The Good and The Bad

It seems like we haven't done much the last two days but we have accomplished a few things.

Wednesday was spent washing and polishing the Jeep and RV. We felt both needed to have the salt rinsed off to maintain their shine. And, yes, it does take all day to shine up the vehicles while enjoying the tropical weather. We then had a nice dinner at the Castaway Bar and Grill.

Today we spent all morning trying to find and fix leaks in the Jeep soft top. Every time it rains the floor on the driver's side is sopping wet, as if someone poured a whole pitcher of water on the floor. To find the leaky spots, I poured that pitcher of water over the top and John sat inside with the flashlight tracking the incoming water back to its source. So we found two spots and he fixed them temporarily.

We then drove up the Ocean Highway towards Key Largo to find and check out RV parks for our next move. The nice part was lunch at the Lorelei Cabana which sits right on the Gulf. The bad part was the traffic jam we got caught in. About 5 miles from Key Largo we came to a complete stop! It took us about two hours to go 5 miles. This was two lanes of cars backed up from 100 feet of road construction that shut down one lane of traffic. What a mess!!! TWO HOURS!

We did find our new destination park and had no trouble getting home in time to fix supper in the rain. Oh yeah, it turned off cold today -- only 73°. :-)

Cousins and Tiki Bars

My cousin Gwen and her husband, Steve, drove by from Key West on their way to Captiva where her mom and dad winter and stopped to have lunch with us. We don't even know when we saw them last so it was a very nice visit. They were excited to see our motor home and then we took them to a lunch spot we were wanting to try. I wish we could have spent more time with them.

Twice today we rode our bikes into Marathon. The second time we only went about a mile up the road to check out some bars and restaurants. We stopped at Lazy Days, Castaways, and Chikitiki. On the way back we looked over Porky's BBQ, and a couple of other tiki bars. No fine dining places but several have some pretty nice menus. Rode our bikes about 17 miles today.

Sombrero Reef

After looking at the weather channel on our phones, we decided that if we were going to go snorkeling again, it would have to be today. So we drove across the road to the outfit recommended by the RV park but no one was there so we drove down one block and booked the afternoon trip with Starfish Charters.

Sombrero Reef is part of the reef that runs all along the Florida seaboard from Miami to Key West. It is considered the third best reef in the world after the Great Barrier Reef and Belize. We only had to ride out about 5 miles and they parked the boat next to the Sombrero Lighthouse. It so amazing how many different fish we can spot and their colors are so brilliant. My favorite was the needle fish with a green plaid color and the filefish with its very pointy snout. John likes the bright blue angel fish and the tiny blue ones. We also saw several parrot fish and barracuda. It was a much warmer day than the last time we snorkeled but the water was just as rough with some 2-foot waves.

Key West to Knight's Key

Yesterday was no different than the last few days. Our new friends tried to get us to join them at a gay entertainment venue last night but we were just too tired from all our wine drinking and bike riding.

Today we said our farewells to all our new friends and headed up the Keys for 38 miles to Knight's Key RV Resort at the north end of the 7-Mile Bridge. It is the hottest day so far at 87°! They put us in one site but the A/C kept shutting down because the voltage was too low so they moved us one spot to the right. In this heat, we have to have the A/C! Poor John worked hard in the heat, setting us up twice!

We walked over to the Sunset Grill and Raw Bar to drink beer and swim in their pool, then had a couple more beers at the RV resort's Tiki Bar and watched the sun set into the ocean. A nice way to end the day!

Just Another Day in Paradise

I haven't blogged for several days only because we haven't done anything exciting. Paradise in the Keys is: up at 7 AM, breakfast, basking in the morning warmth, visiting with friends, taking a class or two (like line dancing or crafts), lunch and a nap. We sometimes went golfing, got a hair cut or a pedicure, and rode our bikes down town for lunch or later in the day for wine. Actually, we rode our bikes into town almost every day which is a 12 -15 mile round trip ride, depending on the route we take. A couple of times we left the RV late in the day, took in the sunset and fun on Mallory Square, or had a Tapas dinner with wine or Margaritas. We found several wine bars we like, a great place on the beach for cocktails, and a fun place on the harbor walk for lunch and drinks. We tried to schedule a second snorkeling trip but the weather didn't cooperate.

Speaking of weather, it has been very warm with some high winds but as the week wore down, so did the wind and then the heat and humidity went up. Our next door neighbor has a fire pit and we have enjoyed that several evenings. We went out on the point a couple of times for evening cocktails too. We are glad we stayed another week -- actually we have never stayed in one place for three weeks but we are ready to move on soon.

