren’t alone, and we tackled the rest of the ride with renewed determination.

For the next few days we rode together as we crossed eastern Montana, supporting each other during a day of horrendous head winds.  At Williston, we took a week-long break from the ride, to drive to South Dakota.  Bob and Carla continued east.  We had hopes of catching them up again, and we kept in touch by email (in its infancy; we had to hunt out public libraries).

We kept in touch on and off for a few years, then lost contact.  Years later, Carla tracked us down when she was coming to Australia.  We met up for dinner, and have kept up the correspondence ever since. 

We arranged to meet in Winter Park, in north Orlando.  It is a well to do area judging by the housing, and the tree-lined streets.  On a gorgeous sunny Sunday, it was busy with visitors enjoying the cafes and shops in the main street.  Our conversation took off immediately, and we talked non stop for the rest of the day.  We’d hit it off 26 years ago, and nothing has changed (except we are all older and greyer). 

After lunch we paid a visit to the wonderful Charles H Morse Museum.  It is only small, but is full of exquisite examples of the art of Louis Tiffany – lampshades, jewellery, furniture, and magnificent leadlight windows.  Parts of his Long Island estate has been faithfully transported and reassembled, room by room.  Tiffany was heavily influenced by nature – birds, butterflies, flowers and fruit feature prominently – but also by Byzantine art, which is particularly obvious in the chapel.  I loved every bit of it.

Afterwards we found an excellent ice cream shop, and treated ourselves to scoops of Mackinac Island Fudge (Mackinac Island was one of our favorite places when we cycled through Michigan in 1997).  The rest of the afternoon flew by, until we reluctantly said our farewells and promised not to wait another 26 years. If you find yourself in Orlando, and need a break from all things Disney and space, I recommend spending a sunny Sunday afternoon eating icecream and visiting the Morse Museum in Winter Park. There are a lot worse places to be.