Iguana Country!

Our two weeks in full hook-ups is over.  Sigh!  Those two weeks just flew by!  Good-bye ocean view, good-bye dolphins, we have moved to Iguana Country for our next rotation in dry camping.

So, during the FHU weeks, we spent some time with our friends Ken and Cheryl from New York. They told us the Butterfly Conservatory was a must see and they would like to show it to us. They were right! If we had any stress, it would have dissolved as we walked through the atrium’s doors and into a lush garden world filled with butterflies floating by, little birds chirping, a bubbling brook filled with very large Koi and soft music playing. We got some great photos and posted them in Webshots.

Afterwards, we walked to the SouthernMost Beach Café and had a delicious lunch with a great view of the beach. This place is actually located at the SouthernMost Hotel.  We don’t usually eat in hotel restaurants, but this one had very good ratings/reviews. We took a chance and the reviews were correct.

Hitch and Dusty enjoyed their two weeks in full hook up camping by chasing small geckos and climbing the palm trees. On one walk, Hitch ran and climbed four trees. He wore Sandy out that day. As you can see, chasing geckos wore Dusty out.

We had a lot of questions about our screen house, so here are some more photos with it folded up and in its cover.

Now we are back to dry camping. The location is superb. Our new neighbors are great, the two legged ones, pets, and  Iguanas.  We have two cat neighbors on the right side, a dog, grey parrot, and cat on the left side, and numerous Iguanas out the front.  We have a view of the ocean – smaller, but we can still see it. It is not as windy as our last site which is great for the screen house and we have better shade with a tree in the next site. We do have one problem with the site – a low communications wire that our motorhome’s antennas hit as Dan backs into place.   Otherwise, it is perfect.  So, this is home for the next couple of weeks.

Hitch:  "That is one strange looking Cat!"

On Key West Time

On Key West Time


Relaxing in Key West is an art. Relaxing Key West style is contagious and intoxicating. Ahhhhh! Oh yea, we have been practicing for the past month and you know – practice makes perfect, right? Now we don’t just sit around doing nothing all day. We just do things at a very easy going slow pace.

We are starting our third week in the Dry Camp area so mornings consist of recharging batteries with the generator while using any or all of our electrical appliances to make breakfast and cleaning. If the weather is good and it usually is – we take the cats outside for walks. Even Max has been venturing outside. Well, to the bottom step where he keeps at least one paw on the step. Make a move towards him – Poof!! – he disappears inside until the coast is clear. Dusty and Hitch will spend hours sitting in the screen house watching for birds, enjoying the breeze, and doing a lot of cat napping. Sandy says it is like having her own screened in porch. She spends as much time in it as the cats do. Watching the people go by and working on her hand sewing.

After lunch, we take a leisurely 3 mile walk around the base. We say leisurely because we make a lot of stops along the way. First stop is usually at the RV office to see how many are dry camping now. Anywhere from 190 to 200 dry campers are on the waiting list for the 88 full hook-ups and some of those are for Handicap only. Yep, the wait is long, but we don’t mind. We stop by the retaining ponds to see the large iguanas sunning themselves then onto the marina to watch the pelicans by the water. The most important stop is to visit our favorite rooster that Dan has named “Buck Buck”. Buck Buck comes running out greeting us with his clucking sounds. He usually stops right in front of us and starts scratching and clucking the whole time. Dan likes to speak Chicken and the two have a wonderful conversation about how they spent their day.

After our showers at the Bath House and dinner, we pop in a DVD since we don’t have TV reception here (the price we pay to live in paradise). Sandy likes to work on her quilts while Dan is reading the latest news on his computer.

During our hanging out around the motorhome, we get to watch the Ibis and a pair of Ospreys nesting nearby. One of the Ospreys always brings its meal to a utility post near our site. Our next door neighbor setup a very powerful telescope in front of his 5th Wheel with a sign inviting everyone to take a look at the nest. Very nice!

We are finding the White Ibis to be very entertaining at times. Dan calls them the crosswalk birds because they do tend to cross at corners. They are so comical to watch that we are always on the lookout for them. Their walk alone is fun to watch – the bobbing of their heads, the strange stork-like walk, and the soft grunts they make as they move around. We never know what to expect them to do. They are not very skittish around people or vehicles, but they do keep their distance if someone tries to get too close.

We have noticed that they tend to stay in small flocks, anywhere from 3 to 10 birds. We have seen a few mavericks out by themselves, but for the most part they like to stay together. If one decides to do something completely different from the others then the others will follow its lead. One time, the leader decided to use the sidewalk in front of the Navy Exchange (small retail store). We were just coming into the parking lot as they walked down the sidewalk in front of customers and the opened doors. They could have cared less that they were blocking the way and causing a small traffic jam. One couple was trying to get pictures. We could tell one lady had been here too long because she just sat on the bench text messaging as the flock marched by her.

