Saturday Nite in Key West

What a way to spend a weekend. Saturday night in Key West. I am a little surprised that it doesn't seem to full for being their busy season. The bars were full but not like I remember when we came a few years ago. Must be something to do with the "R" word. (recession)
Lets start this blog off right instead of getting all depressed. We'll start from the very beginning. Sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean.

Woke up a little early and decided to take a few pictures of the sunrise. It was well worth it. Even with all the roasters calling in the distance it made for a beautiful start. By the way, Key West has an over population of chickens running around. Luckily there are none on the campground. Too many camp fires at night makes it to easy to accidentally make one dinner.
Our friends finally moved in next to us. Here is Elle pulling into our area.
We took our chairs out to watch like we were told to do but there really wasn't a good show. They are to experienced. I did miss another pulling in but I heard about it from the guy's wife. She was out walking the dog to get away from her husband as he whaled away at their RV with a hammer to get the dents out of the door. Apparently when they were backing into their site he didn't see some big rocks and kind of took out the side of his rig. I missed it! Anyway, here is a pic of our friends "kids" that they brought along.
I think that a some point dogs out number people in some of these campgrounds. We are talking about these little dogs to. The kind that can only bite your ankles and bark a lot.
We did our little version of a bar crawl Saturday night. We started out at Mallory Square where we saw this huge, beautiful sail boat docked. I tried to take a picture of this private yacht but I couldn't fit it on the camera. It was 170ft and had two small power boats on its deck which was all wood and brass. From there we started onto the bars. Lets get busy. First stop, Hogs Breath Saloon. Started talking to some people around the bar and wouldn't you know it, there was a guy there from Annapolis here for the weekend. Small world. He said he had to get away from the cold. I know what he is talking about.
Next, hunger hit us and hit us hard. We ended up getting a whole pizza pie and ate it down like it was our last supper. It was also called "priming the stomach" for more drinks. Here is Richard to the entrance of another bar.
We then hit a bar called "Big Un's". A sports bar, so we could watch the last part of Georgetown vs. W Virginia. Elle is from WV so we get to make a lot of WV jokes around her. No picture from that bar but I wish I would have. There were some Big Un's there. Next stop, Whistle Bar. Heard some live music along with a couple of cold ones until we headed out to Captin' Tony's. If you look closely you will see Business Cards all over the ceiling. This is a great place to Network. Some ladies even leave their Business Support behind.
Sorry, no flash on that picture. I didn't want to call attention to myself when taking the picture. I was drinking but I wasn't that drunk...yet.
Today should be another great day. We are planning on going on the Base because they have a private beach that has some snorkeling right off the shore. Enjoy your Sunday.

Sittin' on the dock of the Bay...

We find ourselves sittin' around and enjoying the sites. We haven't really done anything of excitement in the last couple of days. Kind of taking it easy. Listen to this to put you in the mood.

The entrance to our Campground has this fountain that sums up the area very well.
It reads "Welcome to Paradise". How true it is.

Sitting out a couple of nights ago it was neat to see all the stars. There isn't much light so you can really see the stars. I took this picture when the moon came out. You can see on of the many bridges on the left.
The other night we did mange to sneak down to Mallory Square for a little while to check out the festivities. There are street performers all over the place juggling, magic tricks, pet tricks, singing or what ever else they can think of to try and get some money from you. Also known as Tourist Trap.
We went over to the famous "Sloppy Joe's" and had a cold drink and watched some of the music act.
We have a lot of activities planned for the next couple of days so don't worry, it will be more exciting.

Oh, my back!

What did we do on our first full day at Key West is what most of you are probably wondering. We finished getting set up and some light cleaning. Took the bikes out and tuned them a little. It was a nice day. Mid 80's and the sun was boiling hot. You could feel your skin burning up with the rays.

We have some local residences here in the campground. In the late afternoon you can sit out back by the bushes and just see many of these locals running around. I have tried to catch one but these are pretty fast. I heard they taste pretty good when cooked on an open fire.

Just kidding, please don't send PETA after me.

