Category Archives: Florida

Long Key, short stay

February 2, 2015 Meg 2 Comments

Long Key State Park is unique in that all sites are beachfront

It’s just one long strip of oceanfront property with a road on one side and campsites on the other. We pulled into site 29 for our 1-night stay, while also eying neighboring site 30 where we’ll stay for 3 days later this week.

The drive over to Long Key from Key Largo took about an hour. It was hot, both outside and inside the van and Rubi did her best to stay cool in her resting place below the dinette.

We decided to stop into the Dollar General in Islamorada hopes of finding some cheap snorkel gear. We also learned it’s pronounced “eye-la-more-a-da”, just like all the other basterdized Spanish around here.

Instead, we found a busy store. Liz popped over to the Winn Dixie and found a madhouse. With so few stores on the islands, all of them are overpriced and overused. Luckily, there was a CVS in the center as well and we scored a couple sets of masks and snorkels to aid in our ocean adventures.

The Overseas Highway, also known as Highway 1 and A1A, runs straight through each and every key in the chain of keys heading to Key West.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=V-FOWxrcZ1w

Since each key is at the most 1 mile wide, and often much narrower, directions to any location are given with the mile marker and the side of the highway, such as mile 73 oceanside or mile 54 bayside.

Mile 0 is Key West. Along the highway, we saw miles and miles of turquoise waters, some sand dunes, a few different fishing bridges, which parallel the highway, and various water sports including a set of kiteboarders.

We have yet to see surfers out here, but kiteboarding seems quite popular and very fun.

There are also some ridiculous roadside attraction stores, including this one with a giant shrimp in the parking lot.

Liz did a great job driving, while occasionally getting a chance to take in the view herself when traffic backed up.

We arrived at Long Key at 2pm.

While windy, the view was gorgeous.

We watched the pelicans hover just above the water, searching for their catch of the day. We walked to the day use area and admired the kite surfers, vowing to take lessons a couple time while we’re here. And we hiked the 1-mile nature trail, which starts hugging the water, then moves inland to a heavily-shaded stretch of forest, and finally bends to an exposed desert-like area. All 3 of us thoroughly enjoyed it, though Rubi probably had the best time of all.

We then enjoyed a modest dinner with some pineapple-rum drinks before settling in to listen to the Super Bowl on the radio. The moon shone peacefully over the water and our van.

Neither Liz nor I follow football much, but we still had some Seattle Seahawks pride strong from last year’s win. What an exciting, and ultimately disappointing, game!

This next morning, we caught the end of the sunrise over the water.

We went for another walk and then Rubi and I attempted to stay cool in the van while I blogged and Liz went for an exhilarating rollerblading run.

The high is supposed 80 today, so we’ll finally get to use our air conditioner. We’re headed out for now, but are grateful we’ll be back very, very soon.

Florida, Travelog, Well-educated idiots

We are in the Florida Keys!

February 1, 2015 Meg Leave a comment

I’m officially giving up even attempting to complete daily blog entries. The scenery is just too beautiful and the pressure of daily writing just doesn’t seem to fit with the lifestyle down here. At the same time, I do want to get more of these posts—and pics—up more frequently. And so it goes. Now these will officially be “travelog” posts.

What to say about the turquoise water, salty air, and constant display of marine birdlife? The palms bearing coconuts nestled next to Florida grape trees sitting atop sandy soil? The sea breeze, at times refreshing and at times violent? The yachts, sailboats, and cruise ships floating on the distant horizon? It’s all just lovely and truly does change how you feel about nature and makes you attempt even harder to be in tune with it.

On Saturday, we embarked for the Keys.

The drive to Key Largo was easy and gorgeous. We traveled over the first bit of water on the Overseas Highway.

Liz loved that they painted the barrier separating the lanes the same greenish blue of the water.

As soon as we touched down in Key Largo, the vibe was different.

Every business on the side of the road was geared around water. From the boat sales to the dry moorage to the marine repair shops, we were definitely in a land where water rules.

John Pennekamp State Park was full of life. They have a kayak and canoe rental shop, offer glass-bottom boat tours, and also provide temporary moorage. We passed 2 huge catamaran sailboats, one in the water and one on land. Rubi enjoyed the mile-long nature trail and walking up and down the beach areas. No dogs allowed on the beaches, but the parking lots came close to the water and provided lots of dog-friendly places to sniff.

Liz and I are grateful for our good fortune (and persistence) in getting a campsite in the Keys. There are 4 state parks and they rent out sites for half the price—if not more than half—of what the commercial parks charge. They book up 11 months to the day. Since we were painfully naïve about the snowbird culture and how competitive it all was, we still didn’t have a reservation when we left PA at the beginning of January, despite the plan always including a couple weeks in the Keys. Thank goodness the state of Florida uses the Reserveamerica website and provides the ability to both book and cancel online. I can only imagine how annoying the job was for the poor ranger who used to have to answer the phone, informing everyone who called multiple times a day that there were no cancelations and that the campground was full.

So far, we’ve cobbled together a 10-day stay from 1/31 through 2/8, visiting all 4 parks. We even got 3 days in a row at 2 different parks! John Pennekamp was only for 1 night, but we attempted to make full use of the facilities. After a shower, we attended the Birds of Prey presentation and learned all about the various raptors in the Keys.

We have often felt blessed by being guided by hawks at various times during this trip and on other long-distance drives. We now find out that all those birds were probably just vultures, which are huge and actually look quite pretty when they fly.

Being in nature, learning from the excellent educational placards in the various parks, listening to rangers, and talking to our fellow campers has shown us how little Liz and I actually know. At times like these, I now affectionately call us “well-educated idiots.”

