Thinking it would be interesting to drive south down Route 41, we headed south from Pine Island roughly following the route laid out in a 1935 guidebook. Needless to say there were changes, lots of them! In fact there were changes even from a few years past when I had taken the same route south to the Everglades. Most notably, there were no more open spaces. It was mall after mall after mall divided briefly by traffic lights. It was at a traffic light that the trip took a nasty turn...
Waiting for the light to change green, we took a sudden impact from the rear. Someone hadn't stopped in time and smashed into Big Trill! I got out and walked back. A young girl was at the wheel on a middle sized car. She claimed her sandal had come off the brake pedal, but I suspect she had been texting someone. In any event, I suggested we pull off to the side and exchange insurance info etc. As I turned right another car clipped the right corner of Big Trill! Obviously in Florida even when it's clear there has been an accident, charging ahead on the right is common practice!
Once on the side street, it was apparent the young girl had run off. We dealt with the second car, exchanged info and so on. We then dealt with the damage. The rear bumper had been pushed in, the right tail light was gone and the fibreglass on the right corner around the bumper was cracked in multiple places. We headed for a hardware store and between that and a deli counter at the grocery store we created a new red tail light. Duct tape covered the cracks in the glass and once again we were on the road headed south.
We were so happy to pull into the Riptide RV Park on Key Largo and find our spot waiting for us. The natives were friendly and the sunset beautiful. Life was good once again...
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