We decided to go out for a short, I stress short, bike ride. Nothing serious just a trip around the immediate area to get familiar. We head out and I took the camera, as always, cause you never know what you are going to see. Well, I dropped the camera and my lovely wife just shook her head at me like I was a kid about to get scolded. I snapped this picture to test the camera after I secured all the pieces that came flying off the thing and I think "the look" she was giving me sums it up.

How many of you have seen this or some similar version from you significant other?

Our short bike ride ended up taking us all around Key West. A total of about 10 miles. I'm not as young as I used to be and by the time we made it back my ass was completely numb. The kind of numbness you would have when you leave the dentist's office after they work on your mouth. My back, oh my back was killing me. I sit here this morning with our "Mini Masseuse" turned on. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a battery powered machine that you place rubber pads onto any sore muscle and the electric current stimulates the muscle. You don't want to hook it up to every muscle, trust me, I have been told. I'm not that stupid.

As we were looking for somewhere to eat we passed the Southern Most Point in the USA. We were to hungry to actually pose there so I took this on the fly.

Today we are thinking about taking our Kayak's out for a little. Nothing like yesterday, this will be a short ride. A couple of people have asked for a picture of these Kayaks but I haven't taken any yet but I did download these off the website so you can have an idea.

It folds up and is easy to carry around in these bags. This is just one Kayak. We have two so that we don't kill each other on the water with one wanting to go this way while the other wants to go the other way. Tonight we are planning on going to Mallory Square to catch the Sunset party. We heard that you see all kinds of interesting people and acts.

I won't drop the camera.

Key West!

We have finally made it to the southern most point of the USA. Can't go any further south than this and we are loving it. We said our good bye's to our friends back in Marathon this morning and will really miss them. We had a great send off last night. Dinner, drinks and dessert. They gave us a nice cake and added the touch of "aye" for our Canadian friends.
The journey was only 50 miles this morning but Road Hazard passed a milestone in its 11 year old history. After many miles of rolling along on highways, grass, getting stuck in friends back yard and having the Pick Up try and pass it, Road Hazard hit 30,000 miles on the odometer. Not bad for this old fellow. Sorry the picture is a little blurry but I took this as we were moving.The drive down is beautiful. If you have never driven to the Keys it is something that you definitely need to do. The bridges are incredible. Especially being up high in RH and just looking out over the clear blue water.
We made it to our campsite and it really tested our marriage and communication level. The site is really tight. They pack you in like a can of sardines. It's funny to see because when someone new arrives these ole' timers get their chairs out to watch the excitement. We did a great job. With Reta directing me we parked this baby. Of course after about 20 plus maneuvers. A lot of the parking involves trusting the person directing you because you can't see everything and in a sense you are driving blind. Just when we thought we were done, we had to move it 6 inches back, no wait, 4 inches forward and to the right, stop, 3 inches to the left and back, OK, not straighten out. All this because there are two palm trees on our site and we had to position RH just right so that we could open the slide and awning. It was a good show. No yelling but some laughing. After all said and done here is a view of our new home. We back up to the Atlantic Ocean.
















What we didn't realize is that there is a military base up the coast where these jets fly overhead for their final approach to land. I am sure if my buddy CB were here he'd spend all his time sitting there going "I see it...it's a f15 Tomcat with afterburners and sparrow missiles with landing gear down and the pilot has green eyes." I don't know how he knows all this stuff, he just does and I don't know what type of plane that was.

Our friends from MD have also just arrived in Key West so we hope to hook up with them at some point. Let the Partying Begin!!!!

P.S. take a look at "Something to Think About" on the right hand column. Interesting, aye?

Last Day

The last two days have been bad. We spent the whole day yesterday in RH watching movies and the football games. The weather has just been terrible. The water in the Gulf of Mexico has white caps from the high winds. The little palm trees look like they are going to bend in half. The weather channel said that we are getting 35mph gusts of wind.I can't complain too much because I see on the news that it isn't much better up north. I can do without the cold and snow. I'll take the wind and some rain. It has been so windy that we had to put the awing away for fear that it would blow away.

We have been enjoying ourselves when it is nice out. We ended up buying a couple of kayak's and we have been out on the water a lot. We take our snorkeling gear with us and paddle out to a nice spot and jump in and see everything. We have seen nurse sharks, sting rays, sea turtles, numerous types of fish and Reta claims to have seen a Manatee. We are having a blast. If we aren't out on the water we are on our bikes exploring the area. I think we are finally starting to get in shape although I am trying to put the weight back on with all the beers that we put down every night.