On Sunday morning, we woke up in time for a quick kayak tour of the waterways surrounded by mangroves.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=g3zk10_gaVM

We mostly saw trees and a few fish, but it was a peaceful paddle nonetheless.

We have yet to see an alligator or crocodile (which, for that matter, are only present in the US in this part of Florida), though Rubi did wake up at 3am quite disturbed by something near the swampy area behind our site. We still don’t think she’d jump out the back windows, but sleeping with them open was a bit worrisome as she jumped up at the noise outside. Despite a rather bright moon, we couldn’t figure out what was wandering around back there.

We checked out at 1pm to make our way further down the Overseas highway to Long Key State Park, on Long Key. We are there for just for one night, but then return in a few days for a 3-day stay.

Florida, Travelog, Unexpected twists

Misadventures again

January 12, 2015 Meg Leave a comment

[On the road to Lake Talquin State Forest]

Meg: [driving] Turn here?

Liz: [looking at map on phone with GPS] Yes…No…Yes…No

Meg: This one?

Liz: No…Yes…No…Yes…No. Yes.

[Meg turns]

Liz: No, that wasn’t it.

[They drive past a dilapidated church, two dirty mobile homes that were missing windows or had peeling siding, and a clean mobile home with 3 kids playing outside next to a minivan sitting in the yard with a completely flat tire. A stray dog ran in front of the car.]

Thank goodness we only had a 22-foot van to turn around.

We planned to spend the night at Lake Talquin State Forest midway between Ocean Pond in Osceola State Forest and Santa Rosa Beach near Pensacola. We planned a lot of nice things for the day.

After a foggy night, we awoke to everything slightly damp in the van from the humidity. Not deterred, Liz prepared a lovely breakfast spread.

We decided that Ocean Pond, while full of lovely friendly people with a private campsite for only $8/night, was a bit too depressing in the rain and mist. Since we’re headed to Santa Rosa Beach for the 30a Songwriter’s Festival for the weekend, we planned to drive 2 hours and make it halfway there. We found another cheap campground in a different state forest for $10/night. All seemed well.

Things started going off the rails when we decided to do some laundry. We pulled into the Love’s Truck Stop only to find out they didn’t have laundry. What truck stop doesn’t have laundry? The place across the street did, though both the washer and dryer were overpriced for being outside and next to the smokers’ bench. We did our wash as a downpour blew through, dumping buckets multiple times. Luckily, we were off the road and dry.

We continued on to Lake Talquin. Liz called to verify that the road to the campground was paved. After a strained conversation and a consultation with another phone agent, Liz was assured that the road leading to the campground was the only paved road in the place. All seemed well.

We exited the highway and tried to find our way to the campground. Which is when the above dialog occurred. After turning around, the drive just got weirder.

We passed nice-looking, rather spacious homes that were just off somehow. A smidge too close together. Oddly-designed drainage ditches. A little like the community in Edward Scissorhands, but on a thoroughfare. It seemed like a HUD project of single-family homes. It tried to be nice, but just couldn’t quite get there.

As we continued toward the birding trail and campground, there was the oddest mixture of larger, well-kept homes next to abandoned trailers with broken windows. Then a set of 4 homes with one for rent while the end unit was burned out and should have been condemned. There were also a few too many houses with 3-5 people mulling outside on an ugly day. Or with 6 cars in the driveway of a single trailer.

We continued onward and there was a man at the end of his driveway wearing earbuds. Liz waved, as we are accustomed to do in campgrounds. He didn’t acknowledge her and Liz noticed he was drinking a 40 of beer. And then the road turned to dirt.

We turned around at a slightly-less rundown church with an unpaved driveway. As we passed our friend on the street again, he smile and waved enthusiastically. I increased our speed slightly. Two more stray dogs crossed our path.

We decided to get a bit closer to Santa Rosa Beach by heading to the trusty Walmart in Panama City Beach. It looked on the map to be surrounded by golf courses. We hoped we’d be able to take Rubi for a walk on the manicured grounds.

We pulled in at night and found this instead of the golf course:

The pond was a nice surprise and we had a pleasant walk, but the fog combined with Ripley’s Believe It or Not bizarre architecture and the rundown beach vibe similar to Virginia Beach was not what we expected.

On the bright side, Rubi met her first tiny frog:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQQrg1YNXWE

The Walmart parking lot had a few other RVs, which was comforting. The hippy kids who decided to continue painting their RV with flowers and rainbows while standing in a shopping cart until midnight were not.

I guess at least it was free and we did sleep through the night without incident. In the future, we’ll be sure to do a bit more research about the towns in coastal Florida before pulling in for the night.

Florida, Travelog

St. Augustine living

January 10, 2015 Meg Leave a comment

http://instagram.com/p/xr_60BQeqL/

We’ve been enjoying Florida, though we currently are experiencing a cold front with temperatures in the 40s and 50s. Still it’s much better in the van than the negative wind chill in Pittsburgh.

We left the campground and got out into town the past couple days.

Downtown yesterday:

http://instagram.com/p/xr4MPzwenr/

http://instagram.com/p/xr4qRxQeos/

Today at the beach:

http://instagram.com/p/xr437xwepP/

http://instagram.com/p/xr6SjFwesg/

http://instagram.com/p/xr6aTDwes1/

http://instagram.com/p/xr7myvQev5/

The campground is even more full this weekend, with kids playing into the night. We’re enjoying civilization but also figuring out where we’ll be staying tomorrow night. I think it’ll be a bit more remote and a bit quieter.

Florida

St. Augustine, FL

Gallery January 10, 2015 Meg Leave a comment

St. Augustine, FL has been our longest landing spot yet. We enjoyed 4 overcast days exploring the historic downtown–the oldest city in American established in 1565 and celebrating 450 of existence this year–as well as the white sand beaches.

Rubi on the Road