Another time, there were two flocks. One was eating in the grass while the other flock was wandering around in the parking lot. The eaters decided they needed a drink and moved over to a very shallow puddle. Of course, the other flock had to follow. So, all these birds are trying to drink water at the same time which is not easy to do with their down curved bills. Each bird had to lay his head sideways into the water to fill its bill, lift its head straight up, and swallow. We were surprised they did not step on each other.

So, there it is – life in Key West. We have noticed the people staying in the campgrounds seem to have a spring in their step, love to be outdoors, and look very healthy for their age.

Now, stop groaning, we know the weather has been bad up north. We have been watching the weather and we can see that Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas are under Severe Weather Watch right now. We want you to know we still remember those cold, okay, freezing winter days and we do not take this beautiful weather for granted. Stay warm Friends.  

Happy Holidays!

We hope this message finds you and your family safe and warm. We have heard about the unusually cold weather people are getting all over the States. Even Whidbey Island in Washington’s Puget Sound got snow in early December. We are staying pretty warm and dry so far, but people are worried about another cold winter here in the Keys .

In late November, Sandy’s brother, Jay drove all the way from Illinois for a visit. On his first day here and within the hour of his arrival, Dan took Jay out kayaking around the campground. Jay promptly had himself baptized by tipping the kayak over while trying to look at an Iguana sitting in the tree above him. At least, it was a warm and calm day to go swimming in the marina. Later, we took him to an area of the marina where he could get pictures of the iguanas without getting wet.

Some of our plans had to be changed because of a cold front coming through, but we managed to do quite a bit during Jay’s short visit. We took him to Mallory Square for the Sunset Ritual and walked around Key West afterwards. Of course, we had to take him to the Southern Most Point and Mile 0 for photos. We spent one day taking a 70 mile one way boat trip to a very isolated outpost - Fort Jefferson (1860) at the Dry Tortugas NP. The seas were not too rough, but the Captain had to zig-zag around Lobster traps to avoid taking out the floats.

Once we landed at Dry Tortugas, we had the option to go on a tour or to do our own thing. While Jay did the tour and took pictures, we decided to wander around on our own. After lunch, Dan went snorkeling along the Moat walk while Sandy did some more exploring.

We learned that this was the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd and three other conspirators after they were found guilty of conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln. Three years later, Dr. Mudd was released from his life-long sentence after treating yellow-fever victims during his imprisonment.


We have linked the National Park’s website so you can read about the fort's history.  Dry Tortugas Album

We spent a couple of hours at the Key West Garden Club (KWGC) at the West Martello Towers (1863-1873). The KWGC rescued the unfinished fort from being leveled on the south side or Atlantic side of Key West. Now the West Martello is listed as a National Historical Site and has a rare collection of native and exotic plants. We had to remind ourselves as we wandered along plant filled pathways and into garden rooms that this was supposed to be the fort’s old brick walls. Banyan Trees and Bromeliads were growing on many of the walls. The Club has done an amazing job and they only ask for a donation.  Key West Garden Album

Well, Jay did not get a chance to parasail or to snorkel any of the reefs. He did find lots of good subjects for his 3-D photography.  If you are interested in seeing Jay’s photos, here is a link to his album.  From the pictures he took, it looks like he had a good time.

We have also added a few more photos to some of our older albums.  The links below will start where the new photos start:

More Key West

Key West Critters

Have a safe and Happy Holiday!

Power Boat and Super Boat Races

It’s hard to believe we have been here in Key West for over a month now. Time just slips away with so many different things to do. One minute we are eating breakfast trying to decide what we want to do today and the next thing we know it is dark and we have not eaten dinner yet.

Ah! And the weather has been wonderful! Some days are almost too perfect with 83 degrees and just a hint of a breeze. Some days, the water on the Gulf side looks like glass all day long! Ah! Gorgeous! Well, to make you feel a little better. It wasn’t completely perfect. Yes, the humidity was a little high, but who cares when the sun is shining and the water is beckoning for us to dive in!

We have been exploring different kayak launching areas on the other Keys. We are always hoping to come across different sea life and wild life during our kayaking time. So far we have seen a lot of birds, a couple of sharks, stingrays, barracudas, and one dolphin. We uploaded a few more pictures to Key West Critters.  We’ll keep looking. After all we have plenty of time for exploring.  We started a new album Key West Kayaking with photos from our kayaking trips.  There are only a few, but we promise to add to the album as we get more photos.

On 7 Nov, Key West hosted a Power Boat and Super Boat Race. Every other day, there were three races with boats from different power/speed classes. On the first day, we went with the idea that we would not be able to see the race that well without binoculars. Boy, were we ever surprised to have the boats racing by so close that the spectators could almost feel the rooster-tails splashing them! If we stood right on the shore, the waves made by the power boat’s wake would get our feet. It was a WOW!! moment! Needless to say we were back for the next two race days. We took advantage of the multiple races by viewing them from different locations. We took so many pictures that Sandy filled her microchip (holds 500 pics) twice. Don’t worry we only uploaded a little over 100 photos in Power and Super Boats album.

As always, pics and clickable links are above.