Back in Orlando

On Tuesday Feb 24th we drove up the coast on A1A. We stopped at a beach park near Melbourne for lunch before turning west on Rt 192 and making our way to the Orlando Thousand Trails Campground. We left here almost a month ago to begin our southern Florida adventure. It’s good to be back in one spot for a bit and except for one week out we will be here the rest of our winter stay in Florida.

 After one day of rest; we lead such a hectic life you know, we rode down to the Plant City Strawberry Festival. We had tickets to the Bobby Vinton Concert on the opening day of the festival, which also happened to be senior day. After having to stop every few feet to keep from stepping on old folks who wandered aimlessly into my path and having my feet run over by mobility scooters piloted by centurions who had their drivers licenses lifted years ago, I was ready for teen day!

Now that I think about that, it may not be such a good idea. Fluorescent hair, multiple ear piercings and the well placed tattoo I can tolerate, but aboriginal body piercings and total body tattoos are a bit much. And then there are still a number of idio…adolescents who haven’t gotten beyond the notion that it is fashionable to wear their pants down around their thighs!

 Anyhow, back to the Strawberry Festival. We arrived early so we could tour the festival grounds before the Bobby Vinton show. For the uninitiated, the celebration of the predominant local agriculture is very much like a county fair. 

This fair has more food vendors than I’ve ever seen in one place. They had all the expected carnival food; you can eat pretty much anything you want as long as it’s fried. Some of it is pure novelty like fried butter or Oreo’s but they also offered some really tasty food. We had fried chicken with the coating made of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and it was delicious.

In addition to two headliner stage shows each day, the festival also has free entertainment all day. We stopped in one of the exhibition tents and caught part of the Nathan Osmond Show. He is the son of Alan Osmond who was one of the Osmond Brothers, think Donnie and Marie Osmond. He is good entertainer; his claim to fame is the ability to play any song the audience can think of. 

Bobby Vinton, The 1960’s teen idol has been an entertainer all his life; his present stage show also includes two of his children. He’s aged, like the rest of us, but his voice is still strong. He sang all his old hits, played trumpet, clarinet, saxophone and keyboards, Millie and I enjoyed the performance.

After the show we indulged in the obvious choice for desert, strawberry shortcake! There are only three locations in the fairgrounds that serve the decadent desert; all are non profit fund raisers. We chose the St. Clement Catholic Church Make-Your-Own Shortcake and it was delicious.

Before any green fuzzy stuff could grow on our feet we were on the move again. On Friday we drove across town to Kissimmee; our friend Wayne Wingard from Delaware was staying at the Sherwood Forest RV Resort there. Wayne was batching it, as his wife had to fly home for work, but it was good to see Wayne. We also wanted to see their new RV, a brand new 45 foot motorhome. If you’ve seen pictures of the rigs the NASCAR drivers stay in, that’s what Wayne and MaryAnn have, it’s as big as a Greyhound bus and very luxurious.

When we returned to Thousand Trails our New York friends, Clay and Rebecca Fingar visited us, it’s been a year and it is good to see them again. We have both signed up for a RV Caravan guided tour of the Canadian Maritime Provinces in 2016 so we had lots to talk about. We agreed to meet again in the evening for the campground entertainment.

The George Durham band plays the winter snowbird circuit in Florida and it was our 2^nd time seeing them. As you may remember when I described them last year, I said his keyboard player looks like the church organist, she still does. They are one of the better groups making the circuit; they play a lot of good dance music. We stayed till the end and all had a good time.

West Palm Beach area

On Saturday Feb 21 we moved sixty five miles north to Jonathon Dickinson State Park which is on the east coast near Jupiter Florida. We started the trip on I-95 to avoid the crazy drivers in Fort Lauderdale. We took exit 79A at Palm Beach intending on doing a driving tour of the rich and famous on our way to the campground.

As we slowed to stop at the first traffic signal after exiting 95 we were run into from behind. I looked in my rear view camera monitor to find we had been hit by our jeep. Not wanting to block the intersection I slowly pulled forward, the tow bar straightened and as the safety cables tightened the jeep fell into position. I drove slowly ahead through the intersection and parked close to the curb.

I would have guessed that the tow bar had somehow failed. What I found was the removable part of the base plate on the jeep had disconnected. This left me with one arm of the tow bar and the two safety cables attached to the jeep. I reattached the insert, then the tow bar and we continued our journey.