We have really made some great friends here in the campground. We take turns going over to someones RV to hang out and tell stories until we run out of drinks. We have been laughing pretty good with some of the stories. The other night Jerry and Janice invited us out to dinner. We went to Fisheries Restaurant. Neat little place that sits on the water. You order and pay for your meal at this window and instead of them asking for your name they ask you for a cartoon character. They change it up every night. Sometimes you have to tell them a movie or famous actor or sometimes it's a singer. Keeps it entertaining when you sit down for dinner and hear some of the characters that people come up with. Here we are at the restaurant.

The food was great. All seafood of course, but all fresh. I had a Blackened Mahi Mahi that just melted in your mouth. Reta tried this fish called Hogsnose. I think that's what it was but it tasted good and was very light.

Last night we were getting ready to get our happy hour started when this neighbor across the street came back with this huge fish. A Barracuda. We have seen these fish out swimming around the pier here at the campground but have never seen one this close.As you can see it is all teeth. The gentleman that caught the fish had told us that it had taken two other lures before he finally caught it. His hands were all bloody from the fishing line cutting him when he was fighting the fish. Reminds me of the Hemingway story of the Old man and the fish. Of course he couldn't speak english very well, having come from Cuba, so I was able to use my broken spanish and learn about his fight with the fish. I think I was able to walk away without offending him with my spanish. Nice fish, don't you think?

Today is our last day in Marathon because tomorrow morning we leave for Key West, FL. There, we will hook up with some friends that we made while we were in Solomon Island, MD. Plans for our trip to Bahamas are starting to take shape as we are getting dates together. It will be happening mid February. Once in Key West I will be able to once again update the blog daily. See you then.

With or Without

The weather is finally starting to get better. These last two days it was overcast and cold. In the low 70's. Today, it should start getting warmer, back in the mid 80's again with blue skies. We spent the past two days just exploring the area and relaxing. We went snorkeling in the Gulf of Mexico and because of my facial hair I kept getting water in my mask so I was forced to shave. I had a hard time. In the month that I had it I became attached to the way it looked and felt. When I started shaving I only did half and asked Reta what she liked better. With or Without. I'll ask you what you think.
We went over to a beach on the Atlantic side the other day called Sombrero Beach. Very nice public beach but we didn't realize that if you chose not to wear any cloths that was alright. Well, my luck we discovered this because some guy was, for lack of a better term, sunning his sausage. Not the kind of view I wanted to see. What happened to the ladies. Don't they want to let the "puppies" get some sun? Don't worry, I didn't take any pictures.
We had a good time at the beach until I decided to be Steve Irwin and help a beautiful blue jellyfish that had washed up. I decided that if I scooped it with my foot and kicked it out into the water I would be fine. NOT! It felt like a bee sting and my middle toe got a little swollen. Only till we left did we see the signs warning people about these jellyfish. Live and learn.Our campground is filled with pelicans and these big white birds that I think are some sort of Herring. These things will fly overhead and scream. Sounds like an old man is chocking. I found it interesting how this particular one enjoyed his perch high above everyone.
On our drives out to explore there is a bridge called "Seven Mile Bridge" because it is 7 miles long. It is an amazing sight to see. Clear blue water on both sides. We think this is the bridge used to film the movie "True Lies" with Arnold. The scene with the limo driving off the bridge.What is on today's agenda? Don't know yet but I think I am going to Diesel 101 class today. The neighbor that is behind us is a Diesel Mechanic and he is going to introduce me to that huge thing in the back of Road Hazard. Show me how to maintain it.
Quick story...we had another happy hour last night with this neighbor and his wife (from Michigan) and we also invited this other couple that moved in across the street. They are from Canada. We started this happy hour at 4 and went up to 11 last night, telling stories and laughing until our stomachs were hurting. These Canadians like to say "ai" all the time and we would just loose it. They are also very green to RV'ing, more than Reta and I, and listening to their stories was too funny.
Enjoy and remember, the weekend is almost here. Hang in there!

