Good-bye Key West (Spokane, WA)

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.

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.

I like it here!  I don't want to leave!

Most of our time was spent hanging around Sigsbee Naval Base.  Taking long walks and looking for island wildlife was our biggest entertainment.

The Ibis and the Pelicans were our favorite birds to watch, but we were just as happy to watch the others as well.  

Spying Iguanas was another one of our favorite past times.

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.

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 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.

We stopped to visit with Lexi at Ibis Bay Resort.

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....

and Hemingway's cats at his house, of course.

We also went to the Pet Masquerade....

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.

Boca Chica NAS

C-130 during flying exercise and Squirrel

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. 

 Of course, being on an island, it is limited on where you can go and it can be very crowded at times.

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!

Sept key west

We have been letting the days slip away in the ol' Key West fashion by taking long walks around the base, relaxing outdoors with the cats, a couple of dips in the sea, watching sunsets, and occasionally going downtown.  It's rough, we know!  

We have also watched several people come and go since we got here.  Most are on vacations while some like to spend time here only during the summer.  We are in agreement that winter time is better as far as weather goes, but it has also been nice for the low number of occupied sites for the first couple of months.  That will be ending soon.

So, what have we been doing for entertainment lately.  Actually, we have been going downtown about once a week just for a change of scenery.  Otherwise, we are quite happy with staying on base.

 

 Parking is hard to find free in the downtown area so we have been parking near the Eco Discovery Center.  Also, a great place to visit and learn about our oceans and how they are rebuilding living reefs.

Mama Hen and chicks inside the Truman Annex

Anyway, this location is located towards the southwest side of town.  From there we can walk north towards the busier area of Key West.  We get to walk through this tree lined neighborhood called the Truman Annex on our way towards Duval St.  (Named for President Truman). We often see roosters and hens along the way.

Truman Annex

On this day we walked to the Key West Lighthouse located across the street from Ernest Hemingway's house on Whitehead.  This is the second lighthouse that was built taller, further inland and unto higher ground (14 ft) after the first one was destroyed during the 1846 hurricane.

After visiting the lighthouse, we walked up to the Customs House.  With two stories of art and history to view, we were worn out.  Not bad for one day of just enjoying Key West considering both were offering a free admittance fee during the summer for military active duty and retirees.

One of our friends suggested we visit the Key West Wildlife Center.  They know us well!  They share our interest in all the wildlife, not to mention, our love for cats.  They are cat owners and they foster kittens for the Florida Keys SPCA.  Sandy says she would end up adopting all of them...then she really would be the Crazy Cat Lady.

Ibis with a twisted bill - poor baby!

The Wildlife Center rescues and rehabilitates all wildlife including chickens. According to one volunteer, home owners will get tired of the chickens and ask for them to be removed.

They are captured and sent to farms in central Florida where they happily spend their days hunting  bugs.

We did not see the sick or hurt animals.  All the animals we saw were big beggars following us along the walkway.

Even the turtles came swimming over looking for a handout.  Sorry we did not bring any food with us.  Maybe next time we will be better prepared for feeding them.  There is no fee, but donations are appreciated.

We also visited one of our favorite places - the Key West Garden Club in the West Martello Tower.

The KW Garden Club did a fantastic job of building and growing a garden paradise on an old fort property.  

We can still see parts of the old fort while wandering along the many paths.

We have eaten a couple of times at Amigos Tortilla Bar.  They have excellent veggie burritos with a great view of the street for people watching.

Here are a few more views of Key West during our walks...

Outside of BO's Fish Wagon

Cruise ship near Mallory Square

Walking along the harbor boardwalk on the north end.

So far, we have been lucky with this hurricane season.  We have only had one warning to be packed and ready to leave when notified.  We hope that will be the only time.  

Another lovely sunset

In a couple of weeks, things will start to pick up with more festivals and people.  In the meantime, we are going to enjoy our last couple of weeks of quiet paradise time.
Happy Trails!

End of The Road (Key West, FL)

We cut our stay in Central Florida short by two weeks.  We were ready to be in Key West despite being in the middle of hurricane season.  So far, the weather has been cooperating - up to now.  We kept an eye on T.S. Danny.  That one has been down graded, but on its heels comes Erika and this one is a lot stronger and heading towards southern Florida.  We are waiting to see if the base evacuates everyone. 

We have been leaving our large awning out and strapped down for better shade, but that turned out to be a mistake with the unpredictable weather.  We had one bad storm take us by surprise around 11:30 pm one night.  It ripped the canvas hinge that attaches the awning to the roof of our large awning on one end before we could wrestle it away from the wind and get it rolled up.  We were one of the lucky ones.  Several rigs had their awnings ripped off the upright arms and over their roofs.  Awning repair parts for a new hinge $90, so not too bad.  The original was weathered and replacement was due.