Is Sixty Degrees Cold?

The weather has taken a turn for the worse here in the Keys. Saturday's high was only in the low 70's with 20 mph winds gusting to 35 mph. It got down to 54° Saturday night and only a high of 61° today and still really windy. We braved the wind and rode our bikes into town on Sat. looking for an auto parts store and barber shop. We found the auto parts places but they didn't have what John wanted and we never got to the barbershop due to road construction which put us into too much car traffic.

We had dinner at a highly recommended restaurant, Cafe Sole, but were a bit disappointed, or our expectations were too high, one or the other. Anyway, we did enjoy a nice walk down Duval Street afterwards. People watching at night is quite interesting along this route.

Today I went to church and spent most of the day reading and trying to stay warm. John took a short bike ride. Our next door neighbor built a nice fire this evening so we got to enjoy its warmth and the company of our new friends.

Looe Reef Snorkel Trip

It rained almost all night and the skies were cloudy and threatening this morning but the boat crew assures us that we will be able to go out snorkeling. We left home in plenty of time to eat lunch before boarding started at noon.

There were 24 people on the open deck boat, six went SCUBA diving while the rest of us snorkeled. Although they told us the water was 77°, John and I opted to rent wet suits and are really glad we did. They took us to two different sites on Looe Reef which is only about 5 miles off shore and we were in the water for about 60 minutes each time. The first spot was rather deep so the diving folks really enjoyed it. John spotted a huge grouper right off the bat so we followed him for awhile, then later there was another one hanging around under the boat. We saw all kinds of colorful fish and interesting coral formations and plants. The second site was less deep so we were able to see even the teeny, tiny blue fish darting thru the coral. One fish I found fascinating was a small, round, bright yellow fish who appeared to have two sets of eyes. One set was near the tail and was just a black spot that could fool a predator into thinking he was attacking the head. We also spotted several barracuda in this area.

The clouds never lifted and it rained most of the time we were out on the ocean. The wind also started picking up so that the water was pretty rough and at the last it was stirring up the sand so that the water was getting pretty murky. We had a very cold ride back to shore!

John found a nice place for us to have dinner, probably one of the best meals we've had on this trip. We sat at the bar and enjoyed the company on both sides of us while the bartender kept us all entertained. I had the daily special -- Fried Lion Fish.

The Most Southern Golf Course

As you may recall we played golf last winter on a golf course that claimed to be the lowest elevation course. Today we played golf on a course that claims to be the farthest south. Golfers staying at Boyd's RV Resort play together every Thursday at Key West Golf Course. I convinced John we should do this as we got to play for about half price and John did not have to play with me! I played with two other ladies and John was in a male foursome. The ladies played a dime for putts and all of us played "greenies" where we pay $2 each into a pot and then the persons who get closest to the pin on any of the Par 3 greens split the pot. I got on two greens and won $18!!

Some golf courses have 'mascots', wild animals that live on the greens. At home its geese, in parts of Florida its gators and here it was very ugly, red faced geese and iguanas. I was fascinated with the iguanas, some of which were hanging from tree limbs, sunning next to the water hazards or right in the middle of the fairway.

It was hot and muggy all day and finally about supper time the rain started and hasn't let up yet!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Add One More Week

Wednesday was another "laid back" kind of day. John got a new "Dew Cover" for the Jeep to keep it dry when the top is down so he played with that for a while, put new cable locks on our bikes and did a couple of other chores. I wrote letters home and took a line dancing class. After lunch and naps we rode the bikes into town, checked out some restaurants and rode back.

As we pulled into the campsite out neighbors hollered that they were going out on the point for cocktails. Since the point is facing east we didn't exactly watch the sun set but we had fun. We all decided to ride our bikes over to "Hogfish Bar & Grill" for supper, then came back and sat around a small campfire.

During cocktails one couple said they were leaving the next day although they had planned to stay all month and would we like to have their campsite. This is so unusual for us as we have never stayed in one place for more than 10 days and if we left this Sunday we would have stayed in Key West for 14 days. Now this opportunity comes up for us to stay another 7 days! And do you know what we did? We signed on for 7 more days. 3 weeks in Key West!

Key West Lifestyle

Yesterday and today have been what you might say "laid back". Besides doing chores like grocery shopping, laundry, and spraying for ants, we've done a lot of reading, biking, basking in the sun and going for afternoon drives in the convertible Jeep.