Lazy Days of January

We have been enjoying ourselves and truthfully I have been too lazy to walk over to the main office in the campground to connect to Wi-Fi and update the blog. We are really enjoying our stay here in Marathon. So much to do. This morning we had a great surprise when our friends from Solomon Island, MD, stopped by to see us. They are in the area for a wedding and will be heading down to Key West next week.
Today, we drove down to Key West to find our next location. We found a campground that is only 5 miles from Duval Street, the main party central street in Key West. We can either ride our bike or take a bus that stops right out front. We had lunch and our favorite, Key Lime Martini! We walked around to get rid of the buzz and started on our way back home.
Two nights ago we had our neighbors join us for a Happy Hour in Road Hazard. We ended up staying out till 10. That's late for this crowd. We had a few people tell us the next day that all they heard was a bunch of laughing. Our neighbor, Jerry has been great to pick his brain about the RV and the engine. He has given me a couple of things that will help us out.
Well, got to run...have to start up the grill for the steaks tonight.
Tomorrow I will post some pictures.

Still Here

Yes, we are still in Marathon, Fl. Sorry that I haven't been updating the blog but it has been pretty much the same thing every day. Get up around 8 and make breakfast for us. For those of you who have heard of my previous cooking experiences you will glad to hear that I have become a Martha Stewart in the kitchen. Take this morning for instance...I took a couple of eggs and scrambled them along with some leftover chicken that we grilled yesterday. Mixed in some Salsa when it was almost done. Then, I put that into an english muffin along with some cheese and used my "toaster press" to melt the cheese and toast the muffin. Tall glass of O.J. and done. Delicious! A toaster press, for those of you wondering, is something that my grandmother used to use for making grilled cheese sandwiches on the fire. Long handles with a metal compartment for your bread to get sandwiched between. So good.
We have been staying busy with going to the beach, relaxing around the RV, driving around to explore the area and riding our bike around the island. Tough life. This morning it rained for about 1/2 hour and we were forced to finally turn on the AC because it got a little warm and muggy in the RV. Imagine that, turning on an AC in January. I love it.
I probably will not post anything until Monday so enjoy the weekend.

Celebrate good times!

Captains Log…Star date 2008 January 9.
Today we celebrate our 50th day of our new adventure. With it comes 1,554 miles that we have rolled along with some excitement. I think that it is finally starting to sink in…we don’t have to go back to work. Yet.
To celebrate we treated ourselves to a full day on the beach. Bahia Honda State Park. The day was picture perfect, 81 and very few clouds. We packed a lunch and spent the entire day on the beach. I found myself a little restless so I started calling people that I have been meaning to talk with. I also sent out several emails. After lunch I took a little nap under the umbrella to get out of the hot sun. I woke up because I was drooling and felt my arm getting wet. I know, disgusting but I’m just trying to fit in!
Last night we had a great time at Poker Night. We had about 15 couples come thru to get their cards. It was fun to meet everyone and hear where they’re from. Of course they all say the same thing…”you are too young…”
OK so maybe they couldn't see my receding hairline and that is why they kept saying that we are too young.

I wanted to ask if anyone knows what the hell is this thing...We took a walk through a Nature trail and I guess no one walks this trail because my big head went right into one of these webs strung across the trail. Talk about a dance. I was swatting at this thing that I could feel on my face and neck. Of course my dearest wife was looking at me like I was possessed. After I got this off of me all she could do was laugh. Thanks for the support. So I took this picture because I have never seen anything like this. What is it?

A little slice of heaven!

We made it to Marathon, Florida yesterday afternoon and are we happy. On the drive down it rained a couple of times but the sun was out while it was raining. As one of my "Rig" driving buddies put it nicely on the CB (you have to imagine this with a very thick southern accent and the deepest, raspiest voice like he's been smoking since the age of 5) "Liquid Sunshine fellas, it'l pass but aint it great?" So true my trucker buddy.

Once you drive onto the keys you start driving over these two lane bridges and all you see is beautiful blue water on both sides. We had the windows open and singing the song with the chorus "I don't want to work, I just wanna bang on my drums all day..."

We were very excited to pull into our campground named Jolly Roger and have a space that is about 25 yards from the water. What a view! Here it is looking out the front window.

