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!