This was the commercial route through the Everglades, with camp grounds, gift shops and boatrides. I resisted the offer of froglegs on fried bread for breakfast, and kept going through the commercialism to a gas station. There were many strange signs, but probably my favourite of the morning read.

"Coopertown – best air boat rides in Florida since 1945 – population 0008"

The radio was broadcasting storm warnings, and the air, as I left the car, felt as if I was walking into a bathroom after someone had just showered. I had the air conditioning directed to the windscreen, which was steaming up on the outside! The storm eventually hit while I was grabbing a quick lunch, and was fairly brutal for about an hour. I then continued to St. Petersburg with the afternoon feeling bright and quite breezy.

After finding my hotel, I wandered downtown for some dinner (health note, for those expressing concern – freshly cooked, no grease, and I ate all my broccoli), and returned to some catching up on the internet, and a live baseball broadcast from Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles.

It was an important day for baseball – Jackie Robinson Day. 60 years previously, Jackie became the first black man, in the face of great opposition, to play major league baseball. Previously, black players had only been permitted to play in the Negro Leagues.

In the States, if a player is worthy of a tribute, his club will retire his number, which means no player wears it. Robinson's number, 42, was retired by the league ten years ago, which means no player in any club gets that number. To honour Robinson, several players had asked permission to wear the number yesterday, and a trend soon developed. The Dodgers, which was his team, all wore number 42!

The tributes were fulsome, but some commentators did point out that the number of black Americans playing the sport professionally was dropping, and that there was still plenty of work to be done before the path that Robinson was the first to tread would reach its end.