They tell us at night the lobsters come up close to the sea wall and feed. We hope to see it tonight. Speaking of tonight, Reta told me that we have been chosen to take part in the campground "Poker Walk". That is cards not Pok-her, please try to focus and get your mind out of the gutter. That's what she told me of course. It's not that type of campground. Thank you. Anyway, we will have all these people come by Road Hazard and pick up a playing card. There will be several locations throughout the campground. At the end of their walk, which will take two hours, they see who has the best hand. I have been having fun stopping and talking to everyone. We went out this morning for a walk and almost everyone is saying Good Morning to us and Reta is looking at me like why are all these people saying hello? I have met several couples but of course I don't remember their names. They remember mine because almost everyone says we are the "young ones" full timing RV. If I had a dollar for every time someone told us "You are so young to be full timing." I would be rich!

I'll be sure to keep you posted on our exciting Poker Walk tonight. In the mean time enjoy a few of these other pictures that I took last night and today while biking.

The pier before sunset.

Sunset at Jolly Roger

Some of the locals that hang out at the pier.

Our bike ride this morning that took us over one of the many bridges.

Doesn't she look good on the beach?

You will never believe what happened today! The pick up truck got to ride on the beach and it didn't even get stuck. Check it out!

For all my friends that give me crap about my Pick Up...well, you can't deliver mulch on the beach.

Today turned out to be a beautiful day and we took full advantage of it. We drove out to the beach and rode our bikes for several miles. We saw many star fish and even found a sharks head. I guess someone caught him while fishing and just chopped the head off. I swear I had nothing to do with it. There was a nature trail that we went on and ended up seeing our first Alligator in Florida. Turns out he was a big one.

We also saw some birds with funny feathers that look like a feather duster.

Tomorrow we are once again hitting the road. We are headed way down south. We are going to be in Marathon for two weeks. Marathon is part of the keys. About mid point between Key Largo and Key West. The drive should take us about 6 hours and we hope to be setting up camp about 3.

NASA

We spent the day visiting Kennedy Space Center and had a great time. The weather wasn't the best but since you spend a lot of time in a bus and walking around inside the buildings it was fine. We had a chance to see the shuttle sitting on the launch pad getting ready to go sometime this month.

From this observation tower we are still about a mile away. It is amazing to see this and the other buildings that you know has so much history. There is also a great IMAX 3D movie that we watched. You get to wear these great glasses. We enjoyed the trip so much that we even thought about trying out to become an astronaut but I don't think its a good look for me.

Tomorrow should be a better day and we plan on visiting Canaveral National Parks and doing some mountain biking and hiking. We might get to see some more wildlife.
Hope you enjoy the pictures of our trip today!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday and I am sure you are looking forward to the weekend. With a NFL packed weekend and warmer weather expected it's going to be good.
We woke up today to 45 and rain. Looks like we are going to put off going to Kennedy Space Center another day.

We drove around yesterday to explore the area. It was officially our first sighting of dolphins. As we were driving on a causeway, Reta looked out and you could see these dolphins, all swimming near shore. There must have been about 20 of them. Sorry no picture of that. It happened too fast.

We made it down to Cocoa Beach and had lunch there. It was a little windy when we went out to the beach to check it out.

...and yes, even though it was 40 some degrees I was still wearing my flip-flops. Hey, I'm on vacation.

Have you ever heard of fruit from Indian River? Well we found the place where all that fruit comes from. You should see the size of these oranges, grapefruit and lemons. We just drove past these huge grove of citrus trees. We stopped and bought some Naval Oranges and they are so sweet.

There is a huge port for the Cruise ships north of the city. We stopped at a Visitor Center and asked about last minute cruise specials that we have heard about. We found out that they stopped that after 9/11 and the only place that you can still walk up and buy a ticket is Miami. We were thinking, if it was possible, to jump on a cruise for a week. Guess not.

The campground we are in is so much better. We have cable TV and Wi-Fi. Two important things.

We did have a visitor at our campsite. He came running out from under the RV and I put my hand on him and scooped him up. I called Reta out so we could take pictures. Another encounter with wild life.
I am trying out something new with this video and if it works I will start uploading more. It was taken the day we went to St Augustine beach.

Go SKINS!