Jan. 23, 2010

We spent some wonderful time in Long Key SP. This is a picture of a sunrise we woke to enjoy. Only one of course! What a blessing to have this opportunity. The only negative was the smell of the decaying fish from the cold snap. That is all along the beaches now. It should not last too much longer we hope.

A wonderful benefit to camping is the opportunity to meet and make good friends who share common interests. This is Bob and Kathy, a couple we met last year here in the Keys and we crossed paths here again this year. We did some wonderful paddling trips and some good nights. Bob actually made their kayaks!

The sunsets are also wonderful here. God sure did a wonder when he blessed us with sunsets like these.

We had an excellent dinner at the Barracuda Grill in Marathon. No we are not being eaten!

Jan. 16, 2010

This is a white heron, relative to the great blue heron. We were told this variety is only found in this area.

We are out of the freeze! At least for now. ;-)
Yes, the temp this morning was 70o and it is now 78o. Les is wearing his shorts and sandals which is the offical sign that warm temps are here.

Of course we had some excitement when Aaron called us to tell us of the earthquake in Eureka! So glad it was not harmful. But sure looks like it shook things up quite a bit.

We are preparing to move on soon. Leaving tomorrow or Monday if they have a spot here for us to extend one night. We checked for cancellations this week and found 3 days in a SP south of here called Long Key. It is the park where every site is on the beach. We booked Mon, Tu, Wed there and then we will finish out the week camping at Key West. We are excited that those dates opened up for us. The friends we made here in Pennekamp are going to be there and we will do some more kayaking with them if the weather permits. I believe there will definitely be a good meal for us to share one night.

I will post next when I can. WiFi is not going to be easy to get for at least a week.

Jan. 10, 2010

Yes, we are experiencing the deep freeze in the Florida Keys. This morning (Jan 9th) at 5am the temp was 59o, noon the temp is 48o and dropping with rain. Yesterday (Friday) was the best day we had so far with a high temp of 67o and sun. But we are not complaining. We have been able to do some walking, biking and kayaking so we are happy. Today we meet with friends, Sid Stepler and family, who are here on vacation for the weekend. Next week’s temps are to get warmer each day and forecast is for sun.

We read a book last year on a pioneer couple in these keys and they told of an unusually cold snap that killed the fish so that they could just go out and scoop them up. Well, we are experiencing that now. The shores are littered with dead and dying fish; along with weakened and dying ones in the shore waters. It is a shame but it gives us a chance to get an up close look at them. The fish eating birds are having a feast! It is interesting to see them sitting among the fish so full they can’t eat another one.


There is a remnant here in this park of one of the Keys biggest industries, an orchard. To plant these trees; guava, mangoes, avocado, and of course, key limes; they had to dynamite holes in the coral and ship in dirt. The bigger trees are original trees and small ones were replanted. Some of the trees were blooming and some had fruit.


Here is a barracuda that we found on the beach. Those teeth make me glad I’m not bite-size to them!


Waiter, I would like that one.

Winter Escape 2010

We are off again for a winter escape. The picture above is Brett and Emily getting in a load of wood after our big snow. That was a huge help along with helping us shovel out. The snow came early this year and made Les even more anxious to go south.


Even the welcome bear looked pretty cold. We stayed toasty with the woodstove and the snow melted enough for us to be able to get the camper up the driveway and head out on schedule Wednesday, Dec. 30th.

The drive south was uneventful, but chilly. Our furnace does a good job warming up our camper. We stopped again at my cousin Jan and Jerry’s and were treated to a wonderful day, New Year’s Day, with them and their family. A meal of pork and sauerkraut was prepared by Jan to usher in the new year properly. Of course seeing granddaughters, Stacia and Savannah was a wonderful treat.


We pulled into John Pennekamp SP, Key Largo, Jan. 3rd. The temps here are lows in the 40’s and highs in the 60’s. Chilly for this area, but OK by our standards. The radio said that this is the longest cold spell in 10 years. Think it is following us? Les is enjoying getting out to walk and ride the bike. We will wait for the temps to warm a bit before getting the kayaks down though. We are scheduled to stay here until the 17th. This park has WiFi and laundry along with the water and electric hookup, what more could we want?? Oh, I forgot the most important thing, hot showers! I should update the site next week.