As we drove on I mulled over the two surprising things that had just happened. For the approximately ten minutes that I blocked a lane on the main road into Palm Beach not one person, blew their horn, hollered obscenities, or showed any signs of aggression. No one stopped to help but that’s ok, they just politely drove around me and went on their way. If this had happened south of here, the road warriors of Fort Lauderdale would probably have shot me. The 2^nd surprising mystery is how the tow bar insert came out of its position on the base plate. I still haven’t figured it out. Until I do I plan on double locking the pin that secures it.

Damages: The motorhome came thru unscathed. Both of our bicycles (mounted on the back of the motorhome) suffered bent pedals which a fellow RV’er and myself have straightened. The Jeep sustained the worst damage but it is surprisingly minor. The front bumper cover will have to be replaced. The part costs be $150 and I will install it myself. There is also a small dent and some scratches on the hood; I’m not sure what I will do about that yet.

Jonathon Dickinson Park is a nearly new campground on US 1 just north of Jupiter. Judging by the remnants of bend and charred trees this area was destroyed by a hurricane or forest fire or both.  Anyhow the end result is this nice campground that was built after the devastation.

We spent three nights here, one of the days we explored, West Palm Beach, Juno Beach and Jupiter. West Palm Beach is about as wealthy a place as I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to describe the opulent mansions, extensive landscaping, the many expensive cars, it’s almost surreal. We then drove up the beach road thru Juno Beach and Jupiter, both are very nice. We were impressed by the numerous ocean front parks.

My brother John and his wife Sandy spent last winter in Florida as snowbirds in a motorhome. They like Florida in winter but weren’t that crazy about the RV so for this winter they bought a condo in Jensen Beach. We drove over and spent the afternoon with them on Monday. It’s always nice to see family and we enjoyed our visit with them.

Old friend

All too soon our time in the Keys was over and on Wednesday Feb 18 we departed Sugarloaf Key and drove up to Fort Lauderdale. This is a two day stop to visit a friend and do a quick tour of the area.

First a short note about traffic from Miami to Fort Lauderdale. I believe road rage was invented here. I understand city driving and have no problem participating in it, but this whole area is infected with a radical element. These jihadists’ seem to hate every other driver on the road just because they are there.

We are camped in a nice wooded county park which is right in the middle of the endless urban sprawl that is Fort Lauderdale. Despite the rude drivers we toured the area and enjoyed lunch at the beach.

Dan Jaskey and I both serviced in Vietnam as door gunners on “Charlie” model gunships. These forerunners to the Cobra gunships were basically early versions of what you know as “Hueys” or as we called them “H” or “D” model slicks. The shorter “B” and “C” versions didn’t have a large cargo compartment and were outfitted as gunships. We needed runways to take off because we flew grossly overloaded with guns and rockets. They offered no protection from enemy fire, no advanced electronics, and no missile defense. The gunners sat in an open doorway and fired handheld M-60 machine guns. Looking back they seem primitive but we loved them and day after day we flew the mission.

We didn’t know each other in Vietnam but after our tours of duty we both were assigned to Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah Georgia. We both worked on the aerial gunnery ranges in support of the Cobra school.

Danny and I have remained friends for over 40 years. It is usually years between visits but it’s always good to see him again.     

Key West part two

On Sunday afternoon we drove into town to witness the sundown at Mallory Square. There were a lot of people in town and we soon found the reason. There were two large cruise ships docked at the waterfront and hundreds of the passengers roamed the streets. We enjoyed a Mexican meal at Amigo’s restaurant before joining the throng of people at Mallory Square to see the pre-sunset entertainment. The headlining acts were two different acrobat/flaming baton juggler/comedians who had very similar acts at different locations in the square. They both worked shirtless and were tattooed which made their acts even more alike. The slack rope walker was not there; neither did we see any animal acts. There were fortune tellers, musicians, and lots of vendors selling stuff.

Watching all the other folks was just as entertaining as the performers. Judging by the many languages we heard, folks from all over the globe gathered to watch the earth roll away from the sun. We secured seats at the bulkhead about 45 minutes before sundown and watched the boats going by. The cruise ships left during this time, maneuvering their immense hulls away from the dock without tugboat assistance. With their side thrusters it probably is not that hard to do, but it is still impressive to see those behemoths in action. 