We were supposed to go snorkeling today but they had to cancel the trip due to high winds and waves. That's when we spent some time on the beach. We had been told they would notify us by around 9 or 9:30 if they were going to cancel the snorkeling trip and since we got no call, we packed a lunch and headed to the Bahia Honda State Park to catch the boat. Just as we pulled through the gate the call came in that the trip was cancelled. We were a little miffed but decided to hang out on the beach and have lunch before heading home.Along the drive back we stopped at several RV parks to see if we might like moving to one of them next week.

This evening we went down to Mallory Square just in time to see the sun set into the ocean and then had a dinner at a Spanish Tapas restaurant. The walk back to our car took us down Duval St. and past a lot of noisy bars. Seems folks were celebrating Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras. Our idea of bar hopping is hop, hop, home so we did stop in a couple of places.

Lazy Day and Ants! EEEEK!

I decided I would attend an early church service today so got up, dressed and got ready to start breakfast. I fix John bacon every morning so I keep the bacon press on some paper towels in the drawer just under the stove. So I put the bacon on, opened the drawer, picked up the press and SCREAMED! It was COVERED with tiny ants!! We have had what we thought was a small problem with ants this week but I had no idea they had gotten into the coach. We've been battling them in a couple of outside compartments by putting down ant killer but now they are inside. After cleaning out the drawer, I found them under the sink and on the counter (I think they fell off the bacon press). Also a few were on another counter top behind the coffee maker. We also pulled out another drawer and looked on the floor under it and found some there. It's a mess but while I was at church, John got the park folks to spray all around the coach, on the tires and all cords and hoses leading into the RV.

Other than that its been a lazy day spent mostly reading but we did take a short bike ride around the neighborhood so that we wouldn't have to fight the rather strong wind head on.

Great Day for a Bike Ride

About mid morning we took off on our bikes to explore parts of Key West that we hadn't seen. The ride took us to the east side of the island along the Atlantic beaches. We rode or walked out on a couple of piers. The water is so clear we saw colorful fish and needle fish. One beach was fronted by an old Civil War fort that has been converted into a lovely, peaceful garden. The Key West Garden Club took this over many years ago and they are still transforming this dilapidated structure into something of beauty. People in Key West can be pretty creative and artistic. Take this truck for example.

After wondering through some neighborhoods, we had lunch at a Cuban lunch counter. We also found several restaurants we might try later this week.

Our bike adventure took us past the most southern point in the US and out onto the Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, home of another Civil War fort, beaches, and picnic areas. The fort was actually built before the Civil War and used until WWI. The Civil War Heritage Days, a living history event, is happening all weekend. Today they had a sea battle with Schooners shooting at each other and a cannon shooting from shore. Pretty exciting event that woke us from our naps on the park benches.

As we were not far from our favorite wine bar, we stopped there for another wine tasting and to people watch from their front porch. I tried some whites and John tried reds. It was such a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. It was a long ride back, facing into the wind and dodging drunks from the beach, and other bikers. We put 22 miles on our bikes today.

Can You Hear Me Now?

Yesterday, after showering off the salt water, John thought he had water in his ears so we put in drops. After showering he felt should clean out his ears with a Q-tip and ended up pushing wax up his ear canal causing a blockage such that he could not hear. This morning we got some ear drops and tried to flush the wax out but we didn't seem to be making much progress. Then I gave blood here at the RV park.

After lunch John's ear was still totally blocked. As it is Friday we knew if he was going to get professional help to get his ear cleared, it would have to be done before mid-afternoon. So we went to the walk-in clinic and sat for over an hour waiting our turn. They flushed out all the wax, made him promise not to do that again and sent us on our way. He can hear again!

The rest of the day was spent tooling around in the convertible Jeep and rubbing elbows with the locals during happy hour.

Dry Tortugas National Park

Probably one of the least accessible national parks in the US, the Dry Tortugas are a group of 7 islands 70 miles west of Key West out in the Gulf of Mexico. There are only two ways to get there - boat or sea plane. We went here last time in FLorida but decided to go again as it is such a spectacular place. The largest island is home to Fort Jefferson which was built to protect Americans navigating the Gulf from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean. Construction lasted over 30 years and was never completed as technology was advancing faster than they could build. Its best use was as a prison. Today it is a wildlife refuge for fish and birds. One of its most prominent bird is the Magnificent Frigate Bird.

