Bouncing around the Keys
Trip Start
Nov 19, 2007
1
116
170
Trip End
Ongoing
Marathon,
Florida,
United States
Thursday, January 1, 2009
After feeling anxiety about leaving the Keys, I went online to look into possibly renting a house on Big Pine Key. Most everything was either already rented or wayyyyyyyyy out of our price range.......until we found "the one". The house is situated on a canal that leads to the ocean or bay, depending on which way you turn. Best of all, it came with a 2008 20' pontoon boat. The boat was the clincher, so we agreed to rent the house and boat for Jan. and Feb. and get totally immersed in the Keys lifestyle.
The landlady kept postponing the day that we were to all meet and we went along so that she could furnish and get it all ready. By the 4th of Jan. we had run out of campground reservations so we met her and got ready to take over the house. Hold your horses....she was still not ready and the boat was out of the water. We told her that the boat was the main reason we were renting the house since we are happy living in the RV. So she got the boat in the water and we went for a cruise through the canal system and out to the Atlantic. What a sweet way to live....until the boat started speeding up on its own and not starting when it was shut off. So we returned to the house and kept working on getting the place ready with the hopes that her neighbor could fix all of the boat's ills.
We parked in the driveway that night and she stayed in the house. That night, we peddled our bikes into town and had dinner before taking a long evening ride back to the RV. This was a taste of how we were planning on living and interacting with the island and we were all gung-ho.
Jan. 5th.
Randy, the landlord's neighbor, showed us how to start it up right away and we were off once again to the ocean. We were feeling very confident about the boat when it did its "I've gotta mind of my own and I've gotta go fast" thing. Randy had taken us out to an offshore protected area where you can snorkel. We saw giant manta rays and beautifully colored water and shorelines before we returned to have Randy try his hand at fixing the motor. Unfortunately, his 2 attempts failed and we pulled it out and put it back on the trailer to bring it to the dealer the next day. It had multiple problems that were about to cut into our rental time.
The next morning the landlady emailed me a lease to print out since she hadn't gotten one together in time. When I went to print it, my computer monitor went black. With the house not being ready yet, the lease being unprinted, some onerous lease terms and the boat having mechanical problems, I took the broken computer as an omen and we told her we were going to pass. We gave her some money for the 2 nights in the driveway and the time on the boat and all left on good terms. Who knows what the future will bring?
We stopped at the grocery store on the way off the island and heard roosters crowing. It sounded just like Brenda & Vinny's place on Whaley Lake. We looked around and there were chickens and roosters roaming around the parking lot. What a cool setting and relaxed place to live.
Jan. 6th.
We were sadly leaving the Keys when we pulled into Bahia Honda State Park to see if we could pick up the unlikely open site. BINGO, one night came up as we pulled in. We walked, swam, ate lunch and I got on Jodie's computer to scope out more sites. BINGO ONCE AGAIN! We picked up a couple of nights at Curry Hammock and four more at Long Key. We are meant to be here (or at least we are delighted at our luck).
I Googled the problem my computer was having, along with the make and model and found out what is probably wrong with it. It's either an inverter (buried deep within the computer works) or a backlight bulb, which is even harder to get to. I took it apart, found the part # and tried getting it from Dell. Dell quoted me $500 for the monitor, since they don't sell the parts separately. I found the part on Ebay for under $14 including shipping, so we'll give that a try before digging deeper to reach the backlight bulb.
We got in touch with our friends Joyce and Fred, who were staying at Long Key and made dinner plans to eat at a hole in the wall called Fish Tales on Marathon Key. Good dinner with great conversation and connection. The staff had to ask us to leave when we were the last people hanging out and they had to close the place.
Jan. 7th.
Took a kayak out over the grass flats and brought a fishing rod along for a try at catching dinner. Before I left I attached some velcro to hold the rod or paddle to the kayak (depending on which I was using), and it worked great. Within 15 minutes I had my first barracuda fighting away. It was only about 18" long, but the teeth were INTENSE and I didn't have anything to get the hook out (good planning eh?). Luckily, the hook was right at the edge of the jaw and came out easily. With such good success at getting the hook out and with the sun setting, I kept fishing. I got 2 more barracuda that also came off easily and right before it got dark a 2-3 foot shark followed my lure in before it saw the kayak and took off....amen!
Instead of fish, Jodie made a chicken and broccoli stir-fry. As usual, it was better than any of the meals we have had out.
Jan. 10th.
Our friend Bob Duffy from NY emailed to let us know that Paul Mallon, a mutual friend was down in the Keys. Our connection to Paul is through his son Paul and nephew Steve who have our remaining "stuff" in storage. They own Main Street Movers and have become friends over the years. We called the number he gave us and found that Paul and Mary were staying 2 sites down from us on Long Key...what are the odds of that? That night they had us over for a tasty dinner of grilled chicken, corn on the cobb and salads. We all told stories, but Paul and Mary kept us laughing with stories of being moving "men" and running different businesses in their pasts. It was a lucky surprise to run into them on the road. They left the next morning for other campgrounds in FL.
Jan. 15.
We met Sue and Jerry, the campground hosts with the same type of RV that we have. It didn't take long before we all bonded and they invited us over to meet the head ranger and have steak and potatoes at their place. It was great food and interesting company on a beautiful star filled night. We exhanged contact information and promised to keep in touch and get together in the future. They live on Cape Cod, MA during the summer and FL during the winter. They have set up a sweet fife for themselves and everyone in the campground adores them.
Jan. 16.
We rolled out of the Keys and headed up to Lake Manatee on the west coast. Looking back, we realized that this has been the most social vortex we have hit in our entire time traveling. It should take about 2 easy days of driving and that should be enough time to mourn our loss of the Keys.