Many sunset cruise boats packed with revelers passed us during this time; some of them were very nice looking vessels. However, the last boat that passed by was the ugliest boat I’ve ever seen. The ugly duckling was probably placed there because non of the other boats wanted to be near it as they passed the picture taking tourists. 

The sun and the earth were on cue and at the precise time the sun appeared to touch the horizon. From this point on it sinks very quickly. Someone blew a conch horn as the sun disappeared and the crowd applauded. I’m going to go out on a limb and say they’re accolades were for the sun and not the conch shell trumpeter. But who knows, this is Key West!

On Monday we had to leave Boyd’s Campground. I planned the Keys trip late in 2014 and couldn’t get a reservation of any length in any of the campgrounds. It’s actually better this way, moving about we get to experience more of the Islands. Mondays stop is only about 15 miles up the road from Key West; we are at the KOA campground on Sugarloaf Key.

The campground is ok; it’s nicer than I thought it would be. There is no grass, just gravel but the sites are wide and we’re not packed together like some of the other places we’ve been. The campground had a Marti Gras parade on Fat Tuesday and later in the afternoon a rock band that you could hear throughout the park. At 10 pm the music stopped and the partiers went home or someplace else because it got quiet after that.

Sugarloaf was just a two day stop for us and we didn’t do anything other than ride our bikes. Next stop is Easterlin County Park in Fort Lauderdale.    

Key West

                                          The end of the line, Key West Florida

 Thursday Feb. 12, 2015

Today we moved down the road to Key West. US1 from Marathon travels mostly on long bridges over blue water. It is very scenic and the 45 mile ride ended almost too soon.

Everything in Key West is tightly packed together and Boyds Campground is no different. That said it is surprisingly nice, some of the Keys campgrounds we’ve looked at on the way down are not much more than parking lots. Boyds has grass, some screening vegetation and Palm trees; and that makes all the difference. It transforms several hundred tightly parked RV’s into tropical paradise.  

 It would be about a long bike ride to downtown Key West so we drove the jeep to Duval Street. We got lucky and snagged a parking spot (metered at $2.00 an hour) and then did a self guided walking tour, mostly of Duval Street. We walked all the way down to the water and the southern most point in the continental US. This is tourist hokum to the ninth degree, not only is Key West not part of the continental US, (it is an offshore island) it is not the southernmost point of the United States. That distinction goes to Hawaii. To cap off the deception, the concrete marker is not even on the southernmost point of the island, but is in a cove with more southerly land on each side of it. Nevertheless we waited in line with all the other tourists, making arrangements with those next to us to be each others photographer and took the requisite photo. 

 

You see all sorts of strange creatures in Key West and some of them are not human. Chickens run free in town, twice we saw traffic stopped for them. Once was for a hen and her chicks crossing Duval Street and the other was for a cock fight by the southernmost monument. While eating lunch at an outdoor patio at Mango’s restaurant, hens and roosters wandered freely under the tables looking for crumbs. (Crabcake sandwich and fries $14, Pulled Pork sandwich and fries $14)

As for human strangeness we didn’t see a lot out of the ordinary. Reputed to be a very tolerant city it is supposed to have a collection of alternate lifestyle personalities, (is it politically correct to say that?) crazies, (I’m sure that’s not p correct) artists, old hippies, Jimmy Buffett/Ernst Hemingway wantabe’s, snowbirds and sailors. Mostly what you’ll see are other tourists, they’re everywhere.

I don’t mean to sound negative but the authentic old Key West is no more, it’s actually been gone for a long time. They’ve done a good job of protecting the architecture but the atmosphere is tourist trap, much the same as New Orleans, Beale Street and even downtown Nashville. That’s not to say you shouldn’t visit any of these places, time marches on, and today’s tourist trap is probably better than the old days anyhow. Today for $20 bucks you can buy a souvenir hat at Sloppy Joes, I’m sure that Ernest Hemingway couldn’t buy one when he hung out there.

One of my coworkers from Chrysler saw a posting on facebook in which I mentioned I was in the Keys. John Fraser and his wife Joyce have been snowbirding in the same RV park on the Cudjoe key for 12 years, lucky them! Millie and I drove up from Key West to visit with them on Saturday. It’s always nice to see folks from the old plant.

We will go back into town in the evening before we leave Key West. We haven’t yet been there to observe the sundown experience at Mallory Square. After that we start working our way north, but not too far, just back to Orlando where we will spend another month. 