The ferry ride was about 2 1/2 hours long and included breakfast which was good since we had to board the boat at 7 AM! We arrived in time to tour the fort before dressing for a long snorkel swim. I had a full wet suit and John had the half suit and thought I was nuts but the water was cold enough that I was very thankful to have a full suit. We snorkeled for about 45 minutes searching for coral, fish, and anything interesting under the waves. After lunch on the boat, which by the way was the only place we could go to the bathroom or get water or food, we suited up again and snorkeled around some old pier pilings and this is where all the fish were hiding.

We swam among tiny silver minnows and fingerlings, thousands of them! Large silver fish were clustered under waving fans and seaweed while a few black and gold striped fish and bright blue ones skirted around them. As we left the pilings, John startled a sting ray into revealing itself. We also saw some star fish and more coral and sea anemone.

After the 2 1/2 hours boat trip back we went directly to the HogFish for dinner.

Walking, Dancing and Eating

Today was a computer day for John so I took off for a 45 minute walk around the RV park and then joined several ladies for a line dancing class here in the park. That was fun!

Late in the afternoon John and I got our snorkels and fins ready and then drove into town to rent wet suits for our snorkeling trip on Thursday. We then had a really early supper at 'Solo - An American Bistro'. It was early because for happy hour from 4 - 6 PM we ate appetizers and drank cocktails and wine for 1/2 price! The food was wonderful and I had an interesting ginger margarita.

Key West Biking

We could hardly wait to get on our bikes and ride around the city. Yesterday we rode to town after getting the laundry washed. We walked all around the business district, and checked out Mallory Square which was a disappointment as two cruise ships were blocking the view to the bay. Hopefully, they will move out before sunset, but we did not plan to stick around that late to find out. We found the nice little wine bar that we discovered three years ago when we were here so we stopped for a bit of a tasting. By the time we got ready to head back to the RV it was rush hour. We ended up riding on the busiest street and making better time than the cars.

Today we, again, rode the bikes into town so we could have lunch at our favorite lunch place, BO's Fish Shack. This place is a mishmash of old cars, old signs, old fishing gear and old slats of wood, all thrown together to create a dining establishment. But the food is really, really good!

After lunch we signed up to go on a cruise out to the Dry Tortugas to snorkel. I convinced John that we should consider renting wet suits as the water is only 71° and that is pretty cold. We ended up visiting with the sales guy for over 30 minutes about diving and snorkeling.

The owner of the wine bar had recommended several places to get really good food so we wondered around Key West, got lost, and finally found a place that others had recommended as well. It's called, Louies's Backyard and is right on the Atlantic Ocean. A mid-afternoon cocktail was enjoyed before we rode back to the RV.

Just 4 sites down from us is the fish cleaning station for the park. Several men were cleaning fish and throwing the remains into the water while one man controlled the water hose, spraying the Pelicans. The reason for that is that the large flock of pelicans who were hovering nearby would come right up to the cleaning counter and take a fish when you weren't looking. The spray of water kept them at bay.

Time to Move on South

We hit the road early so we could get into Key West early enough to enjoy at least part of the day. We met some nice neighbors in the campground who invited us over to watch the Super Bowl and eat and drink. We had a very nice evening and made some new friends.

Eagle Lakes Golf

Most of the day was spent on the golf course. We were paired up with a couple of men, one from Switzerland. He was a pretty good golfer. The other guy had this wild practice swing that made the air sing but his actual swing when he hit the ball was much slower. John and I both played much better than the last time we were on a golf course. It was a very nice day to be playing golf.

Mangrove Expedition

Volunteers for the Friends of Seminole-Collier Park lead educational canoe trips down the Blackwater river that flows into the gulf. From the park we paddled about three miles using the tide and wind to push us along. Periodically we would stop to learn about the Mangrove swamp that we are traveling through, how is filters out pollutants, protects the barrier island from storms and provides a sheltered home to many birds. The mangrove tree grows many roots into the sand and in some process discards the salt to the outsides of the leaves and keeps the fresh water for itself. Because of its many roots, the sand is captured and held in place. Birds like to roost in the trees' high limbs or feed need its roots.

We saw crabs (very small), heron, vultures, mullet/jumping fish, ibis, and wood storks. We learned some about the Seminole Indians and how they lived and survived in the mangroves and on hammocks. Then the paddle back was long with no rest as we were working against the tide and wind.

After the canoe trip we drove to Naples to find a whole foods store because we like their dry aged meat. Then we had dinner on Marco Island at a really nice seafood place.