More Keys

As we made our way back "up" the Keys from Key West, we stopped at several scenic places. Bahia Honda is always a favorite. When we first visited the Keys more than thirty years ago, we spent an afternoon being bounced around by the waves at Bahia Honda. We sat in the shallow water up to our waists and let the incoming breakers knock us silly. For some reason, we found that to be fun.

This time we just looked out at the water and enjoyed it's turquoise beauty.





A section of the old bridge which once led from Bahia Honda south to the next key is still standing, an apocalyptic image against the hazy sky.



This iguana, lazing in a tree, almost escaped notice.



Next up was another favorite - Sombrero Beach in Marathon. This is a great place to take a dip in the ocean or work on your tan.







Finally, we stopped for the evening at Calusa Campground and Marina in Key Largo where we caught a nice sunset.





And then it was "farewell" to the Keys.

Key West

In the search for winter warmth on the East Coast, the ultimate destination is the end of U.S. Route 1 at Key West, Florida. And, as Jimmy Buffet suggests, changing one's latitude also changes one's attitude. We had only a couple of days to enjoy "Margaritaville" before heading north again and we made the best of them. Tracey even dolled up for the occasion and rustled up some oysters on the half shell ...


We met up with our friend Emalyn, second from left below, who lives in Key West. She took us to a party at her neighbor's house and we got to meet her visiting relatives, Jane and Matt.


The next evening we ate a great meal of oysters (grilled for Tracey, raw for Joe) and clam chowder at the waterside Conch Republic and later caught the sunset at Mallory Square, a Key West tradition.





Once the sun had set, we enjoyed the street performers along the wharf area. Each evening there are singers, jugglers, fire eaters and an assortment of others who entertain for tips. The fellow in the red shirt below challenged audience members to lock him in a web of chains from which he escaped in short order all the while keeping up a stream of patter that had everyone laughing and hanging around for more.



Afterward, we walked along crowded Duval Street and caught singer/guitarists singing in open-front bars, perused art galleries, and generally soaked up the carefree atmosphere.



And closed down the town ...



While in Key West, we stayed at the El Mar RV Resort, a small campground that afforded us a nice water view ...

Warmth!

We rolled into John Prince Park in Lake Worth, Florida, and broke out the summer clothes. The elusive warm weather had been found.

John Prince Park is a 700-plus acre oasis surrounded by the greater West Palm Beach metro area. Once you're in the park, you don't feel that you're anywhere near a city. The actual RV park is like many others in Florida, filled mainly with retirees from northern states and Canada fleeing cold weather. As RV parks go, it's a nice one with large campsites and grassy expanses. A short walk in any direction out of the RV area takes you to into some beautiful settings.





Birds, including wing-drying anhingas, abound in the park.




Now, if we could just find a beach ...

Blue Spring and Manatees

On Thursday we arrived at Blue Spring State Park in Orange City, Florida. We got GoJoe set up in the campground and took a footpath through the semi-tropical forest to the gorgeous Blue Spring, a natural source of constant 72-degree water year round.

Each winter, Blue Spring hosts dozens of Florida manatees who bask in the relatively warm waters. Their food source and main home is downstream in the St. John's River. However, the manatees cannot tolerate water below 60 degrees. Thus, they are usually found in Blue Spring from around November to March each year. They do have to swim out into the St. John's to eat the vegetation that is their main food source. But then they scurry back to the warmth of the spring.

Maybe "scurry" is not exactly the right term. They sort of lumber along like silent submarines. Many of them seem to travel as families, with two adults and a calf or two in tow. They lurk just below the surface of the crystal clear water.



The manatees are not the only wildlife hanging around Blue Spring. The water teems with fish of all sizes and water birds abound. Here an anhinga dries its wings in the sun after diving for a meal. Anhingas cannot fly with wet wings and must sit for some time with wings expanded making for good photo ops.




Blue Spring is a place of incredible natural beauty. Besides the wildlife, we liked seeing the Spanish moss hanging off the trees and walking along the boardwalk that snakes through the forest and along the water.







And we really enjoyed our private campsite surrounded by lush vegetation.

Meeting the Dreams Team

Every once in awhile you get to meet some of your heroes - folks you have admired from afar because of their energy, enthusiasm, and tenacity in pursuing a dream. Such was the case this week when we arrived in Welaka, Florida, and met up with Howard and Linda Payne, shown on the right in the above photo. Howard and Linda have a website and blog, rv-dreams.com, that inspire and inform thousands of RVers. Several years ago, while in their early forties, they decided to give up their very successful conventional lives and hit the road in an RV. Since then they've traveled the country and lived in their well-appointed 5th wheel trailer, their only home. At the same time, they have put together an amazing website that is chock full of well-organized and useful information. And Howard's daily blog about their adventures has legions of dedicated followers.

They're spending the winter at tiny, out-of-the-way "Welaka Resort" in northern Florida, and that's where we caught up with them. On the left in the photo are Mark and Sue, friends of the Payne's who were also staying at Welaka. Mark and Sue are from Louisiana and invited us and the Paynes over to their motorhome from some delicious home-cooked gumbo. That was some really fine eating. Mark and Sue regaled us with stories of some of the temporary work assignments they've experienced while living on the road including a Minnesota sugar beet harvest, a stint at an Iowa theme park, and working the holiday rush at an amazon.com distribution center in Kansas.

Welaka Resort sits on the eastern shore of the wide St. John's River. They have a superb open-air bar and deck right on the water. It's a tradition to go down to the riverside deck each evening and enjoy the sun setting over the river. Here's what we saw the evening we were there.



Some other views of Welaka ...







Just before we pulled out of Welaka, Howard, Linda, Mark, and Sue came over to say goodbye. Here we are all squeezed into GoJoe ...




As you can tell from the clothing, we were still not in tropical temperatures. So we're headed even further south.