We said good-bye to Key West in early March. We enjoyed our winter in Key West even with a month of cold fronts moving through the area. It makes the sunny days all the more precious especially with all the bad weather going on up north. It will probably be quite a few years before we return.
Most of our time was spent hanging around Sigsbee Naval Base. Taking long walks and looking for island wildlife was our biggest entertainment.
Spying Iguanas was another one of our favorite past times.
The following two pictures were taken in October to show the empty dry camping area before Christmas. Plenty of room for visitors. There are 90 full hook-up sites and they were rarely full before October. There are over 200 dry camping sites and that did not include Trumbo's dry camping area on the other side of Key West. Our first rotation into dry camping came in late October during Fantasy Fest, but it was for only one night.
We can still see the water across the campground from the Laundry/Wash Facility situated in a central location. Isn't it beautiful? It was very hot and humid in early Fall. High 80s to 90s with 95% humidity, but we did not mind because it was so peaceful.
We stopped to visit with Lexi at Ibis Bay Resort.
and Hemingway's cats at his house, of course.
We also went to the Pet Masquerade....
Of course, being on an island, it is limited on where you can go and it can be very crowded at times.
So, it looks like we need to do a little catching up since our last post was in September. My! How time flies! The cats were not happy to leave. They spent every day outside unless it was raining. What can we say? They are not ones for the wet fur look.
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| I like it here! I don't want to leave! |
The Ibis and the Pelicans were our favorite birds to watch, but we were just as happy to watch the others as well.
Plenty of old ones hanging around in the trees at the marina and in the grass near the PX/Commissary area.
Or swimming in the marina....
The younger ones seemed to like soaking up the sun near the waterfront. We even had a couple of sightings of newborns sitting with their mamas on the rocks.
Our best sighting was of a manatee swimming around the base marina. We were able to see the same one three times. We identified this manatee by the propeller scars on it's back. Even our son Shaun was lucky to watch the manatee. On that day, we did not think he would get a good view of the manatee since it was out a good 30 feet from the dock. All we could do was watch for it's snout coming up for air. While watching for its snout, a small two-man catamaran sail came through the marina area and accidentally slid right across the manatee's back. The surprised manatee bucked a good two feet out of the water causing the catamaran to rock but did not tip over. Considering the man was standing at the time, we were surprised he did not end up in the water. The manatee shot over to the docks almost to where we were standing. We are pretty sure the manatee was more startled than hurt. Afterwards, we were able to follow the manatee around for quite sometime as it stayed close to the docks or underneath and away from the scary boats.
We were able to pick out our own dry camping spot under the conditions that the area had been opened to campers and no one else had claimed it first. Oh look, we can still see the Laundry/Wash Facility from here.
Within a week after Christmas, the campground was booming with newcomers. Often we would walk by the Office to count how many rigs had parked there during the night. The norm was usually 3 to 4 rigs, but a couple of times their parking lot was full. One morning, we counted up to 17 rigs.
Later in the day, we would check the Dry Camp list to see how many had actually arrived in one day. The office posted two lists every day. The first list contained campsites with full hook-ups and their two week due date for rotation into dry camp. The second list contained all the dry campers waiting for full hook-ups. We liked to see how fast we moved up the dry camping list and guess when we would move. During the busiest time, we were in dry camp for almost six weeks.
We enjoyed the ocean front sites, but the bad weather blowing salty air coated our rig causing problems for our windows, paint, and adding to its rust problem. Dan spent quite a bit of time working on different problems.
We are basically homebodies. If it is a choice of dealing with crowds and noise or staying home, we chose staying home. We did get out once in a while during a few festivities, but usually we enjoyed visiting downtown during the weekday when it was a little quieter. When our son, Shaun came down for a visit, we were happy to show him the sights. His visit was just in time for several celebrations.
The first one was the Zombie Bike Ride. We enjoyed watching the parade with over 7000 participants. A lot of imagination went into some of their costumes and rides.
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| Hello! |
Of course, we had to take the photo of the Mile 0 and a bonus with the train in the background.
We took Shaun to see Fort Zachary Taylor State Park....
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| is that a Water Witch? |
And we spent a little time at the Fantasy Fest
For most of Shaun's visit, we hung out around the base, soaking up the sunshine, and enjoying the views. So here a few more photos of our winter in Key West, FL.
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| Boca Chica NAS |
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| C-130 during flying exercise and Squirrel |
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| Dusty telling Dan to rub his belly |
We had a nice time, but we have to admit that we were ready to go. Shopping is limited for locals and many take trips to Marathon or Miami or do without.
It was time to say good-bye to Key West. We are in Spokane, WA visiting with family, getting some shopping done, and getting a few repairs done on the motorhome. We will stay here two weeks before heading towards the west coast or Bend, OR. We haven't decided just yet.
Happy Trails!
