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!