While we wait to hear more from T.S. Erika, here are a few photos of our travels to and of Key West.  Who can resist this invite to sit under the palm tree for a relaxing afternoon?

We spent one night in Midway State Park near Big Cypress and Everglades National Park.  We arrived early in the day and decided to visited Big Cypress NP visitor's center.

There were plenty of alligators to view while they swam around in lazy circles.  They certainly give off a lazy carefree attitude with only their tail moving and legs hanging limp.  Just gliding across the water barely making a ripple in the water...sneaking up on an unsuspected meal.  Most of the alligators ignored the people except for this one.  He swam straight up to us and stopped.  Three young Eastern Europeans stood beside us as the alligator stared up at us.  One of them turned to Sandy and said it all - "Frightening!".  Agree!  Not something we would want to run into in a small kayak.

This guy was our only neighbor at the state park.  The cats loved having all that open space to explore.  It's too bad we could not spend more time outside, but the mosquitoes were vicious even with bug spray!

A sight we have been looking forward to for almost two years - the 7 Mile Bridge.  Good-bye Mainland!  Hello Key West!

We are happy to say that Key West looks about the same.  Beautiful views, iguanas,

different sea/water birds to watch and of course...

many feral chickens running around entertaining tourists while annoying the locals.

We found out that during the off-season some of the museums offer discounts or free entrances to the military and retired military.  We took advantage of the offers and visited several places.  The Audubon House was actually owned by the Greiger family.  Captain John Greiger made his family fortune in wrecking/salvation.  A business that made many locals wealthy before the US government came along.

Audubon House 

It turns out that Audubon did not stay in this house during his six week visit with the Greiger family.  He had visited the family in their first house.  This house was built after a hurricane took out the old family home, but he did write about his stay with them along with Key West foliage and wild life.   The house and the gardens were quite interesting.

As you can see, we had to do all the tourist-type things like get our photos at the SouthernMost Point.

Here comes another cruise behind the Conch Blower.  A welcome for everyone.

So, our fingers are crossed that we do not have to evacuate, but we are ready to head north if the base decides it is not safe to stay,

Until then we will keep enjoying the views and the lovely sunsets...

Happy Trails!

Hot On The Trail South (Clermont, FL)

Actually, we are cooling our heels in Central Florida while waiting out a good part of hurricane season before traveling to Key West.  And to tell you the truth, our heels are not cooling either since we are spending every day walking around the park, or in stores, or in state parks.  Florida has been hot and humid with mid 90s, but feels more like 102+ degrees.  So we walk early in the mornings and again in the evenings if there are no thunderstorms.

Site near Peace River

Speaking of thunderstorms, they have some big boomers here.  Lightning so close that the light and thunder are together causing Sandy and cats to jump.  We had one last night with two fronts meeting over our area.  We spent the evening watching the dark clouds come together from different directions with the winds shifting.  It has been awhile since we have seen such storms develop.

We like outside...we go outside now?

The cats have been enjoying their time here. They beg to go out every couple of hours.  Dusty (far right) even begged Sandy one night around 3 am by trotting up to the door and crying.  When she did not follow him, he came back and started over again.  "Ah come on!  Nice outside!"

pygmy rattlesnake behind our motorhome sleeping near the woods

We walk around our site to make sure there are no unpleasant visitors for our cats to play with...especially the snakes.  

our latest entertainment - Sandhill Cranes

The Sandhill Cranes usually alert and walk away if they see our cats.

They ignore us as long as we don't get too close.  Sandy tried to shoo them away one day so the cats could come out and they did not budge from their prime spot under the tree. "Silly woman.  Is she trying to fly?"

Most of the time, we enjoy watching them while they hunt for food which seems to be 24/7.

Plenty of lakes, swamps and rivers to view in Central Florida.  It is a very peaceful area when we are away from the more populated areas.  Many of the campers in the area have some kind of boat or water related gear packed onto their cars and rigs.  Definitely a water world area.

We also visited Downtown Disney for a change of pace.  We found it was a great way to experience Disney fun without paying parking fees or entrance fees.

We spent most of the time wandering around and window shopping.

We have visited a few state parks.  The photos below are from Paynes Creek Historic State Park. 

Suspended bridge in Paynes Creek Historic SP

 There was little left of the historic sites, but walking the trails were interesting and the bridge was fun to cross.

We were told there had been sightings of alligators, but we did not see a single one.  Maybe they are on holiday and went to the beach for a change of pace.  Nothing like a good salt bath!  ;)

A couple of milestones were recognized since our last post:  this is our 6th year on the road with no thoughts of slowing down our travels and.......we celebrated our 40th Anniversary! 

Dan and Sandy 1975

We will start moving farther south around mid-August.  Our plans are to be in Key West by September(?) even though we know it is still hurricane season until the end of November.  It is nice to experience Key West before the busy tourist season starts in December/January.  Last year, the snowbirds arrived quite a bit earlier, probably due to the extreme winter season.