Captions: Millie and I have each years travels printed into a book. It's for our reference and remembrance as much as it is for anyone else. The publisher does a terrible job with picture captions, they end up randomly dispersed in the text. That's the reason you don't see any in this years blog. All of the street scenes in this post are on Duval Street, the church is St Paul's Episcopal. The picture of Millie was taken at Boyd's campground.

The Florida Keys

Sunday February 8 2015

After three days in the city of Miami we were ready to hit the road. We stayed on the west side of the city and took route 997 south thru Homestead where we merged onto US 1 for our journey into the Florida Keys. A long time ago my brother Dave was stationed with the Air Force at Homestead while at the same time I was at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah Georgia. On a trip home I picked up his motorcycle and trailered it to Savannah. He flew up to Georgia and rode the Motorcycle (I believe it was a 350 Honda) back to Homestead. After driving 550 miles on the bike mostly on I-95 I remember him saying “Never again”.

Our destination for the next few days is Knights Key Resort on Marathon. About halfway down the length of the Keys, Marathon is one of the bigger islands. It has an airport, hospital, Kmart and even a Home Depot. Surprisingly, there is no Walmart in the Keys. In our travels all over this country, we find Walmarts everywhere and found it interesting there are none here. RV’ers like Walmarts; their parking lots are large enough to accommodate motorhomes towing cars, its one stop shopping for anything you need and  if there is no better alternative you are welcome to spend the night in the parking lot.

Our motorhome is parked front bumper to the shore with a panoramic view of the Florida Straits. Millie and I are becoming captivated with the Florida Keys, they call it the keys disease. We would like to make it our new winter Home but that’s going to depend on finding a reasonable RV site to rent. The one we’re in now costs $2500 a month in the months of Jan,Feb,Mar. We stopped at the Elks lodge on the way down and met with their campground host. I had spoken with her previously and we are on the waiting list for a spot there. It’s a small campground with room for about 8 RV’s located behind the lodge. But it is waterfront on the Florida Bay side of the Tavernier Key and much more reasonable cost wise.

From Knights Key Resort we are about ¼ mile from the beginning of the seven mile bridge. Adjacent to the highway bridge the old Flagler Railroad bridge which was converted to old highway one is intact and bike-able for 2 ½ miles out to Key Island. We rode out and back yesterday and planned on doing it again this afternoon but we just ate another fabulous seafood lunch and enthusiasm for a five mile bike ride is fading fast. 

I had an interesting chance meeting yesterday. On a morning walk I noticed a Car with a Special Operations Association license plate on the front. This is a closely knit Military Fraternal Association of maybe 2500 members and outside the annual reunion in Los Vegas I rarely run across another member. It turned out my neighbor at the campground is retired Colonel John McClaskey a past president of the SOA. We had an interesting conversation about lives past and present.

The campground had entertainment tonight so after joining the faithful at the Tiki Bar to watch the sundown we walked over to the Iguana Grill. The entertainment was a one man  show and once again we were floored by how good a singer he is. We’ve seen some really good entertainers down here that nobody’s ever heard of. They make a living practicing their craft out of the limelight, playing RV parks, bars, etc. We happened to sit down at a table with his wife, a perky (maybe it was the wine) retired School principal from Georgia and a group of her friends. They were a fun group and we had a great time.  Millie and I were in stitches when they told the story of them Iguana hunting. The lizards are not native to Florida and apparently have no natural predators so they are overrunning the keys. The hunters cruise along the edge of the mangroves and shoot them with a pellet gun. They fillet the tail, cut it in chunks and deep fry it. Of course, it tastes like chicken; they call it Chicken-in-a-tree. If this sounds like strange behavior for a bunch of old snowbirds, I guess I should mention the campground here is a combination of fish camp and old Keys laid back attitude.

Wednesday we drove up to Key Largo to have lunch with some old friends from Delaware. Bob and Carol Abel are recently retired and spending the winter in the keys aboard their sailboat, a 31 foot Island Packet. They departed the Chesapeake Bay in October and traveled south on the intercoastal waterway. They’ll be here till April and then will reverse the route. We will be home when they pass by Myrtle Beach and hope to see them again then.

I heard it going to be really cold up on the east coast the next several days. We’re heading further south to Key West in the morning. Ya’ll stay warm!